Innovative use of drone technology to secure the environment and health: in the course of 2021 the Seveso Stream project will go to census the ‘discharges’ along the Seveso river through the provinces of Milan, Monza and Brianza and Como, in order to create a geo-referenced database of discharges, and thus provide local and regional administrations with a useful consultation tool which then move with choices and operational decisions. The protagonists of an original ‘alliance’ for the Seveso will present the project today at Palazzo Pirelli, a team that sees institutions and companies collaborate on different levels: the Lombardy Region, the Interregional Agency for the Po River (Aipo) and the Lombardy Foundation for Ambiente, promoters of the agreement that initiated the project, together with BrianzAcque, Cap Group and Como Acqua, present and active for the water service in the territories of Monza and Brianza, Milan and Como.
Introducing the contents of the project, the councilor for the Territory and Civil Protection of the Lombardy Region, Pietro Foroni, started precisely from the combination of technology, safety and health: “More than once technology has made its contribution to improving the quality of the environment. and people’s lives. The river one, an ecosystem essential for our survival, too often questioned by the many forms of pollution that characterize it. With this project, thanks to the use of drones, it was possible to ‘hunt’ polluting discharges photographing the situation in the various points of the watercourse from above “.
“Seveso Stream refers us to the concept of water flow which, once monitored, returns a set of data and elements that are important for assessing the state of the water. An important Seveso Stream project, which involved numerous actors, committed to safeguarding, in the protection and environmental and landscape recovery of the watercourses of Lombardy. Normally, the census of discharges is carried out through inspections on the riverbeds. Difficult activities, which involve a rather high use of resources, time and energy, not to mention the impossibility of reach all areas “.
“With Seveso Stream the use of drone allows to reach otherwise inaccessible places, identifying the discharges in the monitored sections; data and information that can thus be shared with those who are daily committed to safeguarding the environment and the health of waterways “concluded Foroni.
“We are creating – underlined the director of the Lombardy Foundation for the Environment, Fabrizio Piccarolo – a model of operational integration, between different subjects and companies, aimed at an intervention for the benefit of the environment, safety and health of citizens. It is a model that it is no coincidence that it was born here in Lombardy, and which highlights the quality of the subjects participating as well as the Region, a player of innovation and environmental sensitivity at a time when there is great attention to the relationship between environment, safety and health. this vision Fondazione Lombardia per l’Ambiente gladly offers its skills and professionalism, to support and facilitate the policymaking choices of the Institutions. We are sure that the model that arises from this collaboration can be a valuable reference to be applied also on other river auctions in Lombardy”.
“The condition of rivers must now be addressed in an interdisciplinary way and combining the objective of hydraulic safety, which is directly our responsibility, with that of water quality and environmental protection” – explained Luigi Mille, director of Aipo. “It is for this reason that, on behalf of the Lombardy Region, which has identified the Agency as the implementing body, we are actively committed to the success of the project and we have put in place a virtuous collaboration with a regional instrumental body (Fla) and the managers of the water resources operating in the Seveso area “.
“Today more than ever – Enrico Boerci, president and BrianzAcque pointed out – the managers of the integrated water service play a key role in the restart and are called to network to implement solutions capable of intervening in a decisive manner to improve the quality of the water heritage. We are proud that an innovative method of investigation, studied and initiated by BrianzAcque with the application of transversal technologies, has become the channel for institutional collaboration extended to several actors and able to make a difference for the benefit of the ecosystem. river, the environment and the Lombard community “.
“This project – explained Cornelia Di Finizio, of the innovative design office of BrianzAcque, illustrating the operational development of Seveso Stream – integrates a 360-degree Open Innovation model, starting from the Bodies involved, which open to reciprocal exchange, passing through the creative use of a new technology, with the common goal of identifying paths different from the traditional ones. Thus the new paradigm is revealed, that of Open Innovation, which sprouts through sharing, permeability and the convergence of people, even before technologies “.
“The Seveso represents a water and environmental heritage that affects us all. Just like water, it crosses administrative borders and confronts us with the need to network, sharing skills and resources between managers and organizations, and making synergy our best weapon for the protection of the territory “underlines Alessandro Russo, president and managing director of Gruppo Cap.” Seveso Stream was born from a common strategic vision that is based on the binomial ‘technological innovation and development of the territory’, according to a logic focused on the environmental impact. An approach that in our Sustainability Plan we have defined with the strategic pillars ‘Resilient and Innovative’, designing a future in which technology and sustainability will be the most important tools to face not only the challenges of climate change, but also social and economic transformations in progress “.
“Water is a common good – affirmed Enrico Pezzoli, president and CEO of Como Acqua – as well as its protection is a collective commitment: there are no borders that can therefore escape responsibility, as custodians of the water resource. In this sense, Seveso, running over three very different territories, offered the opportunity for a project of synergies in which to field different skills, know-how and professionalism. This collaboration will, in my opinion, be the harbinger of great results. , first of all to reconcile the use of human technology (in this case drones) with the defense of the environment “.
Closing the presentation, the president of the VI Commission for the Environment and Civil Protection of the Lombardy Regional Council, Riccardo Pase, highlighted how the project presented is “in line with my resolution that we are pursuing in the commission that I chair, and today testifies once again the strong commitment of the Lombardy Region in the desire to improve the water quality of our rivers “.
“The European Union has repeatedly recalled Lombardy for the poor quality of the waters of our rivers, with the actions we are implementing we are sure that we will soon be able to give back to our citizens a better territory. he auction of the Seveso river and in the other Lombardi rivers will be fundamental in solving the critical issues related to both the qualitative problems of the water and the quantitative problems associated with floods “concluded Pase.