Within the scope of the “ILMM-BSE Integrated Land-Use Management Modelling in Black Sea Estuaries” Project, the first 2-day Training Program was held on 17-18 December 2013 at Namik Kemal University (NKU), Tekirdag Turkey.

Objectives of Training Program I in Turkey: The objective of the Training Program I in Turkey is to introduce the target group of participants with Project, its goals, objectives, content, methods and to discuss its implementation in Ergene River Basin as a target study area in TURKEY.

Participants: Researchers and postgraduate students from the universities, experts from Public Institutions, representatives of NGOs and local authorities can participate in the Training Program I.

Place and Time: Training program will be held at Namik Kemal University on the 17th and 18th of December 2013.

The objective of the 2^nd Training in Georgia was to introduce participants with ILMM-BSE Project, its goals, objectives, content and methods and to discuss its implementation in Guria Region of Georgia; to provide information on water resources in Supsa and Natanebi River Catchments; to brief participants on main environmental issues such as nutrient loads to the Black Sea and international efforts to address these challenges; to share experience with flood modelling in lower reaches of Rioni River. In the main part of the training workshop, the participants were engaged in hands-on exercise of setting-up and calibrating the basic water quantity model on typical example of river catchment with characteristics quite similar to rivers in Guria Region – the Georgian case site of the ILLM-BSE project. It is kindly acknowledged, that the hands-on training package was defined based on the materials developed within the EC FP7 enviroGRIDS project, coordinated by University of Geneva (http://envirogrids.net).

Objective of the training and environmental event was to jointly celebrate the European Cooperation Day (http://www.ecday.eu), UNEP’s Cleanup the World (and Georgia) Day and to commemorate these together with 30 school children from 3 schools of Guria region and their 3 teachers, by delivering ILMM-BSE hands on Training 3 on environmental data and information resources, as well as the safe guidance on beach cleanup action. One aim was to train schools children for replication of similar actions along Guria’s coast.

The Workshop-3 in Georgia was devoted to Catchment Observations, Modelling and Management as its main themes and had a twofold objective: In particular, the two day ILMM-BSE Workshop-3 in Georgia included the capacity building part (training-4) on October 30th (Day 1), dealing with hydrological modelling and data dissemination tools for the Black Sea Catchment, as well as special policy session next day devoted to International Black Sea Day (BSD) of October 31st (Day 2), with participation and presentations of local, national and international stakeholders involved in various European projects (such as ILMM-BSE and IASON) and other projects in river basin and catchment management. The workshops were targeting policy makers, researchers, and stakeholders from the region. The second half of the Black Sea Day of 31 October 2014 was specifically devoted to public presentations by ILMM-BSE Partners.

The Black Sea Workshops and Events in Georgia of 30-31 October 2014 were collocated with EC FP7 IASON Meeting in Batumi, October 29, 2014 and Cross Border Cooperation ILMM-BSE Project Meeting in Georgia, November 01, 2014, and were organized in synergy between these two European regional research projects and in close coordination between two Georgian partners International Association Civitas Georgica (ILMM-BSE) and GeoGraphic (IASON).

The workshop was promoted as the international Black Sea Day event in Georgia by the Black Sea Commission Permanent Secretariat (BSC PS) and the Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources Protection of Georgia.