The First Scientific Week of Vjosa was conducted on May 9-14 of 2022 and 40 experts and students participated in the frame of ESPID4Vjosa project. The experts were target stakeholders identified from ESPID4Vjosa Project such as: Research institutions (Faculty of Natural Sciences, Agricultural University of Tirana, University of Gjirokastra ‘Eqrem Çabej’).
The experts were part of interested groups identified from ESPID4Vjosa project such as decision-making institutions: Water Resources Management Agency (AMBU); Water Basin Administration Office of Ishmi&Erzeni&Mati (ZABU); Regional Administration of Protected Areas (RAPA), National Environmental Agency (NEA). The cooperation with the institutions intended to exchange more information related to biological and physic-chemical sampling and contributing to expand their knowledge. This will help in strengthening the management efforts in the Vjosa River basin.
The sampling stations were selected by Faculty of Natural Science and it was intended to represent as much as possible the various river typologies and habitats related to the characteristics of the substrate, the sediment and the physico- chemical characteristics of water.
The samples of periphyton will be processed in the laboratory of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Natural Science and the physical-chemical samples will be processed in the laboratory of National Environmental Agency.
The research visit intended also to strengthen the capacity of institutions staff who participated. They were trained in different monitoring and sampling methods that are important in the assessment of river biodiversity.
The research visit was a good opportunity for the master students as future environment experts. They were trained and also gained knowledge in different monitoring and sampling methods and we stressed the importance of biodiversity and water quality data on Vjosa River and its important tributaries as prerequisite of their protection trying to raise awareness in the future generation.
The collected data will be utilized later in the draft of the Vjosa River Basin Management Plan to give a full description of the water parameters and the biodiversity.
The first Scientific Week of Vjosa was organized in cooperation of two projects, VjoSusDev and ESPID4Vjosa. The ESPID4Vjosa project is implemented by EcoAlbania and EuroNatur while the VjoSusDev project is implemented by 6 universities (3 Albanian and 3 Austrian) led by the University of Tirana.
