TRUST project After LIFE Communication Plan LIFE07 ENV / IT /

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1 This After LIFE Communication Plan was prepared under the LIFE+ TRUST project (LIFE+07 ENV / IT / ) financed by the European Community s Financial Instrument for Environment LIFE TRUST Team AutoritÄ di Bacino dei fiumi Isonzo, Tagliamento, Livenza, Piave, Brenta-Bacchiglione Roberto Casarin, Alfredo Caielli, Francesco Baruffi, Salvatore Di Girolamo, Andrea Braidot, Matteo Bisaglia, Massimo Cappelletto, Aurelie Cimolino, Alberto Cisotto, Anna De Carlo, Michele Ferri, Luigina Filippetto, Francesca Monego, Martina Monego, Daniele Norbiato, Sara Pasini, Cecilia Trevisan. SGI Studio Galli Ingegneria S.p.A Augusto Pretner, Daniela Sacchiero, Alberto Galli, Andrea Scarinci, Vincenzo Marsala, Cristian Panelli, Francesco Ambrosi, Paola Naddei, Clelia Martorano. Centro EuroMediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici Antonio Marcomini, Andrea Critto, Lara Lamon, Silvia Torresan, Jonathan Rizzi, Silvio Gualdi, Edoardo Bucchignani.

2 THE TRUST PROJECT The TRUST project (Tool for regional - scale assessment of groundwater storage improvement in adaptation to climate change), co-financed by the European Community s LIFE programme the and the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, has addressed the evaluation of impacts of climate change on groundwater status in the Upper Plain of Friuli and Veneto regions and has assessed the effectiveness of mitigation measures, specifically Managed Aquifer Recharge.. The project began in January 2009 and ended in December It was developed by the Authority of the Northern Adriatic basin rivers (Isonzo, Tagliamento, Livenza, Piave, Brenta-Bacchiglione), together with the Euro- Mediterranean Center Climate Change and the Engineering Consultant SGI Studio Galli SpA. The scope of the project was the aquifer recharge area in the Veneto and Friuli plains, with the rivers Isonzo, Tagliamento, Livenza, Piave and Brenta, flowing eastwards, and the far western river Bacchiglione. The main goal of TRUST was to quantify the impact of climate change on the aquifers of the study area and identify possible mitigation measures. This is aligned with the implementation of the River Basin Management Plans of Directive 2000/60/EC that establish objectives and measures to improve the status of surface waters and ground waters. The TRUST project has included 12 specific actions: Action 1: Set up of stakeholders and conceptual framework; Action 2: Acquisition and evaluation of available data and studies; Action 3: Remote Sensing and GIS for assessment of water deficit caused by climate change; Action 4: Scenarios of future climate change; Action 5: Impact of climate change on future demand and aquifer recharge; Action 6: Tool for large scale groundwater balance; Action 7: Evaluation of objectives and measures for managed groundwater recharge with cost-benefit analysis; Action 8: Capacity building: Sharing of knowledge and methodologies Action 9: Project Dissemination; Actions 10-11: Management and monitoring of the project; Action 12: After LIFE Communication Plan. Action 1 dealt with the set-up of the Technical Board that included relevant stakeholders. The stakeholders participation proved fundamental for ensuring the consistency of the project activities and for meeting the actual needs of the beneficiaries and stakeholders. The 1

