Antea Group

Antea Belgium is part of Antea Group that recently (since January 2011) consolidated Delta Consultants (USA), the former company SORESMA nv. (Belgium) and Antea (France). Antea Belgium is a leading engineering consultant entity, employing almost 250 persons at 6 locations, with 9 expertise areas: policy support, environment, water, soil, nature, spatial planning, infrastructure, safety and Geo-ICT. The quality of services complies with the ISO 9001 certification. Our water division, active both nationally and internationally, excels in integrated water management as well as flood risk and forecasting, with a broad expertise in GIS development, data management and processing, rainfall forecast and telemetry, hydraulic and hydrologic modelling, participative master planning and stakeholder participation.

Relevant Experience: Relevant references are 1) the EC-LIFE project FlaFloM (Flash Flood Manager) in Egypt, which aims to develop participative flash flood risk management and 2) the FP7 Twinning project WETwin (in negotiation) on enhancing the role of wetlands into river basin management in EU, Africa and South-America. Further references are 3) EU-Interreg IIIb projects ESCAPE and SafeCoast on safety for flood risk of the entire North Sea coastal zone under climate change; 4) a project in Romania on support for the implementation of the WFD; 5) the development and implementation of state-of-the-art real-time flood forecasting systems for several Flemish river basins including a gauging and telemetry systems, a stabilized chain of numerical models and a web-portal with flood forecasts for for the broad public (https://www.overstromingsvoorspeller.be). Through former non-ANTEA related experience of staff members, expertise from other relevant references can be provided (elaborated in the description of key staff).

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• Jan Cools MEng MSc combines a Engineering degree with a MSc degree in Cultures and Development (Anthropology). Jan Cools is project leader of the ongoing project in Uganda, the EC-LIFE project in Egypt and the co-coordinator of the new 7FP twinning project WETwin. He has further been co-coordinator in the EC-INTAS project HYDROMANAGER (2002-2005) with Russia on the integration of hydrologic-economic decision-support and pursued research on farmer-based soil fertility practices at the Institutional Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria (1999). Thanks to his multi-disciplinary knowledge, Jan Cools will be able to integrate information from technical, socio-economical and institutional aspects
• Dr.ir. Veronique Vandenberghe is a bioscience engineer and is halftime affiliated at the Hydraulics Institute of Flanders. She is specialised in uncertainty calculations for hydrological models. She was involved in European funded projects like CD4WC (urban water management) and Harmoni-CA (integrated river basin management).
• Dr.ir. Ivan Rocabado is hydraulic engineer specialised in numerical modelling, operational flood forecasting and warning systems. He was project leader for the development of operational flood forecasting and warning systems.
• Dr.ir. Trui Paula Uyttendaele is a bioscience engineer and is contract manager at the Water Department of Antea Group in Belgium. She is specialised in flood risk management, flood resilience and mountain hydrology.

Role in the project:

ANTEA is leader of WP7 (dissemination and training) and will hence be responsible for the coordinating of all tasks in WP7. For RTD tasks, ANTEA has a role in WP5 (Impacts on Selected Societal Benefit Areas) together with VITUKI for the development of a flood early warning system and flood risk assessment of the Black Sea Catchment (Task 5.6).

St. Petersburg State University

St. Petersburg State University (SPSU) is the oldest university in Russia, it has been established in 1724. At present SPSU is a major Russian centre of science, education and culture, including 19 faculties and 13 research institutes with over 25 000 students and 5000 permanent staff. SPSU has over 100 direct agreements of co-operation with universities in 50 countries in the world.

Biodiversity-related research activities of SPSU include studies in the field of ichthyology and hydrobiology, vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, geobotany and ecology with focus on European part of Russia. Also, SPSU is conducting research on integrated river basin management focusing on developing approaches to cumulative risk assessments of different stressors.

