In December, 2013 the BSC PS signed the Letter of Grant Agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and became a partner of the joint EC/UNDP Project “Improving Environmental Monitoring in the Black Sea (EMBLAS)” (http://emblasproject.org).
The Project aim is to strengthen capacities of the Georgia, Russian Federation and Ukraine for biological and chemical monitoring of water quality in the Black Sea, in line with EU water related legislation.
The Project started on 1st of January 2013 and will end on 31st of December 2014, for a 24 months total duration.
Within the Project, the BSC PS contributes to the following project activities:
- Review of the national monitoring systems and of the methodological tools for assessing marine environmental data;
- Support to the implementation of countries obligations under the Bucharest and other related Conventions and Agreements;
- Development of cost-effective and harmonized biological and chemical monitoring programmes in accordance with reporting obligations under multilateral environmental agreements, the WFD and the MSFD;
- Elaboration and implementation of a first training programme on monitoring methods and quality assurance adhering to ISO 17025 standard;
- Preparation of methodology for Joint Black Sea Surveys;
- Development of the web-based Black Sea Water Quality Database prototype;
- Dissemination of Knowledge and Best Practices, Public Awareness and Visibility.