Flavia Manieri

The Po River Basin: Managing a Complex System

Lessons from the Past, Recommendations for the Future

Master’s thesis in Global Environmental History

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Abstract

Manieri, F. 2016. The Po River Basin: Managing a Complex System. Lessons from the Past,

Recommendations for the Future. Uppsala, Dep. of Archaeology and Ancient History.

This thesis aims to explore how to use historical knowledge in the formulation of policy rec-

ommendations for addressing contemporary environmental issues. Using the case study of

the Po River Basin in northern Italy, I address one of the main weaknesses of the water re-

sources management sector in Italy today: the complicated governance structure. I argue that

roles and responsibilities often overlap and are not clearly defined among different levels of

governance and a multiplicity of institutional actors; these being factors that contribute to

make Italy’s water resources vulnerable and the country’s water availability uncertain. Im-

porting Latour’s theoretical framework of hybridity into my work, I talk about water man-

agement problems and challenges in Italy as a result of the modern understanding by which

nature and society are held as being separate entities. Italy is more of a follower than a lead-

er in coping with environmental issues, and it appears that the environment has a very low

priority in Italian political culture. Insights on the evolution of policy, legal and institutional

frameworks for water management are presented, together with analysis and recommenda-

tions on how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of water management in Italy.

Keywords: Po River Basin, Water Management, Italy, EU Water Framework Directive,

Humans-nature relation

Master’s thesis in Global Environmental History (60 credits), supervisor: Anneli Ekblom, Defended

and approved spring term 2016-06-09 © Flavia Manieri

Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Box 626, 75126 Uppsala,

Sweden

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List of Figures

Acronyms

AATO - Autorità di Ambito Territoriale Ottimale/ OTAA – Optimal Territorial Area Au-

thority

AEEG – Authority for Electricity and Gas/ Autorità per l'Energia Elettrica e il Gas

ARPA – Regional Environmental Protection Agency/ Autorità Regionale per la Protezione

Ambientale

CIRF – Centro Italiano per la Riqualificazione Fluviale/ Italian Centre for River Restoration

COVIRI – Water Resources Surveillance Committee/ Comitato per la Vigilanza sull'Uso

delle Risorse Idriche

CP – Civil Protection

EEA – European Environment Agency

EU – European Union ISPRA – Institute for Environmental Protection and Research/ Istituto Superiore per la Pro-

tezione e la Ricerca Ambientale

MATTM – Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea/ Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Tutela

del Territorio e del Mare

MIPAAF – Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies/ Ministero delle Politiche

Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali

MIT – Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport/ Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti

MSE – Ministry of Economic Development/ Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico

NGO – Non Governmental Organization

OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

OTA – Optimal Territorial Area/ ATO – Ambito Territoriale Ottimale

OTP – Optimal Territorial Plan

RBA – River Basin Authority/ AdBPo – Autorità di Bacino del Fiume Po

RBDA – River Basin District Authority

RBMP – River Basin Management Plan

SEA – Strategic Environmental Assessment

WFD – Water Framework Directive WWF – World Wildlife Fund for Nature

List of Illustrations

Figure 1……………………………………………………………………………………15

Figure 2……………………………………………………………………………………22

Figure 3……………………………………………………………………………………34

Figure 4……………………………………………………………………………………35

Figure 5……………………………………………………………………………………41

Figure 6……………………………………………………………………………………42

Figure 7……………………………………………………………………………………44

Figure 8……………………………………………………………………………………44

Figure 9……………………………………………………………………………………46

Figure 10…………………………………………………………………………………..47

Figure 11…………………………………………………………………………………..47

Figure 12…………………………………………………………………………………..53

Figure 13…………………………………………………………………………………..56

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction ..........................................................................................................................7

Chapter 3: The Po River Basin .............................................................................................................16 3.1. Setting the Scene: the long term history ...................................................................................16 3.3. Environmental Characteristics of the Basin .............................................................................20

3.3.1. Climate Patterns ................................................................................................................20 3.3.2 Water as a Resource ...........................................................................................................21 3.3.3 Water Quality data of the Po River Today .........................................................................22 3.3.4 Eutrophication in the Northwest Adriatic Sea ...................................................................22

3.4. Nature and Biodiversity in Danger ...........................................................................................24 3.5. Vulnerability and Risks ............................................................................................................25

3.5.1. Current Flood Risk ............................................................................................................26 3.5.2. Future Flood Risk..............................................................................................................27 3.5.3. Inland Navigation and “Bacinizzazione” ..........................................................................28

3.6. Actors and Roles: Behind the Po River Basin Management System .......................................30 3.6.1. The Po River Basin Authority ...........................................................................................31 3.6.2. Regions and OTAs ............................................................................................................32

Chapter 4: A River of Resources and Catastrophes .............................................................................34 4.1. The Evolution of Agriculture....................................................................................................37 4.2. Hydropower production in the Alps .........................................................................................38

4.2.1. Recommendations for Research and Management ...........................................................40 4.3. Flood Facts ...............................................................................................................................41

4.3.1. Characteristics of Disastrous Floods in Italy ....................................................................41 4.3.2. Flood Risk Management: An Example from the Past.......................................................42 4.3.4. Flood Risk in the Po River Basin ......................................................................................43

Chapter 5: Multi-level Environmental Governance in Italy, Water .....................................................54 5.1. Key environmental trends .........................................................................................................54

5.1.1. Water availability and quality ...........................................................................................54 5.2. Evolution of the policy, legal and institutional framework of water management ..................56

5.2.1. Three major reforms in three decades ...............................................................................56 5.2.2. Italy`s water reform: objectives and scope .......................................................................58 5.2.4. EU Water Framework Directive requirements and status of their implementation in

Italy .............................................................................................................................................59 5.2.4. Institutional Setting ...........................................................................................................60

5.3. Governance Challenges in Managing Water Resources ...........................................................62 5.3.1. Aligning River Basins and Authorities .............................................................................62 5.3.2. River Basin Management Plans ........................................................................................63 5.3.3. Public Participation ...........................................................................................................64 5.3.4. EU Policy Package: A Driver to Improve Water Governance in Italy .............................64

Chapter 6: Concluding Discussion .......................................................................................................68

References ............................................................................................................................................71

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Chapter 1: Introduction

This thesis is a product of a two year master programme in Global Environmental History, a young and dynamic field which is poised to contribute knowledge and understanding to a variety of problems facing the entire planet. While there are various topics that can be ex-plored in Environmental History, I have chosen to look into water management in Italy using the country's greatest river - the Po, as a case study.

Throughout history, the Po River has been at the very centre of human and economic devel-

opment in Northern Italy. The abundant waters flowing from the Monviso Mount in the

Western Alps down to the Adriatic Sea have irrigated flourishing crops of maize, rice and

cereals, and generated the electric power that was necessary to trigger the dynamic and suc-

cessful process of industrial development that has put the Po Valley at the heart of the Italian

economy. Since ancient times, communities living along the Po River have tried to control

its turbulent waters and to limit the danger of floods, so that the neighbouring land could be

secured for agriculture and human settlements. The Po River basin is an important reserve of

unique ecosystems, whose survival is now threatened by heavy pollution, coupled with poor

management and an increasing population with scarce environmental awareness and sensi-

bility.

