Joint Event on Urban Heat Stress Analysis and Green Solutions in the Black Sea Basin was organized in Kavala, Greece on the dates 14-16 May 2025

The Green Urban Resilience Project (BSB00006) successfully organized a joint cross-border study visit and event in Kavala, Greece, on 14–16 May 2025, bringing together project partners, experts, and stakeholders from Türkiye, Bulgaria, Georgia, and Greece.

The project is implementing under the Interreg VI-B NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme 2021–2027 and is co-funded by the European Union with 90% financial support, contributing to a total project budget of €1,290,188.88. The Project duration is 26 months and will end in September 2026.

The event gathered representatives of local authorities, urban planners and environmental experts, academic staff and researchers, stakeholders and external participants from the Project partner organizations: Uzunköprü Municipality (Türkiye), Istanbul University–Cerrahpaşa, Municipality of Sozopol (Bulgaria), Batumi Municipality (Georgia), and Kavala Municipality (Greece) and stakeholder organizations such as Environmental Department of Ajara /Georgia/, Batumi University in Georgia and experts of HOMEOTECH Co from Greece.

During the event the presentations of the participants were made on the issues relating to the climate change, green actions, urban woody vegetation and biodiversity actions, measuring methodology and use of advanced equipment for thermal data collection relating to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect in the target countries and cities including discussion of the joint methodology and steps for the implementation of the thermal discomfort assessments in the four target cities were discussed.

The event supported development of the strong cross-border cooperation betweeen the Project partners and brought together high-level representatives of the partner municipalities, including Mr. Theodoros Mouriadis, Mayor of Kavala, Mr. Tihomir Yanakiev, Mayor of Sozopol, and Mr. Celal İnal, Deputy Mayor of Uzunköprü. During the meeting, they emphasized the importance of the strong cooperation established within the framework of the Green Urban Resilience project and expressed their satisfaction with the joint efforts of their institutions in addressing climate change challenges. They highlighted the significance of the implemented and planned measures for green recovery and climate adaptation, underlining their shared commitment to developing more sustainable, resilient, and environmentally friendly cities for their communities.

Joint measurign activities in Kavala was organized under the coordination and instrcutions of the LandLab experts and with the local measuring groups in each country.

The activities under the Project will continue with the organization of similar thermal discomfort assessments in the four target cities.

This event is organized within the project “Green Urban Resilience (BSB00006)” co-funded by the European Union through the Interreg VI-B NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme, with 90% EU co- financial support. The contents of this announcement are the sole responsibility of the project partners and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the Programme authorities.