The Kifisos river basin is roughly 380 km2, and almost 60% of its watershed is urbanised as the metropolitan area of Athens. As the city has expanded, the land-cover of the area has transitioned from rural to urban, and industrial in some areas. The hydrologic network of the basin has been heavily engineered to support expanding constructions. But, in many cases, the hydraulic works were poorly designed. There are many areas where there are illegal constructions, even within the main river course. As a result, during periods of heavy and rapid rain events, the river floods due to the insufficiency of drainage networks, causing severe damage to infrastructure around the river.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 688930.