Within Europe, SPSU is participated in cooperative research and education within EC INTAS, TEMPUS Ecodiv and FP6 projects. Specifically, SPSU is involved in the EC FP6 Strategic Targeted Research Project DAISIE ("Delivering Alien Invasive Species Inventories for Europe", and two EC FP6 integrated projects: ALARM (“Assessing LArge-scale Risks for biodiversity with tested Methods”), and MODELKEY (Models for Assessing and Forecasting the Impact of Environmental Key Pollutants on Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems and Biodiversity”).

Within EnviroGRIDS project SPSU will be coordinating activities related to invasive species introductions as one of main threats to biodiversity and disasters early warning.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• Mr Vadim E. Panov Dr. Vadim E. Panov is a senior research scientist at the St. Petersburg State University, Russian Federation. His research interests include development of approaches to management of risks posed by introductions of aquatic invasive species (AIS), including databasing and international networking on invasive species. During last five years Vadim Panov was involved in the EC FP6 Integrated Project ALARM and Strategic Targeted Research Project DAISIE, coordinating international research activities related to risk assessments of invasive species and databasing in biological invasions in European inland waters. Currently he is serving as a managing editor of a new European online journal “Aquatic Invasions”, established in 2006 for early warning and AIS databases support purposes with start-up funding from European Commission via ALARM project. Within the EnviroGRIDS project, Vadim Panov will be involved in WP5 (tasks 5.1 and 5.6) and WP7 (tasks 7.2 and 7.4) coordinating activities related to invasive species issue. Personal page:https://www.aquaticinvasions.net/personalia/panov.html , PhD in biology (aquatic ecology), SPSU team leader in EC FP6 projects DAISIE and ALARM (coordination of the projects activities related to invasive species in the European inland waters), Chief Editor of the international EC-supported “Aquatic Invasions” e-journal, Coordinator of the Regional Euro-Asian Biological Invasions Centre information system and Coordinator of the European Research Network on Aquatic Invasive Species.
• Mr Alexey M. Tomilin, PhD in technical sciences. Expert in development of GIS technologies in environmental issues.

SPSU will work with the Southern Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SSC RAS) and The Scientific and Practical Center for Bioresources of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (SPCB) under a private framework agreement:

Participants from SSC RAS:

• Mr Gennady G. Matishov PhD in geographical sciences. Chairperson of the SSC RAS. Scientific activities: marine biology and geology; oceanic periglacial; environmental and radiation monitoring; marine ecosystem, fish productivity and bioresources dynamics; fisheries and oil and gas activities impact assessment on biogeocenoses; topography and geomorphology of the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean bottom.
• Ms Sofia V. Kreneva PhD in biology (aquatic ecology). Leading Scientist at SSC RAS (Laboratory of Plankton) and Azov Branch of MMBI KSC RAS. Research interest: aqua ecology, assessment of state, health of aquatic ecosystems, development of pollution control methods.
• Mr Sergey V. Berdnikov PhD in biophysics. Head of Department of Oceanography and Biology of the Southern Seas, studies on the Black and Azov Seas Ecosystems Modeling and Fisheries Management; The study of regularities of biological productivity and fish community changes in aquatic ecosystems under exotic species impact; Ecological consequences of a comb jelly invasion for the Mediterranean sub-areas (Black-Azov seas).
• Mr Vitaly L. Syemin PhD in biology (aquatic ecology), expert in monitoring and bioindication of water bodies in Black Sea basin (focus on benthic communities)
• Ms Ekaterina V. Kreneva PhD in biology (aquatic ecology), expert in monitoring and bioindication water bodies in Black Sea basin (focus on plankton communities)
• Mr Valery A. Luzhnyak PhD in biology (aquatic ecology) expert in ichthyofauna biodiversity, biology and ecology of indigenous and alien fish species and assessment and monitoring of present state of their populations, abundance and distribution in Black Sea basin. Participants from SPCB:
• Mr Vitaliy Semenchenko PhD in biology (aquatic ecology), expert in ecology of water invertebrates, population ecology, monitoring and bioindication of surface water in Black Sea basin
• Mr Victor Ryzevsky PhD in biology (aquatic ecology), expert in invasive fish in Black Sea basin
• Mr Mikhail Pluta PhD in biology (aquatic ecology), expert in invasive fish in Black Sea basin
• Mr Vasily Vezhnovetz PhD in biology (aquatic ecology), expert in invasive Ponto-Caspian crustaceans

Role in the project:

SPSU is leading two tasks in WP5, one on Biodiversity and one on Disasters early warning systems. SPSU is focusing on the problem of invasive species across these two tasks. SPSU is also involved in the organisation of workshops in WP7.