3 active involvement of stakeholders also ensured the long term application and sustainability of the project results. Agreements with the different stakeholders were signed for the provision of data, and the implementation of the managed aquifer recharge demonstrations. The collaboration with stakeholders was maintained for the whole duration of the project and proved very successful. The project has developed a broad spectrum of technologies to enhance management and planning of groundwater resources. Specifically a project Web GIS database was implemented with all the data used; climate change scenarios for 21st century were developed to quantify the impacts of decreased water availability on groundwater recharge and the users of water. The deficit for irrigation of summer crops were quantified using remote sensing techniques in combination with GIS modelling methodologies. A complex hydrogeological balance model elaborated the climate change, hydrological and hydraulic data in order to estimate the flows of the rivers that feed the aquifer under study. The modelling activity was supported with field measurements that quantified the contribution of the rivers Astico, Brenta, Piave, Tagliamento and Torre, and its main tributary Natisone, to the aquifer recharge Real demonstrations of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) were carried out to verify the modelling results, and assess their effectiveness in mitigating the impacts of climate change. Three specific sites were chosen to evaluate the effect of different land uses, lithology and irrigation techniques. The sites were adequately equipped to recharge aquifers thanks to involvement of three stakeholders: the Irrigation Consortia of the Brenta, Piave and Ledra- Tagliamento rivers. Along with these technical actions, the project conducted an important dissemination campaign aimed at increasing the impact of the TRUST results. Specifically it aimed at increasing awareness about the impacts of foreseen climate change on aquifers and the most effective mitigation measures to counteract the ongoing degradation. Audiovisual communications were used to learn how the different users and decision makers interpret the measures for adapting and mitigating impacts of climate change. At the final TRUST workshop of 22 September 2011 the interactive film was developed to acquire data about stakeholders opinions. This instrument was useful to widely spread the project and to capture the view of stakeholders on the measures they consider most important regarding possible effects of climate change. Following the end of the project the coordinating beneficiary, Alto Adriatico River Basin Authority, and the project partners SGI and CMCC intend to progress with the use and dissemination of the project results. The following paragraphs describe the strategy for expanding the knowledge about TRUST to the stakeholders and the general public. 2

4 AFTER LIFE Communication Plan for the TRUST Project The website is an important instrument to transfer the knowhow developed with the project after its completion; the website will be published and updated for five (5) years after the end of the project. It contains a survey aimed at collecting the views of the visitors about the possible options to enhance groundwater status in the project area. To increase dissemination through the website the beneficiary and project partners plan to links their own web pages to the TRUST website ( The project beneficiary and partners will publish the TRUST handbook describing the experience gained in the TRUST project. The book is fully written in Italian in order to foster dissemination on a national level, but a shorter version is to be published in English to enable dissemination on a European and international scale. The TRUST handbook gathers the project results and technical information about the methodologies and techniques implemented through the project. The TRUST book will be presented to the communities from Veneto and Friuli on the 20th anniversary of the LIFE program, and other relevant local and national events. The project beneficiaries will continue the dissemination of the results obtained in the TRUST project through the publication of scientific papers on their specific field of expertise (climate models simulations and on the Regional Risk Assessment (RRA) assessment methodology, groundwater and hydrological modelling; managed aquifer recharge techniques, and so on). Moreover, projects results will be presented in selected relevant national/international conferences. CMCC started the process for the publication of two papers concerning the final results of the TRUST project last 17th February 2012 with the submission of two abstracts to the 2nd SCARCE Special Issue entitled Integrated modelling and monitoring at different river basin scales under global change. The Special Issue is related to the journal Science of the Total Environment ( with a current Impact Factor of The submission of the abstracts was encouraged by the Special Editors F. Javier Elorza, AlÉcia Navarro-Ortega and DamiÑ BarcelÖ. After abstracts acceptance, the full manuscripts will be submitted by 1st May 2012 for initializing the peer-review process. The second SCARCE Special Issue aims to gather all interested researchers and water managers at the cross-roads of using water resources and keeping its ecological quality and conservation. The specific topics of this specific issue are particularly relevant for the TRUST 3