Many factors threaten the sustainability of the Po’s water and ecosystem resources today;

recently, the traditionally water-rich Padan Plain has suffered from severe episodes of

droughts, leading water managers and politicians to call for the adoption of emergency

measures. Climate change will only worsen these already alarming trends by increasing the

frequency and severity of extreme weather events and by affecting water availability, access,

and quality. As such, water management in the Po River basin represents a very interesting

case to understand the past and future of water resources management in Italy.

Today, the environment has a strong political connotation in Italy,and the environmental

movement is associated with the anti-globalisation movement (Ciuffreda 2005) in the same

way as it was in the 1970s, when the Left had a strong influence on it (Weidner and Jänicke

2002). In a study where national environmental policy in Italy was compared to several other

countries, Weidner and Jänicke (2002) pointed out how Italy is more of a “follower” than a

“leader”, in ‘adopting policy measures […] and in coping with environmental issues.’ This is

shown for example in the way Italy is implementing EU directives. In the 1980s the Cherno-

byl disaster led to a referendum on nuclear power in Italy. Weidner and Jänicke highlight

this as an example of how the environment becomes subject to the actions of politicians only

after disasters occur. In general, Italy has rarely initiated any environmental protection

measures. The scandals and consequent crisis that involved the whole political system at the

beginning of the 1990s, however, did not leave much space for the environment to play a

role on the political agenda. Weidner and Jänicke (2002) make some interesting considera-

tions on how what they call the “political culture” in Italy is related to environmental issues,

as they pinpoint some of the problems that I will also highlight here in a condensed quote:

“the regulatory approach features an exasperated formalism […] that

strongly limits the scope of action and the chance of success of ad-

ministrative action. […] Furthermore, technical competence – par-

ticularly relevant for environmental policy – is rare and enjoys low

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status in the eyes of political and administrative actors. […] An ex-

planation […] lays, at least in part, in the configuration of national

political culture featuring familism, localism, clientelism, a frag-

mented political culture, lack of trust in others and in public institu-

tions and in general a very imperfect civic culture”. If emergencies

occur, the political sphere forgets them as soon as they are over. Vi-

olation of existing environmental legislation is very widespread.

(Weidner and Jänicke2002)

Thus Weidner and Jänicke list a number of problems: a fragmented political culture, lack

and low status of technical competence, and direct violations of legislation. But, the lack of

interest in environment in Italy does not only lie on policy and political level. A recent sur-

vey by Eurostat suggests that Italians mostly associate the term environment to pollution.

Paradoxically, they are not very environmentally friendly in their day-to-day actions and

they do not seem to be willing to change their lifestyle for a better environment either. The

same survey also concludes that most Italians think that the government’s top priority should

be strengthening the country’s economy and that environmental problems are not immediate

problems. (Eurostat 2011)

There was a time when Italy, or at least Venice, was considered a model throughout Europe

for its efficiency in water management. What changed from the time of the Serenissima1?

Why did the sustainable relationship between Italians and water dissolved over the centu-

ries? Nowadays, our relationship with water (and nature, in general) seems to be one of im-

balance and overuse. At the onset of my study I had a number of questions: Does water

management in Italy today reflect our complicated relationship with nature? And did water

management deteriorate the same way as humans-nature relationship did over the years? Or

is the lack of water management today simply a matter of “political culture” as Weidner and

Jänicke argue in their study?

Another question is how the general perception of nature in Italy today amongst citizens

relates to management and policy. The historical interpretation of the human-nature relation-

ship has been one of separation, and this understanding may have implications for environ-

mental values, attitudes and behaviour, as well as management and policy. As I discussed

above and I will fully describe later on, water management in Italy is complex and character-

ized by a network of many actors with undefined responsibilities, but a fundamental ques-

tion to ask is if this is also a consequence of the sense of connectedness with nature that

most people seem to have lost.

Cronon (1995) argues that people should stop putting up borders between themselves and

nature, and he states that in order to successfully protect the whole environment one must

eliminate these human-perceived barriers. Studies by Schroeder (2002) and Schultz (2000)

have shown how the level of connectedness an individual feels toward an environment will

affect the level of concern for the environment, and also the management decisions taken.

Thus the question is, can the low level of connectedness be relevant for understanding Italy,

and how can water management in the country be improved?

In this thesis I will explore these questions from different angles focusing on the historical

and present day water management of the Po River. I will rely on a few approaches that are

discussed in details in the following chapter, mainly building on Bruno Latour’s book We

Have Never Been Modern where he explores the terrain of hybridity and introduces the term

1 La Serenissima, “the most serene of cities”. Venice was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice, where serene means stable. The Republic of Venice gained the reputation of “the perfect state”, mainly for the stability of its political life.

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into environmental studies for the first time. The thesis is divided into six chapters. I will

begin with presenting briefly the outline of each chapter so that the reader can follow the

read thread of the thesis. I will therefore give a brief summary of the thesis with the different

chapters.

Chapter II, Theoretical Framework and Methodology: This chapter outlines theoretical

framework and methodology. I explain the way in which I interpreted and used the concept

of Hybridity, mainly drawn by Latour, and the different theoretical influences on my re-

search.

Chapter III, The Po River Basin: This chapter presents the main characteristics of the river

basin, the problems it is facing today, and the risks for the future. I also introduce the actors

involved in the management of the basin today, and I talk about environmental changes in

the Po Valley through a historical perspective.

Chapter IV, A River of Resources and Catastrophes: This chapter expands on the evolution

of agriculture and the development of hydropower in the Po Valley. Then, much space is

given to the impact of flood events in the area with examples from the past and predictions

for the future.

Chapter V, Multi-level Environmental Governance in Italy, Water: This chapter examines

Italy’s water management policies from a multi-level governance perspective. It presents the

main trends in water quality and quantity and in the development of water-related infrastruc-

ture, including regional differences. It provides insights on the evolution of policy, legal and

institutional frameworks for water management, along with governance challenges in man-

aging water resources. The chapter provides recommendations to improve Italy’s water

management.

Chapter VI, Conclusion: This chapter summarizes the thesis while simultaneously finalizing

the analysis and argument that water management in Italy does reflect Italians’ complicated

relationship with nature, and that although a different approach to water management is

needed, a shift in thinking about water must also take place.

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Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework and Methodology

“Water has been critical to the making of human history, to write history without putting

any water in it is to leave out a large part of the story. Human experience has never been so

dry as that.”

