Kick-Off Meeting, Zugdidi (Georgia) October 2019

The kick-off meeting for the DAMAST project took place in Zugdidi, a town near the Enguri dam. The event was organised jointly by KIT and the University of Tbilisi (TSU).

All partners in the DAMAST project as well as representatives of the institutions directly relevant to the project in Georgia and Armenia, such as the Emergency Service, the operator Engurhesi, the GHHD (European Centre on Geodynamical Hazards of High Dams) were present. The German Embassy in Tbilisi and Yerevan and the representative of the KfW Energy Sector were also informed.

On the one hand, the programme gave the opportunity to get to know each other, to find out about the planned activities and to ask questions in the discussions after each item of the programme. According to Professor Nestmann, the Enguri Dam is one of the numerous dams that went into operation around 1978. These dams are now facing major problems worldwide, e.g. from sedimentation. He sees the Enguri as a prime example of this class of high dams. The breaks and dinner after the kick-off meeting were also used for discussions.

During the meeting and in advance, direct contacts were established between the German and Georgian colleagues. This is an important contribution so that the individual subprojects can be carried out quickly and effectively.

Program

8:30 a.m. Welcome notes

• by DAMAST Speaker (Professor Dr. Frank Schilling)
• by ENGURHESI representative (Mr. Levan Mebonia)
• by representative of Emergency Management Agency of MIA (Mr. Beka Saria)
• by GHHD representative (Prof. Tamaz Chelidze)

9:00 a.m. Short Introduction of each participant.

9:30 a.m. Why DAMAST - Motivation, Project Goals, Structure and Management (Dr. B. Müller, Prof. Dr. F. Schilling)

10:00 Coffee Break + Conference Photo