On 17 October 2025, at Hotel Solun in Skopje, the first consultative meeting was held with representatives of relevant institutions that will be included in Working Group 2 (WG 2), within the framework of the project activities for the preparation of Preliminary Flood Risk Assessments (PRFA) for selected river basins. These assessments identify areas that may be at risk of flooding, helping authorities plan for flood prevention and protection.

The focus of the workshop was the methodology for the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment, according to which the project identified new areas with potentially significant flood risk for 7 river basins. Work on the remaining three basins is ongoing.

The methodology for developing the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment has four key stages: 1. Collection and analysis of available information; 2. Preliminary selection of areas with potentially significant flood risk; 3. Significant past floods in the river basin; and 4. Final selection of areas with potentially significant flood risk (APSFR).

For the preparation of the preliminary flood risk assessment, the project collected information on all those aspects that, after further analysis, allows the identification of different areas of the river basin that have been affected by floods in the past, and areas where there is a risk of flooding in the future.

The workshop presented in detail the identified areas with potentially significant flood risk for all ten sub-basins along the rivers Bregalnica, Crn Drim, Crna Reka, Lepenec, Vardar, Pchinja, Strumica and Treska.

The preparation of preliminary flood risk assessments for all ten sub-basins is one of the key project activities for compliance with the EU Floods Directive.