Donald Worster

While fully agreeing with the statement above ˗ water is undoubtedly critical to human his-

tory ˗ I like the way Linton (2010) alters Worster’s terms:

“Human history has been critical to the nature of water; to talk about

water without including its social and historical ingredients is to

leave out a large part of the story. Water is never so pure as that.”

In the light of the Anthropocene discourse, Linton’s view seems to have a better fit. Now

that the Earth has entered the Anthropocene era, the world faces a new, global level of water

concern. The human influence on the global hydrological cycle is now the dominant force

behind changes in water resources across the world and in regulating the resilience of the

Earth system. In the past century, humans transformed the planet’s rivers. In the last decade

of the 20th century, the ecologists Mats Dynesius and Christer Nilsson (2005) argued that

over three-quarters of the total water discharge of the 139 largest rivers in the Northern

Hemisphere were ‘strongly or moderately affected by fragmentation of the river channels by

dams and by water regulation resulting from reservoir operation, inter-basin diversion, and

irrigation.’ These conditions indicate that many types of river ecosystems have been lost and

that the populations of many riverine species have become highly fragmented. The aim was

not to fragment but to impose control over nature. Floods would be stopped, wasting water

would be harnessed with hydroelectric dams, and arid lands and reservoirs would be linked

with irrigation systems. A new order of scope was placed on rivers almost everywhere. In

general, human influence on the global water system has been so profound it will leave its

legacy for millennia. We have become titanic geological agents.

One way of thinking about the impurity of water is through the work of Bruno Latour, and

his diagnosis of the modern predicament. The best expression of this diagnosis is found in

Latour’s book We Have Never Been Modern. In this text (1993) Latour introduces the term

hybridity into environmental studies: he argues that hybridity is explicitly a problem for mo-

dernity because the modern world was founded on an implicit agreement to separate nature

and the practice of science from society and the practice of politics. I think this problem may

also be used to diagnose what I see as a water crisis. Latour refers to the moment of separa-

tion as “the modern constitution”. The first element of the modern constitution is that nature

is assumed to pre-exist and transcend us, because no one can survive without or outside of it.

Latour argues that a constitutional tension lies in the fact that we produce nature and our

knowledge of it but deny our role in that process. The tension is particularly problematic as

we act as if we do produce society, but the fact is that we rather inherit the knowledge and

practices it imparts on us. What nevertheless holds this modernist worldview together is a

sharp demarcation of modern disciplines and modern worldviews from other ontologies and

ways of knowing. The modern world requires that we forget the fact that we have been ac-

tive in the production of environments, ecologies and scientific knowledges as part of our

efforts to produce or change the nature of society and politics (Latour 1993). We Have Never

Been Modern claims that we have never lived in worlds where nature sits “over there” and

society “over here” and this is an artificial understanding of the world. The template that

moderns placed on the world may have generated useful knowledge and ways to engage

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with this world at one time. However, Latour shows that it is now falling apart. In addition,

any engagement with social or environmental issues demonstrates on a daily basis the im-

possibility of holding “the natural” and “the social” separate, and I will also show this here

in my thesis.

Latour observes that modern environmental debates in particular provide striking examples

of the limits of modernity and modernist ways of knowing. Environmental degradation gen-

erates the call from romantic environmentalists that we must “save” something called “na-

ture” from something called “society”. Yet these same environmentalists instruct us to get

rid of dualist worldviews, while framing the very problem in profoundly dualist ways. We

want to reduce the impact of human activities on our rivers, and we want to achieve this by

re-connecting people with their natural environment. This way of thinking clearly causes

confusion among people, and it automatically reflects into bad governance – as discussed

here in my thesis. All the while that this debate is going on, we become more and more

aware that we live in worlds of multiple hybrid objects. They keep on popping up: from

ozone layers to genetically modified crops, prosthetic implants to histories of modified land-

scapes. Are they social? Are they natural? Attempts to understand this hybrid world through

the purification of objects and subjects into boxes labelled “society” or “nature” has limited

utility. Nevertheless, we are stuffed full of universities containing disciplines that have been

carved out of society-nature dualisms. And these disciplines where the natural sciences sit

on this side of campus and the social sciences sit on the other side, the applied sciences and

the humanities sit elsewhere, are simply not up to dealing with many of the problems of the

entangled worlds we live in. The disciplines are either too partial to be effective in policy

terms or they are informed by reductionist worldviews that displace problems from one ele-

ment of a hybrid phenomenon onto others, sometimes making situations worse. In short,

from a Latourian worldview, it should be evident that the dualist tradition of classic social

theory or limits-oriented environmentalisms have to be viewed as profoundly inadequate for

investigating our unfolding, mixed up, complicated hybrid worlds. (White, Rudy and Gareau

2015)

Erik Swyngedouw also applies the concept of hybridity to his studies (1999), where he ar-

gues that hybridity is rooted in a relational philosophy and as such it sees things as constitut-

ed by their relations rather than existing as things in themselves. To me the concept of hy-

bridity creates a frame to understand people’s perception of the Po River and consequently

their relation with it: the Po River basin is the economically most important area in Italy, and

people have always praised the Po for its bounty. At the same time, they put a price on the

river, overusing water and endangering the ecosystem. The Po River Basin is not only water

and land; it is what people made of it. The idea of socio-nature reflects a conviction that the

separation of society from nature is a constructed or discursive ploy. As a fundamental tenet

of modern epistemology, this separation has been very effective in helping to produce objec-

tive knowledge. The problem is, as Swyngedouw makes clear, that “once it became hege-

monic…[it] turned from a dominant epistemology to a dominant ontology.” It turned, in

other words, into a ‘strong belief that the world was actually ontologically split into things

natural and things social.’ (Swyngedouw 2004)

The idea of hybridity rejoins what has been driven apart by acknowledging that all things –

at least so far as they enter into our consciousness, our production of knowledge, and our

material practices – are all at once social and natural, material and discursive. Thus hybridity

allows for a non-human nature without succumbing to the view that this constitutes nature’s

fundamental, or ultimate, reality, as explained by Swyngedouw (1996):

“if we […] maintain a view of dialectics as internal relations, we

must insist on the need to transcend the binary formations of “na-

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ture” and “society” and to develop a new ‘language’ which main-

tains the dialectical unity of the process of change as embodied in

the thing itself. The things are hybrids or quasi-objects (subjects and

objects, material and discursive, natural and social) from the very

beginning.”

To me, water can be perfectly understood in the way Swyngedouw describes. Every instance

of water that one can think of – whether detected by a space probe on Mars, or temporarily

held behind a dam in northern Italy, boiling on the stove, or flowing through our body – it

combines nature and society, the properties of H2O, the material practices of people, and the

effects of discourse.

