TRENTO. Sustainably manage mountain water resources and promote the conservation of Alpine biodiversity. This is the objective of the Waterwise project, an ambitious international initiative funded under the programma Interreg Alpine Space who sees the Edmund Mach Foundation and the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) in the role of coordinators, at the forefront for the protection of water resources of the Alps.
In this project, which brings together a consortium of twelve partners from six Alpine countries, FEM researchers will deal with monitoring, data analysis, implementation of predictive models to simulate the evolution of Alpine hydrological systems.
The focus of the research in Trentino will be the area of Sadole, in the Fiemme valleywhich supplies most of the water resources for the municipality of Ziano di Fiemme. The FEM will involve researchers from the Hydrobiology Research Unit of the Research and Innovation Center (Monica Tolotti, Maria Cristina Bruno, Leonardo Cerasino) and will make use of the collaboration of various local external partners, in particular the Municipality of Ziano di Fiemme, the Service Geological and the Provincial Agency for Water Resources and Energy of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Trentino Waters.
The activities conducted during i three years of project include: monitoring: high-frequency data on climatic, hydrological and hydrochemical variables will be collected through a network of monitoring stations; vulnerability assessment: the combined analysis of climatic, hydrological, chemical, ecological and socio-economic data will allow the assessment of the present and future vulnerability of mountain water resources in a series of study areas distributed along the entire Alpine arc; Predictive models: numerical models will be developed to simulate the evolution of Alpine hydrological systems in response to different climatic and socio-economic scenarios, in order to anticipate future challenges; Sustainable solutions: concrete strategies will be built for sustainable water management, thanks to the collaboration between researchers and stakeholders from the different study areas, which can be used by political decision-makers and managers of mountain water resources for the definition of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies and anthropic pressures
The end result will be a “digital toolbox”, a set of practical tools to help Alpine communities address water-related challenges. This tool will be tested in several pilot areasincluding Contamines Montjoie (France), Grand Sassière (France), Jamtal Valley (Austria), Rèchy (Switzerland), Sadole (Italy), Schneefernerhaus, Zugspitze (Germany) and the cross-border aquifer between Austria and Slovenia of Mount Peca /Petzen.