Sustainable solutions for firefighting and new high-tech university courses: on the 25th of November the CMCC Foundation met in Lecce with delegations from Kosovo and North Macedonia to learn about excellent projects to be replicated in their areas.

One delegation from Kosovo and three from North Macedonia arrived in Lecce on November 25th to have a tour of the OFIDIA2 project’s installations and hold a technical coordination meeting at the headquarters of the CMCC Foundation – Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change.

An international excellence in the field of climate modelling, the CMCC Foundation has implemented OFIDIA2 (Operational FIre Danger preventIon plAtform 2), a valuable example of an integrated project that combines the use of cameras, drones and sensors for wildfires prediction, prevention and contrast. Applied in the Puglia region and in Greece, the project has won major awards from the European Union in competitions organised to reward the most virtuous Interreg projects.

La visita a Lecce delle delegazioni straniere è la diretta conseguenza della missione di tre giorni in Macedonia che ha coinvolto in ottobre una delegazione della Fondazione guidata dal prof. Giovanni Aloisio, direttore del Centro di Supercalcolo e membro del Comitato Strategico del CMCC. In occasione del Simposio Internazionale su Ambiente e Agricoltura, tenutosi in ottobre a Ohrid in Macedonia, la presenza del CMCC ha avuto un ruolo significativo e un importante riscontro dai media dell’area balcanica. Il discorso di apertura, davanti a 250 partecipanti provenienti da 22 paesi e da rappresentanti di 16 Università, è stato affidato (in remoto) al prof. Riccardo Valentini, membro del Comitato Strategico del CMCC e professore ordinario presso il Dipartimento per l’Innovazione nei sistemi Biologici, Agroalimentari e Forestali – DIBAF all’Università degli Studi della Tuscia. Il Simposio è stato concluso dalla presentazione del prof. Aloisio sul progetto OFIDIA. La presenza a Ohrid della delegazione guidata dal prof. Aloisio ha permesso la presentazione delle esperienze e delle realizzazioni della Fondazione.

The foreign delegations’ visit to Lecce is a direct result of the three-day mission to Macedonia in October of a CMCC delegation led by Prof. Giovanni Aloisio, director of the Supercomputing Center and member of the CMCC Strategic Committee. At the International Symposium on Agriculture and Food, held in October in Ohrid, Macedonia, the CMCC’s presence played a significant role and received significant media coverage from the Balkan region. The keynote speech held in front of 250 participants from 22 countries, including representatives from 16 universities, was given (remotely) by Prof. Riccardo Valentini, a member of the CMCC Strategic Committee and full professor at  DIBAF – Department for Innovation in Biological, Agrifood and Forestry Systems – at the University of Tuscia. The Symposium was concluded by Prof. Aloisio’s presentation of the OFIDIA project. The presence of the delegation led by Prof. Aloisio in Ohrid allowed to present the Foundation’s experiences and achievements.

The North Macedonian delegations that arrived in Lecce consisted of representatives of the Macedonian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Forestry as well as officers from the Mavrovo National Park. Their interest was focused on sustainable solutions to fight wildfires, and their goal was the implementation of OFIDIA in their territory. A territory that, in the last 10 years, has experienced significant economic and environmental damages to its forest heritage.

The Kosovar delegation, represented by the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Pristina and the former Deputy Minister of Agriculture now in charge of Local Authorities, had a greater interest in the implementation of new university courses with advanced technological content, topics that were discussed in the meeting with Professors Valentini and Aloisio.

The current initiative, like the one in Ohrid, was coordinated by Dr. Alberto Pogorelz, an international expert in sustainable development and consultant to foreign ministries and international organisations.

All activities took place within the framework of collaboration between CMCC and DRONEBASE (supporter of the initiatives), a Rimini-based leading company in the field of drones and integrated platforms, currently working towards a stable presence in the Balkans.