It is also important to allow a place for thought on the role of ideas and concepts in the pro-

duction of socio-nature. The ideas and concepts that people have formed of water in differ-

ent places and times have been crucial in determining what they do with it. These ideas are

not necessarily and only derived from material processes. Many emerge from rather more

thoughtful engagements with water. The claim made by Herman Melville (1851) that “medi-

tation and water are wedded forever”, resonates in people simply because so many people

have experienced such moments of contemplation. Considering the frequency with which

watery metaphors flow in language, we might say that people think with water as well as

about water, and these processes are often impossible to disentangle. Of course, the ideas

that people form of and with water are dependent on historical-geographical circumstances.

But, as should be clear by now, I conceive of all ideas of water as hybrids in the sense that

they are at once social and natural, internalizing the emergent – that is, they are both histori-

cal and geographical – properties of H2O along the historical and geographical circumstanc-

es of the thinker. Nevertheless – and at the same time – the development of a water-borne

idea takes on a life of its own and itself becomes a force in what we call the history of water

(see also discussion in Linton 2010).

In What is Water?, Jamie Linton (2010) claims that ‘water is what we make of it’. This

statement is considered by Linton as an act of provocation; it invites reflection on the ways

in which people have thought about water in the past, and heightens awareness of the conse-

quences that will flow from what we make of water in the future. These are not small mat-

ters. Linton rises to the challenge by tracing the development of particular ways of thinking

about water in the 20th century and by pondering their consequences. For instance, the term

‘water crisis’ owes its existence and rhetorical power to the ways in which modern Western-

ers think about water. The crux of Linton’s provocation lies in an insight offered by the phi-

losopher and social critic Ivan Illich in the 1980s: in developing the idea of water as a scien-

tific abstraction, modern society disenchanted that ‘ineffable stuff called water’, robbed it of

its history, and made it almost impossible for its members to know the waters of ‘the deep

imagination’. Modern societies essentialize water to the point where it is extracted from the

social contexts of human experience and treated as an invariant essence, be that essence H2O

or a ‘resource’. Thus, Linton’s argument draws its impetus from the identification of an epis-

temological revolution in the way that people knew and represented water, a revolution that

presumed and established a fundamental separation between the natural and the social

realms and thus, sometime in the 19th century, robbed water of its social nature. It is interest-

ing how recent EU Statistics have confirmed that Italians do not usually see themselves as

part of their environment, their level of environmental knowledge is very low, and their feel-

ing of responsibility towards the environment is scarce. In Italy, people seem to have treated

water resources merely as objects to be exploited for short-term pleasure, instead of seeing

them as gifts to be used responsibly, and to preserve for future generations.

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As Linton (2010) continues to show in his work, developing a quantitative view of water

was part of the process that enabled science, in the words of Heidegger, ‘to pursue and en-

trap nature as a calculable coherence’. Linton argues that this facilitated the exercise of al-

locative power over what became a finite resource. This move was apparently foundational

for the development of resource management and the idea was extended by the work of

Zimmerman between 1933 and the early 1950s.

Erich Zimmerman was a firm believer in the divide between (civilized) humans and nature.

He thought of nature as “neutral stuff” and the word “resource” as an abstraction, referring

to a ‘function which a thing or substance may perform or to an operation in which it may

take part’. From this perspective, nature was either (economically) useful to modern humans

or it was meaningless. It follows from this that once something is identified as a resource, it

is open to exploitation. Questions of access to the resource are reduced to the language of

calculation and technique, political agendas are hidden behind a veil of bureaucratic compe-

tence, difficult questions of social justice are swept aside, and resource managers are em-

powered to make what they take to be the best of the situation. This way of thinking is very

clear in chapter 5 of my thesis, where I analyse the uncertain and weak water governance in

Italy, and where the economic value of water appears to be the only driving force for any

kind of political action.

These views were important because they framed ways of thinking that led to the “gloomy

arithmetic of water” and thus produced the notion of a general water crisis. For proponents

of this way of thinking, the crisis is largely a consequence of runaway demand. The earth’s

supply of fresh water is finite, and the world is running dry because its human population

continues to grow. But this crisis is, Linton insists, manufactured in another sense. Water

becomes what it is in relation to other things and processes; it is what we make of it. You

cannot talk about water without involving people in the story. The state of water always re-

flects, in one way or another, the state of society. And yet the modern world has constructed

an idea of water as something apart from the broader social contexts in which it occurs. Wa-

ter has been made known as an abstraction – as H2O.

In a very influential paper by Rockström et al. (2014), the role of water in the Anthropocene

is discussed. The Anthropocene era includes the challenge of providing freshwater for hu-

man development to the more than 9 billion people anticipated to be living on the planet in

less than 40 years (UN 2013). In recent years, the realization that water is the blood stream

of the biosphere has been an important eye-opener (Ripl 2003). Water is a prerequisite for

human health, food production and the generation of all other ecosystem services, from bio-

diversity to temperature regulation. Rockström et al. (2014) argue that in response to the

deepening understanding of water’s fundamental roles in life-support systems of our planet,

we need to change our water resource thinking. They argue that the evidence of rising water-

related shocks and interactions in the Anthropocene requires the emergence of a deeper so-

cial-ecological resilience management, if we are really to confront the water challenges fac-

ing humanity. A better understanding of the role played by water in sustaining the resilience

of the biosphere in support of human development is now crucial. The hydrological science

community has recently recognized the need for a new focus on hydrological systems as a

changing interface between environment and society (Montanari et al. 2013). Rockström et

al. (2014) insist on the fact that exploitation of the world’s freshwater may trigger water-

related tipping points with potentially disastrous and long-term implications for human civi-

lization. To address this terrifying predicament, science has advanced the planetary bounda-

ry framework to define the dynamic boundaries for critical Earth System processes beyond

which humanity is at high risk of crossing major tipping points (Rockström et al.

2009).Water use has been identified as one of the nine planetary boundaries; several regions

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already suffer from the widespread impacts of the overuse of water, and global projections

indicate an increase in water use to a level approaching the global boundary by 2050 (Liu et

al. 2009; Rockström et al. 2009; Gerten et al. 2011). In this turbulent world of the Anthropo-

cene, water is not only a victim of social-ecological change, but a key regulator of stable

landscapes, biomes and Earth systems. My argument here (and also Linton and Rock-

ström’s) is that we need to discuss a new ontology of water: water is at the heart of transition

to global sustainability. To safeguard water availability from local to global and succeed

with human development, will require a mind shift in water thinking, as well as a change in

our views on the “environment”. The key is to move our focus on how to reduce the envi-

ronmental effects of human activities, towards reconnecting people with their environment.

Today, gaining an understanding of this separation between humans and nature may lead to

a better awareness of the importance of people’s perceptions of themselves in nature and

how that perception relates to general human-environment interactions as well as manage-

ment and policy. Schultz (2000) argues that an individual’s level of concern for the envi-

ronment is directly related to the sense of connectedness the individual feels with nature.

Schultz examined the type of concern people have for the environment and discovered three

different types of concern: egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric, which he has shown empirical-

ly to be three distinct types of environmental orientations (Schultz 2001). In a study of per-

spectives and positioning, he showed images of humans in various environments and asked

participants to imagine how they might feel or think if they were the people in the image.

