Fourth National Congress of the Italian Association of Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology

The Congress is intended as a moment of reflection for the Italian scientific community that deals with atmospheric sciences, meteorology and climatology and is a valuable opportunity to promote an analysis on these issues.

Documentary of the project FIT4REUSE

The project FIT4REUSE aims to provide safe, sustainable and accepted ways of water supply for the Mediterranean basin by exploiting non-conventional water resources. Treated wastewater and desalinated water can contribute to compensate the gap between agricultural water demand and supply and provide consistently high quality water throughout the year. FIT4REUSE aims to define on innovative, sustainable and safe treatment technologies, and on the use of treated wastewater and desalinated water in agriculture and for aquifer recharge. Also, specific methodological and assessment tools will be created to meet the project objectives.

X World Water Forum 2024: Rome, Florence and Assisi candidates to host the event

The World Water Forum is the most important international event in the water sector, which brings together the scientific community, businesses, the world of cooperation and civil society. Every three years the World Water Council (WWC) of Marseille chooses the country that will host the event.
The candidacy of the cities of Rome, Florence and Assisi to host the X World Water Forum in 2024 was filed in September 2020 by the organizing committee (Italy World Water Forum) and admitted to the final phase of the assignment process.
From 6 to 11 February 2022, Italy will host the WWC delegation in charge of evaluating the Italian proposal for the candidacy, based on the idea of ​​"Water Renaissance".
A large alliance of national institutions, municipalities, regions, research bodies, universities, associations and companies has come together around the proposal of the promoting committee and will welcome the WWC delegation visiting our country.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation on 7 February will welcome the representatives of the WWC during an institutional meeting which will be attended by the president of ISPRA, Stefano Laporta.

Program

Conservation of aquatic ecosystems, spatial planning and involvement: a strategy for the protection of biodiversity

On the occasion of the World Wetlands Day, Legambiente presents the Report on Aquatic Ecosystems with a map of 15 best practices, citing a series of successful projects in the management of wetlands and aquatic ecosystems throughout the Peninsula: from the protection of the Mediterranean trout, at the visitor center on the otter in the Gran Paradiso National Park, monitoring the pink flamingo in the Gran Sasso National Park, up to the census in Sicily of the wetlands of the Mediterranean islands, just to name a few.

World Wetlands day

On February 2, World Wetlands Day to increase awareness on the important role that these areas have for the people and the Plante. The wetland, such as lagoons, are between the environment most productive, with an high level of biological diversity.

Also this year the LIFE Lagoon Refresh project continues its restoration actions in an area of ​​the northern lagoon of Venice to re-establish the saline gradient and improve the quality and conservation status of the lagoon habitats and the species that live there.

The project Life Lagoon Refresh - Coastal lagoon habitat (1150*) and species recovery by restoring the salt gradient increasing fresh water input started in September 2017 and will end in 5 years.

To date, the project is moving towards an end, the concrete actions are completed, while the reed bed transplantation and monitoring activities are still in progress. The monitoring results show a change in the project area: the saline gradient, the key objective of the project, has been restored; flora and fauna are responding to the change in salinity. ISPRA and the University of Venice continue to collect data to verify if the objectives of the project have been achieved.

ISPRA's Hydro-Meteo-Sea Forecasting System: operational implementations in the environmental field, research applications and development lines

The Hydro-Meteo-Sea Forecasting System (SIMM), which became operational at the beginning of 2000, was designed with the aim of providing meteorological and meteo-marine forecasts in an area, that of the Mediterranean, characterized by the interaction of various phenomena on a range of scales ranging from km to the synoptic scale.

Open ecological transition. Where is the Italian environment going?

A country covered almost 40% by forests, more than Germany and Switzerland, and which has seen protected areas of land and sea grow up to 20% of the national territory. Greenhouse gas emissions, which have decreased by 19% in the last 30 years, are reduced, as are the main sources of air pollution. However, ozone, the situation of large urban centers and the Po Valley are worrying. Progress also for the circular economy: the economy uses less and less natural resources, separate waste collection continues to increase and landfill is increasingly reduced. On the other hand, the situation for land consumption is worsening: 60 square kilometers still lost every year or 15 hectares a day.
ISPRA presented the Open Ecological Transition report on 13 December which allows us to interpret the changes that have occurred in recent years in the aspects of the Italian environment.
It is a clear synthesis of the many dynamics that determine the Italian ecological transition, which immediately brings the most important aspects of each problem or phenomenon to the attention of society, highlighting the critical issues but also the results already achieved or achievable.The document is divided into three parts: The Italian environment at a glance, Natural systems, Human systems, for a total of 12 chapters and 66 items.

