On the 12th May it took place in Boticas the EcoPeak4Fish Project Disclosure Public Session (Sessão Pública de Divulgação do Projeto EcoPeak4Fish). Participated in the event different entities, such as the Câmara Municipal de Boticas, ICNF, Iberdrola, EDP Produção, Instituto Português de Malocologia; different local associations (e.g., Comunidade Local dos Baldios de Covas do Barroso, #MovRioDouro, Associação Unidos em Defesa de Covas do Barroso, Boticas Parque Natureza e Biodiversidade) and the academia, with professors from Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro and students from Instituto Politécnico de Bragança led by professor Amílcar Teixeira, came to learn more about the project.
The event started in the Auditório Municipal Dr José S. Fernandes with an opening session from Dr Fernando Queiroga, President of Boticas Municipality. During this session, Isabel Boavida, researcher and project leader from IST, presented the project and the promotional video. Maria Manuela Portela, professor at IST and stakeholder of Hidroerg presented the EcoPeak4Fish case studies, Bragado and Covas do Barroso Hydropower Schemes. António Pinheiro, professor at IST, brought an interesting wrap-up from the European project FITHydro: Fish Friendly Innovative Technologies for Hydropower. At the end of this session José Maria Santos, a professor at ISA, presented the fish habitat preferences in river reaches affected by hydropeaking, an output from Task 1 of the EcoPeak4Fish project; and Maria João Costa, a researcher at IST, showed the experiments with different flow-refuges at an artificial flume at the Laboratory of Hydraulics from IST.
After that, there was a visit to Covas do Barroso Hydropower Scheme under beautiful and partly cloudy weather. It started at Covas Weir and included a 2 km walk along the Couto Channel until de forebay. From this point on, it continued by bus until the powerhouse where a deserved lunch was served followed by a visit to the facilities. A video showing the underwater motion cameras was on for the participants to check the fish using the flow-refuge installed downstream of Bragado and Covas do Barroso Hydropower Plants.
The event was a success thanks to all the participants who made it possible!
Pictures from the event at Auditório Municipal of Boticas and Covas do Barroso Hydropower Scheme
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