Schultz concluded that participants reduced their level of separation between themselves and

nature by imagining themselves in that setting through the individual they saw in the image,

which then led to an increase in their biospheric concern for nature. Furthermore, Schultz et

al. (2004) stated that the connection an individual feels with nature is implicit or uncon-

scious. Therefore, the use of techniques like perspective taking might enable an individual to

bring their awareness of their connection to nature to a more conscious level. However, it is

quite possible that the connection an individual feels with nature cannot be altered, but per-

haps at least making people more aware of their views would lead to conscious thought on

the issue. As I mentioned already, Italians are considerably less concerned about the envi-

ronment compared to its neighbouring countries, despite the fact that the global nature of

environmental problems is a well widespread matter nowadays. Often considered “environ-

mentally indifferent”, Italians do not appear to be pro environmental protection and this can

be seen as directly linked to their “sense of detachment” from nature. People do not seem to

be concerned about their personal relations with the environment and consequently they do

not feel compelled to take action for environmental reasons. In recent years, however, the

effort of environmental organizations (and educational institutions) to make people experi-

ence nature has dramatically increased in Italy and Legambiente played an important role in

this. Like Schultz et al. (2004), I believe that encouraging people to connect with nature

would help people to become more aware about the environment’s declining health. Ideally,

this would also motivate people to make ethically conscious decisions and generally move

them towards more eco-friendly actions.

Individuals in developed countries tend to view some natural areas as worth protecting,

while ignoring physically similar natural areas. Schroeder (2002) argued for the importance

of maintaining special places, which are areas in the natural environment that a person val-

ues for aesthetic or emotional reasons (or both). Public participants defined these special

places as areas that are natural, serene, act as a refuge and have an element of beauty, among

other things. These special places are areas where people can go to experience nature.

Schroeder noted that an individual’s concerns over public land management are likely to be

affected by their feelings toward their special place(s). Thus, working with feelings toward

15

various natural areas may help to attract the support of people who normally are indifferent

to conservation issues. Beneath the incessant recitation of the Po River’s real problems, you

can always discern murmors of love. Northern Italians embrace their nation’s longest river,

which nurtures rice fields, vineyards, fisheries and legends. Probably the key to make Ital-

ians care deeply about the environment as a whole is to make them relate with the places

they interact more often and for which they are passionate about – being that the Po River or

the southern coast of Sicily. There is still hope for Italy, as long as we change our way of

thinking about nature, of relating with it and caring for it.

2.1. Methodology and Source Materials

In the process of understanding what type of methodological approach was needed to ex-

plain why water management in Italy – exemplified through my study of the Po River – is so

fragmented and inefficient, I have applied the concepts of hybridity, perspective taking and

place making as I have described above. The confines of a master thesis provided one of the

preliminary criteria for establishing the scope of the research. An environmental history of

the Po is a huge subject that could probably fill not just one, but several PhD theses. Having

a limited amount of time to carry out this study, I focused on one specific aspect of water

management in Italy: the fragmented and inadequate legal framework for the management of

water resources, that consequently results in inefficient water resource management. In

terms of documents, I used policy documents, legislation, management plans, archives,

maps, academic articles, and official web pages as well as secondary sources. I relied mostly

on historical and government documents, many of these rely on pre-existing legislation, or

are themselves official legislation. I decided to use more government documents and NGOs

reports rather than more scholarly papers for two reasons: 1) the lack of material on water

management in Italy with a perspective different from a purely scientific one and 2) my in-

tention to insert more recent information on the conditions of the Po River basin, and in gen-

eral of water resources in Italy today. This thesis relied on documents in both English and

Italian, and as Italian is my native language it undoubtedly helped with the search for mate-

rial and within the process of research in general – as I was already familiar with the area of

study and I knew what I wanted to bring up through this thesis. A historical perspective is

central to my argument, although my discussion of the past is not the sweeping chronologi-

cal story line of other water histories and it does also not delve into the particular micro-

histories. Instead, I decided to focus on the diachronic and spatial trajectories of some very

specific events (like the 1951 flood, the astonishing relationship between Venetians and wa-

ter at the time of the Serenissima, and the evolution of environmental policy in Italy in the

20th century). I also took time and space to develop a very detailed description of water gov-

ernance in Italy today, as I believe this is crucial for linking past with the present. I think the

analysis shows very well how Italy has always ignored the past (being that good or bad) and

keeps making the same mistakes over and over – always putting the economy ahead of the

environment.

16

Chapter 3: The Po River Basin

3.1. Setting the Scene: the long term history

The Po River Basin is a mountain-based watershed that extends from the Alps in the west, to

the Adriatic Sea in the east, and covers an area of 74,700 km2. While 5% of the basin lies in

Switzerland and France, most of it is situated in northern Italy. This is where the basin is the

largest (71,000 km2), its main channel the longest (652 km) and its discharge the biggest

(1,540 m3/s before its delta). Its source is at Monviso in the Cottian Alps and its delta of 380

km2 discharges in the Adriatic Sea, in the north of Ravenna. It is fed by a main reticulum of

141 major water tributaries which measure 6,750 km in total; it is also fed by the confluence

of a ten time larger secondary reticulum of natural and artificial water bodies, irrigation and

reclamation channels, for a total of ~50,000 km. Furthermore, the basin includes about 600

km2 of glacier areas, and it is structured in 28 principal sub-basins which are all character-

ized by high variable discharge (AdBPo, 2006).

With its 71,000 km2 (~24% of the Italian territory), the Po River basin is the largest single-

river basin in the country. It is home to 17 million of inhabitants (~28% of the national

population), spread in 7 regions (Piedmont, Valle d´Aosta, Lombardy, Veneto, Liguria, Emi-

lia-Romagna, and Tuscany) and the autonomous Province of Trento, 24 provinces and 3,210

municipalities. The downstream reach of the Po River flows across the Padan Plain, a flat

and fertile area that is very attractive for human settlement. In fact, it experienced an inten-

sive agricultural and industrial development during the 20th century, in particular after the

Second World War.

The basin is economically important for Italy, as 40% of the country's GDP is generated

there, thanks to extensive industrial activity complemented by farming, animal husbandry

and tourism. Water resources are intensely exploited in the catchment for irrigation, hydro-

power production, civil, and industrial use. The amount of available freshwater resources in

the Po River basin is estimated at 77.7 million m3. Agriculture in the Po River basin is high-

ly developed, accounting for more than half of the land use in the basin. In fact, at 30,000

km2 it is the largest cultivated area in Italy, and accounts for 36% of the country's agricultur-

al production. Accordingly, agriculture has the highest water demand of any sector in the

basin, withdrawing nearly 17 billion m3 per year. The Po River basin is also urbanized, with

Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna as the most populated regions with a high con-

centration of economic activities. Meeting growing energy needs is one of the most im-

portant requirements for assuring sustainable socio-economic development in the Po River

basin. To harness the hydroelectric potential of the basin, 890 dams have been built – the Po

basin accounted for 46% of national hydroelectric production in 2004. The River Po basin is

also very important for its land and natural heritage, with 210 nature protected areas (~7% of

the territory), and its cultural heritage with many old towns rich in history and culture.

