The Municipality of Rhodes formed in 2011, through the local governance reform “Kallikratis”, by the merger of the 10 former municipalities. It has a total area of 1,407.94 square kilometres, a coastline of approximately 220 km, with 115,490 permanent inhabitants although actual population goes up to 150.000 inhabitants. Rhodes is the capital of the Regional Unit of Dodecanese of the Region of South Aegean and the largest island in the Region in terms of size and population. It is located on the crossroad between East and West, South and North, bringing together people of diverse cultural backgrounds. Rhodes is the flagship of Greek tourism and seeks to maintain its leading regional position through tourism. The Municipality also promotes culture and sports, as well as environmental sustainability through strategic sustainable development planning.

Within LIFE-IP AdaptInGR, the Municipality seeks to manage its coastal zone under climate change. It mainly focuses on Rhodes’ north-western coast that already suffers severe erosion due to frequent waves coming from the W-NW direction (51.8% annual frequency). In addition, the sediment transfer from land to sea has significantly decreased due to abandonment of agricultural land, decrease in rainfall and illegal riverbed sand and coarse material mining. Frequent waves combined with the decrease of sediment transfer have resulted in significant loss of the coastline.

Within LIFE-IP AdaptInGR, the Municipality of Rhodes will record, map, monitor and simulate flood risk (both coastal and inland) and coastal erosion and their impact on the north western coast of Rhodes within present and future climates.  Coastal risks and vulnerability will be assessed, taking into account projected changes in their frequency and intensity induced by climate change, and potential interventions (soft measures and works) for protecting the coastal zone will be decided. In addition, the Municipality of Rhodes will develop natural risk and disaster prevention and management plans. The project also includes coordination and management activities, information and awareness raising activities and procurement, installation and upgrading of early warning systems.

Wesbite: www.rhodes.gr

Contact persons for LIFE-IP AdaptInGR:

Maria Kolezaki

Head of Directorate of Programming and Planning, Municipality of Rhodes

E-mail:  mkolezaki@rhodes.gr

Dr. Christos Gamvroudis

Consultant of the Mayor of Rhodes for Integrated  Water Resources Management and Environment

E-mail:  chgamvroudis@rhodes.gr