Mountain River Training and Risk Management Laboratory

The Mountain River Training and Risk Management Laboratory operates within the Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources of the Democritus University of Thrace. The laboratory conducts research, education, and scientific support activities in the fields of mountain hydrology, mountain river training, water resources management, and natural hazard risk management. Its research focuses on the assessment, monitoring, modeling, and mitigation of hydrological and environmental processes, with particular emphasis on floods, flash floods, soil erosion, sediment transport, post-fire impacts, and climate change adaptation. The laboratory develops and applies advanced methodologies that integrate hydrological and hydraulic modeling, hydroinformatics, GIS, remote sensing, UAV technologies, environmental monitoring, and nature-based solutions to support sustainable watershed management, disaster risk reduction, and evidence-based decision-making.

Laboratory Details

Laboratory Title: Mountain River Training and Risk Management Laboratory

Faculty: Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences

School: Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources

Email: gpapaio@fmenr.duth.gr

Telephone: +30 25520 41165

Website:

Official Gazette of Establishment:

Introduction - Presentation

The Mountain River Training and Risk Management Laboratory operates within the Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources of the Democritus University of Thrace. The laboratory conducts research, education, and scientific support activities in the fields of mountain hydrology, mountain river training, water resources management, and natural hazard risk management. Its research focuses on the assessment, monitoring, modeling, and mitigation of hydrological and environmental processes, with particular emphasis on floods, flash floods, soil erosion, sediment transport, post-fire impacts, and climate change adaptation. The laboratory develops and applies advanced methodologies that integrate hydrological and hydraulic modeling, hydroinformatics, GIS, remote sensing, UAV technologies, environmental monitoring, and nature-based solutions to support sustainable watershed management, disaster risk reduction, and evidence-based decision-making.

Field of Research

Mountain river training, hydrological and hydraulic modeling, water resources management, flood risk management, hydrometeorological disasters management, soil erosion, sediment transport, post-fire erosion and flood protection techniques, flood mitigation management, climate change adaptation and resilience, nature-based solutions, hydroinformatics, GIS and remote sensing in hydrological assessment, UAV applications in hydrology, hydraulics and erosion processes, environmental monitoring, watershed management, natural hazards management.

Laboratory Members

Name	Position/Capacity	Email	Telephone
George Papaioannou	Director	gpapaio@fmenr.duth.gr	+302552041165
Anastasia Stoikopoulou	PhD Candidate	astoikop@fmenr.duth.gr
Ioannis Tsitroulis	PhD Candidate	itsitrou@fmenr.duth.gr

Featured Research Programs

Programme Title	Duration	Funding
Post-fire Erosion and Flood-Prone Areas Identification Framework (PEFI)	6 months	Special Account for Research Grants (ELKE) of DUTH
Methodological Framework for the Assessment of Primary and Secondary Disasters from Extreme Hydrometeorological Events Using GIS and Machine Learning Techniques (HYDRA-GML – ΥΠ3ΤΑ-0561244)	13.5 months	National Recovery And Resilience Plan (Greece 2.0)

Featured Publications

Chronological Order	APP	doi
2026	Papaioannou, G., Alamanos, A., Basheer, M., Nagkoulis, N., Markogianni, V., Varlas, G., Plataniotis, A., Papadopoulos, A., Dimitriou, E., and Koundouri, P. (2026). A lesson in preparedness: assessing the effectiveness of low-cost post-wildfire flood protection measures for the catastrophic flood in Kineta, Greece, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 1487–1501, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-1487-2026	https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-1487-2026
2024	Alamanos, A. Papaioannou, G. Varlas, G. Markogianni, V. Papadopoulos, A. Dimitriou, E. (2024). Representation of a Post-Fire Flash-Flood Event Combining Meteorological Simulations, Remote Sensing, and Hydraulic Modeling. Land , 13, 47. https://doi.org/10.3390/land13010047	https://doi.org/10.3390/land13010047
2022	Papaioannou, G., Markogianni, V., Loukas, A., & Dimitriou, E. (2022). Remote Sensing Methodology for Roughness Estimation in Ungauged Streams for Different Hydraulic/Hydrodynamic Modeling Approaches. Water, 14(7), 1076. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14071076	https://doi.org/10.3390/w14071076