3.2. The Formation of the River Italy is a relatively young land from a geological point of view. Nearly all of its territory emerged from the recent orogenic upheaval (the Alpine orogenesis)2, which, although rela-

2Alpine Orogeny, mountain-building event that affected a broad segment of southern Europe and the Mediterranean region during the Paleogene and Neogene periods (65.5 million to 2.6 million years ago). The Alpine orogeny produced intense metamorphism of pre-existing rocks, crumpling of rock strata, and uplift accompanied by both normal and thrust faulting. It

17

tively weak, spread into the axis of the south-central Apennines. The results of this orogenic evolution were an extremely complex tectonic movement and the formation of a wide varie-ty of geological features in a relatively small area. The physical aspect of the country is de-termined by the presence of the Alps and the Apennines, and by the elongate, narrow shape of the peninsula surrounded by the sea.

The last glaciation, around 25000 to 15000 BC, had a major influence on the evolution of

the fluvial systems in Italy. Glaciers covered a large part of the Alps during the Last Glacial

Maximum (LGM), whereas a much smaller area of the Apennines was affected by glacia-

tion. The main alpine valleys were filled by glaciers hundreds of meters thick, whose

tongues often reached the present Po and Venetia-Friuli Plains. Besides the presence of glac-

iers, the lowering of the sea level to about 120 m below the present level caused the emer-

sion of a large area of the Adriatic Sea (up to Ancona). Consequently, the river network de-

veloped over a large plain that corresponded to the present upper part of the Adriatic Sea.

The response of the fluvial systems to the last glacial-interglacial transition differed from one system to another, but aggradation was the main process during the LGM when large portions of the present plans were built (Castiglioni and Pellegrini 2001). Many rivers after the LGM underwent a dramatic incision phase that caused the formation of terraces and a downstream shift in deposition zones.

Figure 1: The Po River Basin. (Wikimedia)

was responsible for the elevation of the present Alps, from which the name derives, and for the uplifting of plateaus in the Balkan Peninsula and in Corsica and Sardinia. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

18

The latter phenomenon is well-documented in the Venetia-Friuli Plain where the incision of the upper portion of the plain corresponds to sedimentation in the lower portion (Fontana et al. 2008). The sea level rose quickly during the early Holocene then slowed later on: 10-11 mm/year between 10000 and 6800 years BC and to 1.5 mm/year in later periods (Preti 1999). Such sea level changes initially caused an upstream shift of river mouths, whereas sea protraction became the dominant process later on, and caused the formation of the present Po River Delta (Tockner, Uehlinger and Robinson 2008). 3.2.1. Environmental Changes in the Po Plain

The Po Plain or Padan Plain (in Italian: Pianura Padana or Val Padana), stretching over an

area of 46,000 km2, includes 71% of all the plain areas in Italy and it covers 15% of the Ital-

ian territory (Pellegrini, 1979). The plain is crossed by the Po River, which drains an area of

74,000 km2 – the Po River Basin. Bounded by the mountain chains of the Alps and the Ap-

ennines, the Po Plain is a link between the Mediterranean environment and the rest of Eu-

rope.

In the past decades, many factors have been responsible for changes in the fluvial environ-

ment of the area – some more than others. In the northern foothills, late Pleistocene palaeo-

channels indicate several cases of underfit3 streams among the northern tributaries of the Po

River. On the southern side of the Po Plain, no geomorphological evidence of similar dis-

charge reduction has been found. Here, mainly archaeological remains buried under the flu-

vial deposits, show a reduction in the size of fluvial sediments after the 10th millennium BC.

During the Holocene, fluvial sedimentation became finer and was characterized by minor

fluctuations in the rate of deposition, probably related to short and less intense climatic fluc-

tuations. In the Neolithic Age, with the high rate of population growth and the development

of human activities, human influence on fluvial dynamics – especially since the Roman Age

– prevailed over other factors. During the Holocene, the most important changes in the Po

Plain were not modifications in water discharge but in sedimentation. From the 1st to the 3rd

century AD, land grants to war veterans caused almost complete deforestation, generalised

soil erosion, and maximum progradation of the Po Delta. At present, land abandonment in

the mountainous regions has led to reforestation. Artificial channel control in the mountain

area of the basins and in-channel gravel extraction (now illegal but very intense in the 1960s

and 1970s) are causing erosion along the rivers and along large areas of the Adriatic coast.

These changes do not only occur in the Po River basin, but in many other Mediterranean

rivers.

Anthropogenic influence grew in importance after the Neolithic. Much of the central Po

Plain had been deprived of its original vegetation cover by at least the Bronze Age (1300

BC, cf. Schneider, 1985). During the Roman Age, at least 60% of the area was deforested

and converted to farming. In northern Italy, the onset of centuriation4 began in the 2nd centu-

ry BC and continued for about four centuries (Tozzi 1972). Deforestation caused intense

areal erosion and soil erosion on the Po Low Plain unit. The widespread and intense surface

erosion that occurred throughout the Po Plain is well documented in the sediments of the Po

Delta. In fact, in the Late Roman Age (end of the 3rd century AD), this delta further prograd-

ed than in previous centuries (Bondesan et al. 1995). The fall of the Roman Empire probably

coincided with a deteriorating climate (Veggiani 1983), which caused the reforestation of the

3 A stream is underfit when it is much smaller than the size of its valley. (Goudie 2004) 4Centuriation was a typical widespread division of cultivated lands by a regular grid of roads and ditches introduced by the Romans, which started in the 2nd century BC and continued for about four centuries. (Tockner, Uehlinger and Robinson 2009)

19

Po Low Plain unit, with many channel diversions and drainage changes affecting the south-

ern tributaries of the Po. Large areas became marshy (Ravazzi 1989), the plain aggraded

quickly, and the centuriation tracks were often buried under fluvial and palustrine deposits

(Cremaschi and Marchetti 1995; Cremaschi et al. 1980; Castaldini 1989).

Nevertheless, it is not clear whether the revegetation of the plain was the effect of the climat-

ic change or of the fall of the Roman Empire or, rather, the effect of barbaric invasions from

the north and north-east across the Alps, that caused farmland to be abandoned. The popula-

tion increase, which started during the Middle Ages and continued until the Modern Age,

completed the deforestation of the Po Plain. Nowadays, no remnant of the alluvial plain for-

est can be observed in its natural setting.

