YEREVAN, OCTOBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan hosted today a conference within the frames of the “Copernicus assisted environmental monitoring across the Black Sea Basin-PONTOS” project.

The conference was attended by scientists and specialists from Armenia, Greece, Georgia and Ukraine.

The Acopian Center for the Environment of the American University of Armenia (AUA) is the lead partner for this €1-million project.

PONTOS is a 30-month project funded by the ENI CBC Black Sea Basin Programme 2014-2020. 

Within the framework of the project, Lake Sevan and its catchment area (Armenia), the entire coastline of Georgia and Kolkheti (Colcheti) Lowlands (Georgia), Nestos River, its delta, the coastal zone close to the delta (Greece) and beaches and recreational areas from Odessa city to the Danube river delta, Dniester river delta area, and adjacent estuary (Ukraine), have been investigated in 2014-2020.

Member of the expert team of the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment Aghavni Harutyunyan said that within the frames of this project the efforts of different partners have been joined aimed at improving the monitoring of the environment.

“Within the framework of the project, the data and services of the Copernicus system are being used which allow to conduct the analysis and monitoring of the environment. We have created tools and algorithms in the frames of the project, with the use of which we are able to analyze the satellite images and see what changes have taken place and what the dynamics is, and what predictions could be made. With satellite images, we can go back 20,30 or more years and see from the 1980s to the present day what was the situation of Lake Sevan and how it changed, and what will happen”, she said.

Director of the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment Alen Amirkhanian said the project aims at further deepening and strengthening the regional and international cooperation for overcoming environmental challenges.

“We should have more this kind of cooperation, and especially these projects enable to approach the environmental challenges by cooperation because it would be difficult for an organization to solve these issues alone”, he said.