Reimagining water and resilience on a Greek island in the Aegean Sea
When it comes to water, Mediterranean islands have long relied on a predictable cycle of abundance in winter and scarcity in summer. However, climate change is disrupting this cycle. Longer, deeper droughts are now punctuated by rare but intense rainfall, leading to violent flash floods that strike with little warning. In this shifting landscape, the EU-funded NURISH(opens in new window) project is helping to redefine how island communities adapt. Coordinated by the National Technical University of Athens, the project promotes nature-based solutions not merely as technical infrastructure but as a necessary collaboration between people and their environment. Through this initiative, on Skiathos, recently named a key European resilience hub, a new story of water management and community resilience is unfolding. Skiathos joins a select network of climate resilience hubs across Cyprus, Finland and the United Kingdom. For Skiathos, the project represents a pivotal opportunity to combine valuable expertise with practical, scalable solutions. The local consortium is currently in the process of planning, with interventions scheduled to be implemented in 2027. These interventions are aimed at transforming the island’s approach to water from one of extracting and discarding to a system of regeneration and return.
The Skiathos model
NURISH’s strategy for Skiathos rests on two pillars: sustainable water reuse, and enhanced protection against wildfires and floods. The first intervention focuses on treating urban wastewater through artificial wetlands combined with photovoltaic systems. This approach creates an energy self-sufficient loop, cleaning water and returning it to the system to reduce pressure on local resources. Unlike conventional infrastructure that often sits apart from its surroundings, these constructed wetlands are designed to blend into the island’s landscape, softening the terrain rather than dominating it. The second pillar addresses the dual threats of fire and flood. New systems will capture and store rainwater and flood runoff, creating reserves of water stored for firefighting and agricultural use. This marks a significant change in crisis readiness. For the first time, natural systems are being engineered to channel and store water explicitly for fire protection in a landscape increasingly exposed to wildfires. By rethinking streams not as threats but as contributors to a wider support system, the project is strengthening the island’s resilience to climate-related risks while also ensuring water availability during periods of peak demand. Importantly, the success of these systems depends on their cultural grounding. The interventions utilise local stone, native plants and traditional water paths, ensuring the infrastructure feels like an evolution of local knowledge rather than imported technology. This connection to memory fosters community ownership, turning infrastructure into a living system that requires and receives care. A NURISH (NURturing transformative capacities, Innovation in NBS and Harmonious resilience in rural areas) article(opens in new window) notes: “The transition ahead is not only technical. It is cultural. It asks not only how we treat water, but how we relate to it. … Because in the end, the future of water on islands will not be built by nature alone, or by people alone, but by the space where the two meet and work together for a common future.” For more information, please see: NURISH project website(opens in new window)