During the Modern Age (from the 16th century onwards), geomorphic processes have been

progressively affected by human activities. Fluvial channels have been constrained in nar-

rower corridors, which had resulted in an increase in flood magnitude. As early as the 12 th

century, important canals were constructed in the central Po Plain, for example the Naviglio

Grande or the Naviglio della Martesana, ordered by Duke Francesco Sforza and completed

under Ludovico Moro. The canals were mainly built for land irrigation but also for naviga-

tion to link the main cities of the plain: Milan, Turin, Bologna and Venice. Even Leonardo

da Vinci proposed a solution to link Lake Como to Milan through a water canal. During the

Industrial Revolution, the increasing need of moving goods led to the construction of more

canals. These included the Naviglio di Pavia, the Villoresi canal, and the Cavour canal, or-

dered by then Prime Minister Cavour after the unification of Italy to provide for an irrigated

area of about 1540 km2.

In addition to channels, many dams were also built. All the rivers in the plain are embanked

and, for some of them, important hydraulic works were planned and carried out centuries

ago. An old dam planned and constructed by Alberto Pitentino in the 12th century, which

controlled the water levels in the River Mincio at its confluence with the Po, was abandoned

in the 1970s. A new canal system was built and the old one filled up with earth. The con-

struction of embankments along the Po River began in the 12th century and the complete

embankment system was completed during the 19th century. During the 19th and 20th centu-

ries many works have been carried out on the Po and its tributaries to either raise or rein-

force the embankments, and reduce flood inundation. The most extensive embankment

works occurred in the middle and lower reach of the Po and the lower reaches of its tributar-

ies.

The implementation of a complete embankment system for the Po and its southern tributar-

ies in the central and eastern sections of the plain has caused aggradation of the river beds;

therefore, the rivers in their middle and lower parts are now above the general topography of

the plain. Only few floods occurred in the last century, but they were disastrous in most cas-

es, such as the one of November 1951, when the embankments were broken into three points

in the north side of the river. Recently, in order to mitigate flood hazard, flow-control weirs

have been designed for the Apennine tributaries of the Po. Others have been active for years,

such as those on the Secchia and Panaro Rivers.

Many other interventions carried out on the fluvial system of the central Po Plain after the

Second World War need to be mentioned, such as meander straightening (rectification) by

means of artificial cuts, or the construction of bridges and barrages. However, the most seri-

ous impacts on the fluvial system are due to two anthropogenic factors that are not so evi-

dent, and were underestimated for a long time. The most important, from a geomorphic point

of view, is the intense quarrying of gravel and sand for construction purposes due to wide-

spread urban development. In different places, gravel extraction activities are documented in

20

the Mincio River Plain from the early 20th century (Belenghi, 1908). At the time, the quar-

ries of the Mantova Province already supplied alluvial materials, not only for local needs but

also for the neighbouring provinces. It was not until the early 1960s that quarrying became

an industrial activity. From then on, there was a large and consistent increase in the amount

of extracted material; in fact, recent investigations (Baraldi and Zavatti 1990; Amministra-

zione Provinciale di Mantova 1996) estimated the total volume of the extracted material as

more than 2,000,000 m3/year. The quarrying, together with other activities that reduced sed-

iment supply from upper parts of the catchment basins, produced dramatic changes in fluvial

processes. After WWII, sediment discharge decreased by more than 40%. The southern trib-

utaries of the Po turned from aggradation to erosion. River channels deteriorated and many

problems arose due to destabilisation of engineering works on rivers, such as bridges and

dams.

During the 1960s and the 1970s in the district of Modena, the Secchia River and the Panaro

River deteriorated along their upper plain stretches, with a downcutting of 12 m for the first

and 6 m for the second. Along the Secchia River, bridges collapsed, such as near Busana,

Gatta and Rubiera, whereas the Sassuolo bridge was damaged. On the River Panaro, riv-

erbed incision caused the damage or the collapse of bridges near Falanello, Marano, Vigno-

la, Spilamberto, San Donnino and San Damaso. In order to preserve some of the bridges

along the Secchia and Panaro, it was necessary to build barrages, such as the near

Spilamberto. The episodes of fluvial erosion occurring in the Po basin appear to be very sim-

ilar to river erosion processes that took place in nearby European regions after WWII; this

shows the important role of anthropogenic activities in the evolution of fluvial processes. At

present, the Po continues to deteriorate. (Marchetti 2002)

3.3. Environmental Characteristics of the Basin

3.3.1. Climate Patterns

In the Po River Basin, there are two climate zones: the Alpine zone and the Padan zone. The

first, with a typical Central-European mountain climate and a continental rainfall regime, is

characterized by minimum precipitation in winter and maximum precipitation in summer.

The second, with typical continental characteristics, is characterized by mild winters and a

pre-alpine rainfall regime with a main minimum in winter, a main maximum in spring, and a

secondary maximum in autumn (Scossiroli 1976).

The Padan plain and the Alpine area are both rich in water: the average annual precipitation

on the Padan basin is around 1,108 mm, which makes this vast area one of the richest in

freshwater. The trends of global temperatures increasing today have accelerated in the last

two decades, leading to rapid and evident consequences. The natural environment and the

society are struggling to adapt to this new climate trend. The impacts of climate change had

already been observed by the De Marchi Committee, established after the Florence flood in

1966. The Committee argued that the cause of the flood was “the variation in climate, with

the increasing sea level rise, caused by the rise of air temperature that had caused the retreat

of alpine glaciers and the melt of ice sheet”. A recent study of WWF Italy shows that a de-

crease in snowfall of 18.7% had occurred along the Alps, between 1,000 and 2,500 m, in the

past 30 years. The continuous rise in temperatures is considered responsible for the decrease

in snowfall.

21

3.3.2 Water as a Resource

Urbanization and water-related activities in the Po River basin made water become a pre-

cious resource, sometimes scarce mainly because water use has grown to a greater extent in

the area. Water scarcity often leads to conflicts among users: the water sources for irrigation

are made up of 83% of surface water sources and 17% of groundwater sources, while the

water resources for drinking water come from groundwater for the 80%, from springs for the

15%, and from surface water for the remaining 5%. Surface water and groundwater are used

mainly in the plain area, while springs dominate in mountain areas.

The exploitation of surface water for energy production is a concern for most of the Po River

basin. In the process, water is not reduced or used up, but hydropower operations significant-

ly affect the river ecosystem altering the flow regime, which affects the water quality and the

aquatic ecosystem. The Po riverbed, like the ones of many of its tributaries, has experienced

a considerable decrease in water level in the last 30 years. Scholars suggest (Lamberti and

Schippa1994) that, between 1993 and 2023, the water levels of the Po riverbed will decrease

even more, reaching 2.4 and 4.3 m at Cremona harbour. It is very interesting to look at Cre-

mona harbour and, more specifically, to a 112 km long reach of the Po River, running from

Piacenza to Boretto – that includes the run-of-the-river hydroelectricity plant of Isola Seraf-

ini. The power station, managed by the Italian energy agency ENEL, is served by a 350 m

wide dam and has a total capacity of 80 MW. The incoming discharge is partially diverted to

the hydropower plant channel, which originated as a meander cut-off during the huge 1951

flood (WWF and CIRF 2013).