Istanbul Technical University

ITU was established in 1773 and is strongly identified with architectural and engineering education in Turkey. ITU’s mission is to provide education to individuals who are able to compete in the global environment. ITU’s academic staffs, reaching to 2000 members, helps the university to adopt a dynamic, global, high-quality, creative and communicative approach to education as well as to research and development. Keeping abreast with modern developments, ITU is constantly restructuring itself and renovating its physical infrastructure as well as its research and education facilities.

Environmental Engineering Department

Environmental Engineering Department (EED) at ITU was founded in 1978 and currently houses one of the major environmental engineering undergraduate programs together with two leading graduate programs "Environmental Biotechnology (EnviroBioTech)" and "Environmental Science and Engineering (EnvSciEng)" namely. The Department is a highly dynamic and exciting education and research centre, which attracts highly qualified students and top-class academics. The department accommodates total of 5 laboratories for research and education, several lab-scale and pilot-scale systems.

ITUEED conducts research and provides technical assistance in the following areas: Integrated Watershed Management and Quality, Water Quality Management, Environmental Biotechnology, Chemical Processes and Their Applications, Industrial Pollution Control, Hazardous and Solid Wastes Management, Water and Wastewater Treatment Technologies, Environmental Infrastructure Engineering and Air Quality Management

Geodesy and Photogrammetry Engineering Department

Geodesy and Photogrammetry Engineering Department (GPED) at the Istanbul Technical University was founded in 1969 and consists of five main divisions namely, Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Surveying Cartography and Remote Sensing. The department offers high quality and multidisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programmes, which attract high achieving students and top-class academics.

There are currently 54 faculty members; 14 Professors, 10 Associate Professors, 5 Assistant Professors, 3 Teaching Associates, 22 Research Assistants and 5 Visiting Scholars, associated full time with the department. Many highly talented members from different fields such as environmental engineering, architectural and city planning engineering, civil engineering, contribute to the multi-disciplinary approach.