Press release (ita)

Open ecological transition

Video

Photo gallery

Published "Marine Litter: looking forward a new world" in the frame of the INDICIT II Project

As part of the INDICIT I and II Projects, both financed by the European Commission and with the participation of 14 international partners, ISPRA has produced an ITINERARY EXHIBITION consisting of photographs, comics and a documentary.
Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the exhibition had a limited circulation and thus the idea was born of spreading it in virtual mode through a catalog that represented the works of the Exhibition in order to bear the testimony of the project, waiting for them to resume in throughout Europe the normal activities of scientific dissemination and communication.

The Copernicus Program Services for Flood Risk Management

The workshop, organized with the scientific support of ISPRA, is part of Line 2 "Guidance and coordination of the obligations related to the assessment and management of flood risk" of the Mettiamoci in Riga Project. The aim of the event is to present the national state of the art on services earth observation and applications, with particular regard to flood risk management. The day aims to be a moment of reflection on the opportunity that new technologies make available for the obligations to which the District Basin Authorities are called upon.

Presentation of the ISPRA Report on hazard conditions of flood in Italy and associated risk indicators

On November 16, 2021, the Workshop for the presentation of "The Report on hazard conditions of flood in Italy and associated risk indicators" will be held by ISPRA with data on floodable areas updated to 2020.
The Workshop will be an opportunity to illustrate the activities carried out for the purposes of assessing and managing the risk of floods by District Basin Authorities, Regions and Autonomous Provinces with the coordination and technical support of the MiTE, ISPRA and DPC.
During the Workshop, in addition to the Report, some of the activities developed by the MiTE, the DPC and the District Basin Authorities will be illustrated in the path towards the definition of the new Flood Risk Management Plan 2021.

Program

Press release (ita)

Streaming chanel Youtube ISPRA

Report on flood hazard conditions in Italy and associated risk indicators

The SINTAI system for the dissemination and consultation of national water data

The following webinar aims to illustrate the WebGis section of SINTAI, developed to disseminate information and official data relating to Italian waters, acquired and processed in compliance with the obligations of the European Union and international agreements on environmental reporting.

Days of Hydrology 2021

The days will be dedicated to the study of hydrological phenomena in relation to the protection and safeguarding of the territory. ISPRA will be present with two oral contributions on the national hydrological balance and the availability of national water resources.

National meeting EcoAlpsWater Project

On Friday 10 Septemeber 2021 it will be held “Innovative Ecological Assessment and Water Management Strategy for the Protection of Ecosystem Services in Alpine Lakes and Rivers”.

International day for the Mediterranean sea

The International Day of the Mediterranean Sea is celebrated on 8 July, an opportunity to raise awareness of the dangers that threaten the Mediterranean Sea.
According to ISPRA, over 240 alien species have been identified in this, 68% of which are now stable along our coasts. More than 70% of marine litter is deposited on the Italian seabed, of which 77% is plastic. On the beaches, with an average of 400 waste every 100 meters, the situation is no better. In the Mediterranean, more than 63% of sea turtles have ingested plastic. But the actions for sustainability are bearing fruit: fish stocks, while remaining overfished, in 6 years go from 85% to 75%.

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Environmental statistics for cohesion policies 2014-2020

Since May 2018 ISPRA has been a beneficiary of the project aimed at expanding the set of territorial indicators today released by public statistics on the environment, satisfying on the one hand the new international information requests (for example SDG indicators )and at the same time aligning the availability of data and indicators to the information needs of policy makers.

Analysis of the environmental impacts of the 2020 lockdown at the mouths of the Po, Brenta-Adige, Metauro, Tiber rivers

ISPRA published the report "Analysis of the environmental impacts of the 2020 lockdown at the mouths of the Po, Brenta-Adige, Metauro, Tevere rivers" which reports the results obtained in the whole of the study Lockdown 2020, to evaluate the effect in marine waters coastal areas of the closure for the covid and the subsequent reopening of most of the production activities.
The Coast Guard and the environemtan agencies of Veneto, Marche and Lazio collaborated in this study.

Water and Climate change

Institutions, businesses and civil society for the water protectionand the right to water access
On 17 June, on the occasion of the World Day to Combat Desertification, the conference “Water and Climate Change. Institutions, businesses and civil society for the protection of water resources and the right to water" during it will be presented  the official translation into Italian of the United Nations World Report on the development of water resources 2020.

New video of the LIFE Lagoon Refresh project

The involvement of the stakeholders in the LIFE Lagoon Refresh project

Regional Meeting Italy Switzerland EcoAlpsWater project

The Italy-Switzerland Regional Meeting of the EcoAlpsWater project will be held on 19 May. The results of the biomonitoring of lakes and rivers obtained through the application of high throughput sequencing (HTS) methods in the Alpine Space and the experimentation activities carried out in the Extra-Alpine area will be presented.

