The implementation of the project started on June 1, 2023 and has a duration of 48 months.
The project includes 46 partners from 11 countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Moldova, Ukraine, France, Slovakia, Portugal, Greece and Germany. The total value of the project is 9,141,673.75 euros.
Participating from Bulgaria are:
-Institute for Climate, Atmosphere and Water Research at BAS: project coordinator;
- University of Ruse "A. Kanchev";
- Regional inspection of the environment and waters - Ruse
- Scortel Ltd.;
- Association of Danube municipalities "Danube".
In addition, 6 associated partners are included in the project: the municipalities of Ruse, Silistra, Tutrakan, Slivo pole; company Dunau Transit OOD, Nature Park-Rusenski Lom, Regional Academic Center of BAS in Burgas.
Demonstrations of innovative and result-oriented solutions in the project are organized in 3 Pilots - Middle Danube Pilot (MD) in Croatia, Lower Danube Pilot (LD) in Bulgaria and Danube Delta Pilot (DD) in Romania, with the Bulgarian side being the coordinator of the whole project and developed by Pilot Lower Danube (LD).
The Lower Danube (LD) Pilot activities envisage the preparation of an innovative demonstration project representing an "intelligent monitoring and management system to support the restoration and increase of climate resilience in wetlands, floodplains, coastal wetlands and salt marshes". The aim is to prepare for using the potential of wetlands in ecology and local economy.
The system includes the preparation of a prototype up to the TRL7 level with the following characteristics: sensors for monitoring basic indicators of water and its level, monitoring of a section of the dike in the Slivo Pole area and wireless transmission of the information to cloud technology for remote access. It provides continuous control and monitoring of a certain remote area where there are no people. In this way, it will be possible to inform an operator about the state of the section and suggest what actions to take according to the situation in the monitored region (low water level, flooding, pollution, fire). The system and its elements are to be powered by batteries with alternative low-carbon energy sources.