Assessing the Potential of Traditional Stone Weirs in Stormwater Management Through Integrated EO, In-situ and Crowdsourcing Data

Nature-based solutions (NBS) employ natural processes to mitigate climatic risks and evolving environmental challenges, offering sustainable, cost-effective alternatives to traditional grey infrastructure. Traditional stone weirs are considered multifunctional and environmental friendly structures contributing to sustain ecosystems and protect communities from water-related hazards. This type of NBS has shown potential to mitigate flood impacts through controlled water flow and sedimentation retention by reducing both water velocity and erosion during peak flows, with main objective to enhance community resilience to climate change. During CARDIMED project a network of 120 traditional stone weirs will be developed and applied in Sifnos island (Greece) strategically placed across two main streams aimed at mitigating flood risks, recharge aquifers, enhancing biodiversity, and supporting small-scale agricultural water use, tailored to the unique arid ecosystems of the Greek islands.

This study aims to monitor the efficiency of stone weir NBS in order to quantify climate adaptation benefits, particularly in relation to stormwater regulation, with application area Sifnos island (Aegean sea, Greece). The analysis utilises an integrated monitoring approach which couples remote sensing observations with in-situ data collected through monitoring stations, off-the-shelf sensors, and crowdsourcing participatory campaigns. Earth Observation techniques based on Sentinel-2 are employed to derive relevant vegetation and water indices (i.e. NDVI, NDWI), enabling to assess of vegetation health, soil water availability, and land surface dynamics. These are expected to be complemented by high-resolution datasets from Copernicus Contributing Missions, such as WorldView and Pleiades imagery, to enhance spatial and temporal resolution at locations of interest. EO techniques are validated by in-situ data derived from monitoring systems installed at strategic locations which provide localized, real-time measurements of hydrological, meteorological, and ecological parameters under different climatic conditions. The proposed methodology has the potential to provide key information about the quantified impacts from the application of stone weirs but also an understanding about their scalability as sustainable solutions for enhancing climate resilience at regional scale.

Acknowledgement:

This research has been funded by European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under CARDIMED project (Grant Agreement No. 101112731) (Climate Adaptation and Resilience Demonstrated in the MEDiterranean region).