Water. Topics
Water Management and Water Uses
Water Pollution
Local Issues in Water Pollution
These themes were also developed in some lectures and visits of the Advanced Training Program on Sustainable Development and Environmental Management.
. summary on the legislation at European and national level, with focus on the structure of the water framework directive and its implementation in Italy.
Water Management and Water Uses
Lectures and visits
. overview on history, architecture and environmental issues of the city of Venice; Venetian water management since its origin; Venetian solutions to problems like drinking water supply; developement of its architecture in an environment dominated by water and tides.
. focus on the problems arisen in modern times and on some interventions carried out to protect the city from high tides.
. analysis of the management of rivers and surface waters (in Italy it operates on a watershed level); overview of the Water Basin Authority and its tasks; examples of projects for hydraulic and geological defense, for the protection of the quality and quantity of water resources and for the safeguard of the environmental aspects of the rivers discharging in the Adriatic sea.
. the water supply for agriculture; problems related to the soil of the interested area; the different ability of each soil in retaining water and, on the other hand, the improper use of water for irrigation and the subsequent erosion and loss of agricultural land.
. economic aspects of water management. Among the issues: managing water as a market good to obtain an optimal allocation of a "scarce" resource; the possible environmental benefits and social problems arising from it. Viability and social desirability of water service liberalization; European examples of involvement of the private sector in water services.
. management of marine environment.
. diffuse pollution in agriculture: how to manage it. For example the environmental impact analysis of agricultural systems and the identification of agricultural systems with low impacts on water resources.
Water Pollution
Lectures and visits
. pollution of ground waters: focus on the main diffuse and punctual sources, and on the possibilities of intervention on the basis of the Italian experience.
. the monitoring network for the protection of freshwaters and groundwaters for drinking use in the Veneto region: analysis of the models and indicators used for the classification of the quality of the waters, study of the parameters subjected to monitoring and of the sampling frequency, on the basis of what defined in the framework directive.
Local Issues in Water Pollution
Lectures and visits
. interventions promoted on a watershed scale to protect the lagoon of Venice. Plans for the reduction of macro and micropollutants in the rivers of the drainage basin; other projects such as the reclamation of polluted sites inside the lagoon and the construction of an oil terminal offshore, for the reduction of the risks deriving from the traffic of oil tanks in the lagoon.
. management of coastal areas on the basis of the monitoring program in the Adriatic Sea.