CARDIMED Open Air Exhibition Event in Sifnos

An Open Air Exhibition and discussion, one year later.

A year after the construction of 120 dry-stone check dams, MedINA returned to Sifnos for two days of open-air events In May and June 2025, MedINA completed the construction of 120 dry-stone check dams across two ephemeral streams on the island of Sifnos as part of the European project CARDIMED. The dams slow water flow, help recharge the aquifer, reduce flood and drought risk, and enhance biodiversity, without altering the landscape. One year on, the system remains fully intact: no structural damage was observed following the 2025-2026 winter, and the monitoring network – water-level sensors, plus a meteorological station, and soil moisture sensors installed by the ICCS team – is now close to full functionality. 

On 5 and 6 May 2026, MedINA organised a two-day Open-Air Exhibition in Sifnos as part of CARDIMED’s community engagement work, in collaboration with Utrecht University and NTUA. 

In the school and in the stream 

The first day began with a visit to the Sifnos Junior High School and Lyceum, where approximately 40 students and teachers gathered in the school courtyard to hear about the intervention they had watched take shape a year earlier. The questions came fast, both spoken and written, about how the dams work, what they do for the island’s water, and whether they could last. Their curiosity was genuine and their written questions will feed into ongoing academic research on Nature-based Solutions in the Mediterranean. 

That afternoon, a guided walk of approximately 1.5 km took place with a small group of local residents inside the Taxiarchis Skafis stream, walking through the check dams up to the ICCS meteorological station and soil moisture sensors at check dam #41. Standing in the streambed, surrounded by the stone structures built just twelve months earlier, the conversation turned naturally to water, to cultural memory, and to what it means for an island to manage its own resources. 

Listening to the community 

The second day brought a different kind of gathering, an open discussion at the MARGARITA taverna in Artemonas, attended by 10 local residents, including the Mayor of Sifnos and the Deputy Mayor for Civil Protection. The conversation ranged across the impact of the intervention on the water and landscape, the possibilities of citizen science – with residents sharing photographs and observations from their walks through the stream, and the long-term maintenance of the check dam network. The Mayor’s participation gave the session real institutional weight, and the exchanges were warm and constructive. 

What the first year shows 

The biodiversity surveys carried out in May 2026 are already pointing to improved conditions in the microhabitats around the check dams with plants, insects, reptiles and birds making use of the humidity and retained water. The hydrological monitoring continues, and the first reliable conclusions on aquifer recharge are expected after the autumn 2026 rainfall events. The work of understanding what these 120 stone dams are doing to the water beneath Sifnos has just begun. With tradition and nature in the core of MedINA’s approach, the Sifnos check dam network is not just a technical intervention – it is a living experiment in what it means to manage water with care and foresight.