The GPED conducts research and provides technical assistance in the following areas: Spatial Information Systems, Satellite Surveying, Digital Photogrammetry, Data Structure Analysis, Deformation Measurements, Digital Terrain Models, Visualization of Spatial and Scientific Data, Remote Sensing, Disaster Management Using GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing, Conceptual Data Modelling.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• Prof. Dr. Seval Sözen Dr. Seval Sözen is professor at the Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Department of Environmental Engineering. She received her B.Sc. degree from Environmental Engineering from ITU, Faculty of Civil Engineering in 1985. She received her graduate degrees M.Sc. (1987) and Ph.D. (1995) from the same faculty in the field of Environmental Engineering. Dr. Sözen has 24 years of teaching and research experience in the field of Environmental Science and Technology. Her research spans environmental biotechnology (activated sludge modeling, biological nutrient removal etc.), industrial pollution control, waste management, integrated water management and water quality modeling. She has directed and supervised numerous research studies and projects in the field of wastewater management, industrial pollution control, kinetics of biological processes and integrated water management. She holds a long list of scientific publications with over 100 papers, which received more than 500 citations. Her key personal and academic skills include; broad knowledge of environmental and other sciences, strong skills in applied environmental sciences, strong understanding of biological processes theory gained from undergraduate and postgraduate study and her research experience, proven skill in water and wastewater treatment plant design and modeling, experience in writing research and other proposals for funding and other agencies throughout her academic career, proven organizational and academic management skills, commercial and governmental consultancy experience, extensive publishing, editing, and presentation track record. Dr. Sözen supervised five European Commission (EC) funded projects at ITU. She is also trainer in Emergency Management certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, USA. She was awarded an incentive by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey in the engineering branch in 2000. She will be involved in EnviroGRIDS as the leader of WP5 and will specifically contribute in biodiversity, health and energy tasks. She will also promote WP2 in the evaluation of remote sensing data. Personal page : https://www.ins.itu.edu.tr/cevre/personel/sozen/  is currently full time professor at ITU, Department of Environmental Engineering and the academic coordinator of ITU- Centre of Management for Disaster Management. Dr. Sözen has 22 years of teaching and research experience in the field of Environmental Science and Technology. She has strong experiences in implementation of EU projects (Framework projects and EU-MEDA) as responsible coordinator at ITU. She holds a list of scientific publications with over 80 papers, which received more than 400 citations.
• Assist. Prof. Dr. Cigdem Goksel Dr. Cigdem GOKSEL is an Assistant Professor at the Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Department of Geomatics Engineering. She received her B.Sc. degree from Geodesy and Photogrammetry Engineering from ITU, Faculty of Civil Engineering in 1984. She received her graduate degrees M.Sc. (1989) and Ph.D. (1996) from the same faculty in the field of Geodesy and Photogrammetry Engineering. She was visiting scholar at Murray State University’s Mid-America Remote Sensing Center (Geosciences) KY – US during six months in 1999. Her research interests are monitoring landuse landcover change and remote sensing and GIS integration for the environmental studies. She has involved and supervised several research studies and projects in the field of remote sensing and integrated technologies. She has 75 scientific publications related with different remote sensing applications such as water basin monitoring, urbanization detection, coastal line and epidemiologic studies. She will be involved in EnviroGRIDS as the researcher of WP2 and WP5. Personal page:  https://atlas.cc.itu.edu.tr/~goksel/cv_en.htm : She is currently full time assistant professor in Geomatics Engineering Department. Her research area focuses on Remote Sensing and GIS Applications. She has been working as a Visiting Professor in the Mid-America Remote Sensing Center Murray State University in USA in 1999. She is assigned as the Regional Coordinator of Eastern Europe/Central Asia of ISPRS (International Society Photogrammetry Remote Sensing) WG VII/7. She has more than 50 scientific papers published in cited journals and proceedings in the field of Remote Sensing and GIS Applications.
• Senem Teksoy Başaran, Environmental Engineer (MSc.): She is currently a PhD student at the ITU-EED and served as Project Assistant in several EU projects.