Kick-off meeting of the programme of the co-creation project Water Health Open knoWledge – WHOW

Event Partner EU Green Week  (3 may  2021 – 13 june2021)

As part of the European Connecting Europe Facility Program (CEF), ISPRA is participating in the Water Health Open knoWledge (WHOW) project, launched in September 2020. The  project aimed to develop  the first European knowledge graph on water consumption and quality. surface, underground and marine, with data from various national and European sources.

RAMOGE international oceanographic campaign. The volume of presentation of the results published on the website of the International Agreement

The RAMOGE international oceanographic campaign, coordinated on the Italian side by ISPRA and conducted in the summer of 2018 with the French oceanographic vessel "L'Atalante" Ifremer and the ROV Victor 6000, a robot capable of descending to a depth of 6000 m , has allowed the study of canyons and submarine mountains in the Ligurian Sea and to acquire information never previously collected.

World Water Day 2021

On March 22 every year, water is celebrated, the element synonymous of life

The theme of World Water Day 2021 is to enhance water. The value of water is much more than its price: water has enormous and complex value for families, food, culture, health, education, the economy and the integrity of our natural environment. Sustainable Development Goal 6 is to ensure water and sanitation for all.

Earth Technology Expo: World Water Day

How much water we have, how we use it, how to protect it over time from climate change. All the technologies anti-pollution, anti-waste, and for the sustainable management 

The Nationwide Water Budget. Estimation of its components using the BIGBANG model

The workshop will illustrate the development of the nationwide GIS-based regular gridded water budget model named BIGBANG, italian acronym of “Bilancio Idrologico GIS BAsed a scala Nazionale su Griglia regolare”, and the estimates provided for the hydrological variables at monthly scale from 1951 to 2019, analyzing the issue of the budget hydrological assessment in the national, European and international context.

EU agricultural policy to protect water quality in Europe

Started the National Hydrological Water Budget Project

The National Hydrological Water Budget Project, which is coordinated by ISPRA and foreseen a total funding of 10.5 million Euros, aims at integrating the activities for the operational hydrological monitoring provided by the hydrographic offices of the Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces (according to the Italian Prime Minister's Decree of 24 July 2002), at boosting river discharge measurements, and at implementing a uniform methodology for the management of hydrological data at national scale and for the use of these data in the hydrological water budget evaluation.

Signed the operative agreement 2021-2023 for the Marine Strategy second cycle

The Italian Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea, together with ISPRA, signed last week an operative agreement for the period 2021-2023 related to the Marine Strategy with the regional agencies for environmental protection of Calabria (Arpacal), Emilia-Romagna (Arpae) and Liguria (Arpal).

ISPRA and the LIFE project Lagoon Refresh for the World Wetlands day

Every year on the 2 February is celebrated the World Wetlands day to increase the awareness on the important role that these areas have for the people and our Planet. The wetlands, such as the lagoon, are considered among the most productive environment for their high biological diversity. ISPRA, since 2017, together with the partner of the LIFE Lagoon Refresh project, is taking care on an area of the Venice lagoon, with specific actions to restore the saline gradient, lost following the diversion of rivers, in order to increase the conservation status of lagoon habitats and the biodiversity of fish, birds, moving bottom animals and plants.

Video presentation of the project   

LIFE Lagoon Refresh project- Video of the Hydraulic and Morphological works

The water and the challenge of circular economy

An Italian strategy for the management of sewage sludge
The webinar will present the study on the sustainable management of sewage sludge carried out in cooperation with associations and the main operators in the sector.
The report examines the evolution of the water cycle in Italy from the perspective of the circular economy, considering the regulatory and technological framework, economics, key aspects and critical issues in the management of sewage sludge. It therefore formulates specific policy proposals aimed at designing an overall economically and environmentally sustainable sludge management strategy.

Published the Report "The experimental assessment of the effectiveness of the measures provided for by the National Action Plan for the sustainable use of plant protection products (NAP)"

The report highlights the results of an experimental assessment of the effectiveness of the measures provided for by the National Action Plan for the sustainable use of plant protection products (NAP - defined according to EU Directive2009/128/CE) aimed at protecting biodiversity.
The project, funded by the MATTM and coordinated by ISPRA, was carried out between 2015 and 2020 in collaboration with ARPA Piemonte, ARPA Lazio, University of Turin, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. This research was implemented by analyzing differences between conventional and organic crops in rice fields and vineyards (in Piedmont), arable land and hazelnut groves (in Lazio), starting from the assumption that organic method is more compatible with the conservation of biodiversity, as indicated in Measure 13 of the NAP Guidelines (referred to in Ministerial Decree 10/3/2015)