Water Webinar | Updates and Networking in Recreational Waters, 8 September 2025

Welcome from the webinar Chair:

Dear colleagues,

Welcome to this opportunity to approach recreational waters from different points of view: chemistry, microbiology, physics, engineering, health promotion, prevention or epidemiology.

The Special Issue entitled “Advances in Swimming Pool Hygiene Safety and Spa Research” is available to read at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water/special_issues/4HK14ALQDC and is currently open for submissions.

In particular, the main focus will be on technical and scientific issues applied to “waters for playing” such as swimming pools, SPAs, aquatic parks, and free waters for sport and physical activities.

The general topic addresses recreational waters and public health issues in a one-health perspective, anticipating the XI ICSPS, International Conference on Swimming Pools and SPA, that will be held in Athens in October 2025. The main subtopics include i) biological risks and emerging pathogens (e.g., Legionella, Protozoa, Microbiota); ii) chemical issues and advancements in monitoring (e.g., dbps, nir, cec); and iii) transversal risks (drowning, physical risks).

The Q&A session will involve contributions from researchers from different countries and speakers at XI ICSPS.

We are looking forward to meeting on the 8th of September at this Water webinar.

Date: 8 September 2025
Time: 4:00 p.m. CEST | 10:00 a.m. EDT | 10:00 p.m. CST (Asia)
Webinar ID: 824 7316 2165

Program:

Speaker/Presentation	Time in CEST	Time in EDT
Prof. Vincenzo Romano Spica (Chair) Chair Introduction	4:00–4:10 p.m.	10:00–10:10 a.m.
Prof. Emeritus Athena Mavridou Roots of ICSPS and the Relevance for Public Health, Safety and Quality of Recreational Waters	4:10–4:20 p.m.	10:10–10:20 a.m.
Prof. Apostolos Vantarakis Risk Assessment as Tool for Health and Safety of Swimming Pools, Policies and Guidelines	4:20–4:30 p.m.	10:20–10:30 a.m.
Assistant Prof. Georgia Mandilara Preliminary Presentation of XI ICSPS Topics	4:30–4:40 p.m.	10:30–10:40 a.m.
Q&A Session	4:40–5:00 p.m.	10:40–11:00 a.m.
Prof. Vincenzo Romano Spica Closing of Webinar	5:00–5:10 p.m.	11:00–11:10 a.m.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information on how to join the webinar. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.

Unable to attend? Please register anyway, the session will be recorded and we will let you know when the recording is available for viewing.

Webinar Chair and Speakers:

Prof. Vincenzo Romano Spica, University of Rome “Foro Italico”, Italy
Prof. Emeritus Athena Mavridou, Biologist, PhD Water Microbiologist, retired from West Attica University
Prof. Apostolos Vantarakis, Professor in the Public Health Laboratory at the Department of Medicine, University of Patra, Greece
Assistant Prof. Georgia Mandilara, Assistant Professor of Public Health Microbiology, Unit of Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, Faculty of Public Health Policies School of Public Health, University of West Attica, Greece.

Relevant Special Issue:
“Advances in Swimming Pool Hygiene Safety and Spa Research”
Special Issue Editors: Prof. Vincenzo Romano Spica, Prof. Emeritus Athena Mavridou, and Assistant Prof. Georgia Mandilara
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025

For more information about this webinar, please visit the following link: https://sciforum.net/event/water-8.

If you have any questions about this webinar, please contact water@mdpi.com.

Water Webinar Secretariat