• Prof. Dr. Necla Ulugtekin Prof. Dr. N. Necla ULUGTEKIN is a senior lecturer in the Cartography Division of Geomatic Engineering Department at Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in Turkey. Her main interests recently are cartography, visualization, GIS and small display cartographic design. She was taken his BSc. in the Department of Geodesy and Photogrammetry in Istanbul Technical University - ITU. In 1984 she began to work as a research associate in the Department of Geodesy and Photogrammetry and she has achieved her MSc. degree in 1987 in the Institute of Science and Technology of ITU. She has taken her PhD degree in the ITU in 1993 on Geometric Improvement of Digitizing of Cadastral Maps. She was involved in a number of individual and team studies and projects on Electronic Atlas, Mountain Maps, Map Design for Hand Held Devices. She actively remains supporting chambers activities and taken position as a string head or a member in the technical commissions, like Cartography Commission Secretary and President from Standing Scientific and Technique Commission of Chamber of Surveying, Geographic Information System Commission. She has steered the Regulation Commission of Council of Coordination and Planning of Mapping Works among Ministries for the mission of preparing a law proposal for Turkish National Geographic Information System since early 2003 as represent of University. She is working on cartography in national and international activities. • President of the Commission of Cartography and Spatial Informatics of Turkish Engineers and Architects, Chamber of Surveying Engineers. • Executive member of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, Chamber of Surveying Engineers, Istanbul Branch 2008-2010. • Active member of International Cartographic Association (ICA) Standing Commission on Education and Training 1991 - 1995, 1995 – 1999, 1999 – 2003, 2004-2008, 2009 - . She is involved as database and GIS analyst within the WP2 (Remote sensing data use and integration task) and WP5 (Biodiversity, Health and Energy tasks) in EnviroGRIDS project. Personal page: https://www2.itu.edu.tr/~ulugtek/eng.html is a senior lecturer in the Cartography Division of Department of Geodesy and Photogrammetry in Istanbul Technical University – ITU. Her main interests recently are cartography, visualization, GIS and small display cartographic design.
• Assist. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Ozgur Dogru (MSc.)  Assist. Prof. Dr. A. Özgür Doğru is a research associate in Cartography division Geomatic Engineering Department of the Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in Turkey. He did researches on cartography, data modeling, database design and model generalization in the Geography Department of Ghent University, Belgium and COGIT Laboratory of National Geographic Institute of France (Institut Geographique National – IGN France) for 6 and 12 months respectively as guest PhD researcher. He completed his PhD thesis on Cartographic Approaches for Designing Car Navigation Maps by Using Multiple Representational Databases in 2009. He was involved as the researcher in two EU Framework Projects that are Digital South East Europe (FP6) and GISEE: GIS Technology and Market in South East Europe (FP5). His main scientific and technical interests are cartography, Geographic Information Systems and its applications, multiple representations, navigation systems, epidemiology and interdisciplinary studies. He is involved as Remote Sensing and database and GIS analyst within the WP2 (Remote sensing data use and integration task) and WP5 (Biodiversity, Health and Energy tasks). Personal page: https:https://www.faculty.itu.edu.tr/dogruahm/ : He started to work at Istanbul Technical University, Cartography Division (Department of Geodesy and Photogrammetry Engineering) as a research assistant in 2002. He is currently full time Assistant Professor at ITU Geomatics Engineering Department.
• Research Assist. Filiz Bektas Balcik (Ph.D.)  Filiz BEKTAS BALCIK is a Research Associate in Remote Sensing Division of Geomatics Engineering Department at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Turkey. She is a PhD student at ITU and her PhD subject is related with wetland vegetation discrimination and mapping by using multispectral and hyperspectral remotely sensed data. She did a part of her PhD research at International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Natural Resource Department, in the Netherlands while she was a Huygens Nuffic PhD Scholar (2 years). She was involved in several environmental projects as a researcher in the field of remote sensing applications on land use land cover change detection, urbanization, forestry, and biophysical and biochemical characteristics of savanna vegetation (in the South Africa). With the EnviroGRIDS project, she will be involved in WP2 (Remote sensing data use and integration task) and WP5 (Biodiversity, Health and Energy tasks) as Remote Sensing and GIS analyst. Personal page: Personal page: https://www.akademi.itu.edu.tr/bektasfi/ : She graduated from Yildiz Technical University as a Geodesy and Photogrammetry Engineer in 2000. She worked at ITC in the Netherlands as a researcher PhD student at department of Natural Resources between 2006 and 2008.