5 project; thus publication of the TRUST results could provide high visibility to experts, stakeholder and scientists on a worldwide basis. The topics of this specific issue are: Monitoring network programme design that includes long-term, water quality, hydro-meteorological, morphological and biological monitoring of reference sites to improve evidence of causative links between climate variability and local ecological status. Analysis of interactions between surface and groundwater hydrology taking place at the meso-scale (dm to tens of m). Assessment of the multiple effects of changes in the hydrological regime (duration, intensity, time, and frequency of floods and droughts) on both biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Development of integrative simulation tools (process oriented models) to assess the effects of global changes in aquifers, streams and rivers. Development of system-oriented tools defined at the river network (water body scale), taking into account the integration of the water cycle into the water resources management at catchment scale. Methodological framework development to quantify global change effects in terms of environmental and human risks. SGI will present the results achieved in TRUST to the water authorities of Iraq and China where Managed Aquifer Recharge is gaining a major relevance for conserving and restoring groundwater resources. All project partners will prepare summary sheets and other promotional materials to disseminate the work carried out in TRUST. 4

6 Future use of the TRUST project results The project knowhow will be used by the coordinating beneficiary to update the Management Plans of the river basins of the Eastern Italian Alps, prepared in connection with the requirements of Directive 2000/60/EC and adopted on February 24, The Plans establish environmental objectives for surface water and groundwater resources in the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Veneto Region and the Autonomous Province of Trento and Bolzano, and the measures to achieve them. The Management Plans will benefit from the knowhow gained through the hydrological and hydro/geological modelling of the TRUST project. Increased understanding about the groundwater balance and hydrological budgets for smaller areas (size 5-20 sq km) will support enhanced decision making for restoring and protecting groundwater resources. Other activities developed under the project that will be useful for updating the management plan are: Estimation of irrigation water demands based on remote sensing techniques. The outline of crop maps and the recurrence of irrigated crops were investigated using satellite images and remote sensing techniques (spectral signature recognition). Water deficit for irrigation was calculated using a water balance that accounted for rainfall, evapo-transpiration and the storage capacity in the analysed period. An estimation of the infiltration of rainfall was also made. The River Basin Management Plans include measures for the rationalisation and conservation of water resources. The water demand of irrigation is a key element in enhancing the use of water resources within the basin. The activities implemented by TRUST were crucial for understanding the related mechanisms and identify the most effective measures in the territory. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR). The project included three demonstrations in areas provided with irrigation infrastructure; the three experimental sites demonstrated the effect of various crop, soils and irrigation practices on MAR. Very interesting results were achieved in the evaluation of these techniques in groundwater restoration coupled with the implementation of Ecosystem Services"; in fact the cultivation of rapid growth plants that can generate environmental frienly revenues appear as an attractive solution that shall be further investigated in the future. CMCC will present the RRA methodology will be further developed in order to include the analysis of other relevant impacts on soil and water resources (e.g. river floods, droughts, debris flows, etc.) and respond in a better way to the increasing needs of stakeholders and 5

7 decision makers about climate information. In particular, a major effort of CMCC will consist in increasing the quality, reliability and detail of climate information for societal use and in the development of climate services focusing on different natural and human sectors and tailored to very different potential end- users (private companies, international organization etc ). SGI has provided recommendations for further enhancing the groundwater simulation model by specifying spatial distribution of hydraulic parameters such as transmissivity and storage coefficient, and the behaviour of the subsurface lithology. Additional monitoring of river flows and water table covering the study area will support the modelling studies. In particular, measurements are needed in the areas where the domestic wells abstractions take place since this will help to rationalise their use in the future. The communication and collaboration achieved with stakeholders through TRUST will be sustained in the future in order to build upon the project results. In this context, the future use and expansion of the TRUST Web GIS database will enable all project stakeholders to have access to comprehensive set of data related to hydrogeology and hydrology in the project region. Equally the further investigation of MAR techniques and its inclusion as a measure to mitigate the impact of climate change on groundwater resources will build upon the results of the TRUST project. 6

8 LIFE07 ENV / IT / The TRUST Project Tool for regional scale assessment of groundwater Storage Improvement in adaptation to climate Change AFTER LIFE Communication Plan