3rd URBANFLOODS Project Meeting – January 20–21, 2026 | Murska Sobota, Slovenia
The 3rd Project Meeting of the URBANFLOODS project (Promoting Urban Resilience Through an Integrated Advanced Decision Support System for Flood Control), co-financed by the Transnational Cooperation Programme INTERREG VI –B Adriatic–Ionian ADRION 2021‐2027 and coordinated by University of Western Macedonia (UOWM) under the scientific supervision of Professor Malamati Louta, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs and Development, was successfully held on January 20–21, 2026, in Murska Sobota, Slovenia. The meeting was hosted by the Development Centre Murska Sobota (DCMS) and took place in a hybrid format, bringing together representatives from all eleven project partners across eight Adriatic–Ionian countries.
These included: UOWM (Lead Partner) and the Municipal Enterprise for Water Supply and Sewerage of Kozani (DEYAK) from Greece; Hydrowater-Albania (HydrowaterAL) from Albania; Hydro-Engineering Institute Sarajevo (HEIS) from Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje (FCSE-UKIM) and Center for Knowledge Management (CKM) from North Macedonia; Macerata Municipality (MC) and SVI.MED. EuroMediterranean Center for the Sustainable Development (SVIMED) from Italy; Development Centre Murska Sobota (DCMS) from Slovenia; Regional Development Agency Backa Ltd. Novi Sad (RDA Backa) from Serbia; Rijeka Development Agency PORIN Ltd. (RDA PORIN), from Croatia.
The meeting opened with a welcome speech from the hosting partner DCMS. Then, Professor Malamati Louta thanked the partners for their commitment to the project and introduced the major issues to be discussed at the project meeting. The Lead Partner, University of Western Macedonia (UOWM), continued with a comprehensive project status update and a financial overview, outlining the current financial progress and implementation status. The agenda then moved to technical sessions, during which project partners presented the latest developments in flood modelling activities across each pilot site, including the results achieved so far in hydrological and hydraulic modelling. Progress on project results dissemination was presented by SVI.MED., followed by an update on sustainability planning delivered by CKM. The session concluded with presentations by UOWM outlining the vision and next steps for the URBANFLOODS Cooperation Platform and the project’s networking activities within the ADRION thematic framework for the current project period.
The second day of the 3rd URBANFLOODS Project Meeting focused on coordination, technical progress, and next steps. The 4th Steering Committee session was chaired by Professor Malamati Louta, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs and Development of the University of Western Macedonia and Director of the Telecommunication Networks and Advanced Services (TELNAS) Laboratory, with the participation of all representatives from project partners, reinforcing effective project governance and strategic alignment across the consortium.
The agenda continued with sessions dedicated to transnational data collection and integration, including updates on integrated multi-site data collection by HydrowaterAL, the GIS database by FCSE-UKIM, and the URBANFLOODS Knowledge Base by the Lead Partner. This was followed by a technical session on the development of the unified Decision Support System, presented by FCSE-UKIM, highlighting progress in system development, validation, and testing.
The meeting concluded with a guided tour of the EXPANO Pavilion. Except for Prof. Malamati Louta, UOWM team was represented in the meeting by Assistant Professor Konstantinos Panytsidis, Assistant Professor Stavroula Tsitsifli (of the International Hellenic University and cooperating member of TELNAS), Dr George Konstantas, Dr Thomas Kyriakidis, Mr Evangelos Tsipis and Ms. Konstantina Banti.
For more information about the project, visit: https://urbanfloods.interreg-ipa-adrion.eu/
This has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The content of the document is the sole responsibility of University of Western Macedonia and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union and/or IPA ADRION programme authorities.