Role in the project:

ITU being the leader of the WP5 (Impacts on selected Societal Benefit Areas) will be responsible for the organisation of all the other teams involved in this work package providing the fulfilment of all tasks included in the WP5.

ITU will develop an analysis on the biodiversity impacts in the ecosystem using İğneada Forest as case study and also an assessment of the national policies on biodiversity management will be carried out in Task 5.1 (İğneada Forest). The other tasks, in which ITU is involved, are the tasks 5.4 (Energy) and 5.5 (Health). For the task 5.4 (Energy) a data collection regarding the wind and solar energy potential in the Black Sea region of Turkey will be made and also the appropriateness of the existing solar and wind measurement stations and procedures will be evaluated. The task 5.5 contains figuring out environmental factors influencing human health regarding the changes in water quality and quantity and an epidemiological observation, which will be executed on diarrhea in cooperation with epidemiologists.

Furthermore, the ITU team is also involved in WP2 in the task 2.4 (Remote Sensing Data). In this task ITU will be responsible for performing remote sensing analysis.

Black Sea Regional Energy Centre

The Black Sea Regional Energy Centre (BSREC) was established in Sofia, Bulgaria under the EC SYNERGY Programme in 1995, aiming at reinforcing the co-operation between the European Union and the Black Sea region countries in the energy sector as well as among the Black Sea countries themselves.

BSREC has 13 member-countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, and The FYR Macedonia.

The Centre’s core activity is targeted to promote the development and implementation of market oriented energy policy, encourage restructuring of the monopoly structures, liberalisation and privatisation activities, to support the energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. The Centre has established good connections, knowledge and experience in collaborating with public administration, research institutes, universities and enterprises in Bulgaria and the other countries from the Black Sea region. Since 2003 BSREC works mainly in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy. Many projects dedicated to the identification of the potential of renewable energy sources, transfer of renewable energy technologies, removal of administrative and regulatory obstacles have been carried out by the Centre.

The project will essentially be implemented by:

• Dr. Lulin RadulovDr. Lulin Radulov, BSREC Director, is an electrical engineer, research professor and PhD in electrical engineering. He worked for years in the field of research: automation and development of means for improvement of reliability of power supply. He had positions of Senior Researcher and Deputy Director of the Research Directorate of Energoproject – Bulgarian Energy Research and Design Institute. For several years Dr. Radulov had parallel engagement with the Technical University of Sofia at positions of assistant and later - associate professor. In 1991 Dr. Radulov joined the Ministry of Energy at a position of head of division. In the period 1991 – 1994 he was two times minister of energy. The reform in the Bulgarian energy sector from central to market economy started in 1992 under his management. Since 1995, in his position of Director of BSREC – research centre encompassing members from Black Sea region countries (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, the Former Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine)- he is working on projects of common interest for the Black Sea region and Western Balkan countries in the field of reliability of energy supply, reform of the energy sectors, establishment of a common energy market, energy efficiency, and renewable energy sources use deployment. During the latest 5 years Dr Radulov has been managing over 10 research projects funded by EU programmes – mainly FP5, FP6, FP7- and number of projects funded by IEE programme. Dr. Radulov is member of the Committee of Trustees of the Technical University of Sofia, Chairman of Bulgarian Energy Efficiency Fund and Advisor to Bulgarian Parliament. At Envirogrids project Dr. Radulov is responsible for developing scenarios for solar and wind energy potential in Bulgaria by 2050, comparison between the existing methods for measurement of the solar and wind energy potentials and the opportunities offered by GEOSS, and Development of suggestions for improvements in the existing framework , BSREC Director, is an electrical engineer, research professor and PhD in electrical engineering. Since 1995, in his position of Director of BSREC he is working on projects of common interest for the Black Sea region countries in the field of reliability of energy supply, reform of the energy sectors in compliance with EU regulations, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. He has participated in more than 10 projects within FP5 and FP6, dedicated to renewable energy.
• Dr. Petko Vitanov obtained both M.Sc. and PhD in Physics. Dr. Vitanov is associate professor since 1986. Since 1993 he is the Director of the Central Laboratory of Solar Energy and New Energy Sources at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Vitanov is an author and co-author of 145 papers that have been published in scientific journals and conference proceedings. He has worked on 5 European research projects within FP5 and FP6 in the field of solar energy.
• Mr. Plamen Ivanov is a researcher in the field of solar photovoltaics at the Central Laboratory of Solar Energy and New Energy Sources at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences since 2001.
• Ms. Radostina Todorova is a researcher in the field of climatology. She has both B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Physics (subject Meteorology) from Sofia University, and M.Sc. degree in Energy Economics. Since 2004 she is a PhD student at the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Role in the project:

The main involvement of BSREC is within WP5, Task 5.4. Energy, where BSREC will be to: assess the wind and solar energy potential in Bulgaria; develop forecasts of the wind and solar energy potential in the country by 2050; compare the existing methods for measurement of the solar and wind energy potentials with the opportunities offered by GEOSS; and will develop (jointly with ITU) suggestions for both improvements in the existing framework and for future work. Additionally BSREC will be involved in WP6, Task 6.1 Building regional network of GEO partners.