VjoSusDev (2022-2026)

„Environmental assessment of the Vjosa riverscape as the basis for an integrated water management and sustainable catchment development“

The project seeks to establish a long-term continued research cooperation of Albanian and Austrian scientists in the field of water governance. The specific topic is a cooperative and interdisciplinary study of the Vjosa river system in Southern Albania – as the basis for its sustainable development. Together with its tributaries, the Vjosa represents a dynamic river ecosystem characterized by a near-natural flow regime and largely undisturbed hydromorphical dynamics. Such rivers are hot spots of natural biodiversity. The river network allows to study natural purification potentials and underlying biogeochemical processes. The Vjosa river has been identified as a benchmark for European environmental policy and as a unique natural laboratory for river ecology that could guide restoration efforts in alpine rivers across Europe. The ‚Groundwater Ecology‘ working group of the University of Vienna studies, in regular field campaigns, the microbially mediated self-purification processes active in the hyporheic sediments of the Vjosa River network (see PhD Sonja Hoxha), and the hyporheic invertebrate biodiversity.

Lead: University of Tirana