The Po River environmental services are widely exploited: as said before, the Po River is the

longest waterway in Italy and the main irrigation supplier of the Po Plain, the richest and

most productive agricultural area in Italy. Its high quality sands are suitable for construction

and were significantly exploited in the past decades. Due to intense sediment mining, the

middle course of the river underwent a strong riverbed degradation process between 1950

and 2000, more intensely until the 1980s. It is believed that instream mining arose from 3

million m3/year to 12 million m3/year from 1960 to 1980, then decreased back to 4 million

m3/year. Recently, stricter regulations on instream sediment mining have partially reduced

this activity. Along with sediment mining, low water training for navigation purposes and

the presence of dams in the upper part of the Po basin also affect the overall sediment bal-

ance along the middle course of the river. In addition to this, the Isola Serafini hydropower

plant has played an important role in affecting the river after it was built in 1960; the Isola

Serafini barrage traps sediment upstream causing an abrupt decrease in sediment supply

downstream, and affects the hydrological regime reducing the transport capacity of the river

in the meander downstream. Riverbed incision downstream of the Isola Serafini dam is evi-

dent if looking at the minimum water stages per year recorded at Cremona station, decreas-

ing by more than 4 m from 1950 to 2000 (AdBPo 2010). Moreover, Cremona harbour struc-

tures have been severely affected by the lowering of the riverbed and some of them needed

to be completely rebuilt by means of expensive interventions. Riverbed incision leads to

issues such as instability of infrastructure (banks and bridges along the river), and it poten-

tially decreases the water table and can alter important ecological processes of the freshwater

environment (Brebbia 2013).

Another consequence of the decrease of water level that needs to be considered is coastline regression. About 45% of all Italian coastline is under threat, suffering from decline and degradation due to a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors. The evidence for environmental degradation along the Adriatic coastline is striking, especially in the Po delta area. Researchers have confirmed that, in about a century from now, regression of the shore-line between the Po River delta and Ravenna will be quite evident (Gambolati 1998).

22

3.3.3 Water Quality data of the Po River Today

The Regions included in the area of the Po River basin have installed a network of monitor-

ing stations on their territory, which, for more than 20 years now, have provided data on

surface water quality in the basin. At first, the system was not functional because each sta-

tion worked differently (providing different data) according to the Regions` needs; this did

not allow an overall assessment of the water-quality conditions and of the causes that led to

river degradation. When the Legislative Decree no. 152/99 became law, the monitoring sys-

tem became more centralized and able to produce the desired results – or at least in part. In

the 2006 State of the Po River Basin Report published by the AdbPo (In Italian: Caratteris-

tiche del Bacino del Fiume Po e Primo Esame dell’Impatto Ambientale delle Attività Umane

sulle Risorse Idriche) it is explained that the river´s water quality appears to be “good” up-

stream. However, conditions deteriorate downstream of urban centres, and same goes for the

rest of the river to the delta. An assessment carried out between 1999 and 2000 showed that

some sections of the Po River were in classes IV (marginal) and V (poor) according to new

indices introduced in 19995, and great concern was for the Lambro-Seveso-Olona basin area.

As a whole, the Po River never reaches class V and in some stations - like Cremona - the

river shows a self-purification capacity that is generally low in rivers that have been charac-

terized by geomorphological changes. Looking at historical data (fig.2), the graph shows that

there is no evidence of improvements in the last 10-20 years, in spite of the development of

water treatment plants and major efforts to improve water quality. The whole watercourse,

except for the first two stations upstream, is not in line either with Dlgs. 152/99 (according

to which all stations should reach class II of the indices used) or EU directive 2000/60.

3.3.4 Eutrophication in the Northwest Adriatic Sea

The Northern Adriatic Sea is the shallowest (<60 m), land locked, northernmost region of the Mediterranean. The part of the northern Adriatic Sea mostly affected by eutrophication is the coastal region of Emilia-Romagna, south of the Po River delta, with an extension of 150 km, and 20 km offshore. Studies collected since the 1970s have shown that significant changes of mechanisms and trophic structures6 have occurred in the northern Adriatic eco-systems. Until the 1960s, algal blooms in the Adriatic Sea occurred only occasionally alter-nating with prolonged periods of clear water phases. No particular location of the coastal area seemed to offer favourable conditions for the onset of blooms. However, since 1975, algal blooms have no longer been occasional but have become very frequent along the Emi-lia-Romagna coast. This is enough to cause serious problems to the environment, tourism and fishery. The first alarming event was recorded in September 1975, which caused high mortality of benthic shellfish and vertebrate fishes. Since then, different kind of algal blooms have occurred every year in various seasons covering larger areas. In 1984, the second most alarming event with blooms of Gymnodinimum (in latin) species - of an extent never seen before - occurred. In the Po Delta area, chlorophyll values reached 800 mg/m3 and more, while 200 mg/m3 was measured 200 km south of Ancona and some kilometres offshore.

5The new indices introduced were LIM=Broad Pollution Level, IBE=Extended Biotic Index and a combination of the two called SECA=Ecological State of Watercourses. Each of these three indices include 5 quality classes: poor, marginal, fair, good, and excellent. 6 Trophic structure refers to the way in which organisms use food resources to get their energy for growth and reproduction, and is often referred to in simple terms as the "food web" or "food chain". A healthy marine ecosystem consists of trophic levels that have complex linkages to form a food web. A food web can be understood in portrayed as a pyramid with phy-toplankton at the base, converting the sun's energy into food for organism in the upper levels. The physical oceanography and climate are the natural drivers of these trophic dynamics (Shackell, 2011).

23

The new chronic state of hypertrophy of the Northwest Adriatic Sea shore causes recurrent

crises of anoxia involving vast benthic zones7. In addition to frequent fish mortality, changes

in water colour, alteration of the organoleptic characteristics of the water and emissions of

unpleasant smells are now a common disturbance. In the 1990s these conditions caused a

rarefaction, and in some cases the disappearance of organisms sensitive to dystrophy (Vol-

lenweider, Rinaldi and Montanari 1990). Combined effects of anthropogenic impact and

regional climate changes have caused these modifications of the physical and chemical

oceanographic characteristics of the northern Adriatic Sea, heavily influencing its biota. The

anthropogenic impact in the northern Adriatic Sea is larger than in the rest on the Adriatic,

due to high river discharges, mainly from the Po River. Freshets8 occur most frequently in

spring (due to rain and melting snow in the Alps and Apennines) and /or during autumn

heavy raining events. Thus, in the northern Adriatic Sea the runoff significantly depends on

the inter-annual oscillations of precipitations, which might be easily affected in the future by

climate modifications (Zanchettin et al. 2008; Cozzi et al. 2012). Even if variations occur,

data collected in 2003 have recorded nutrient discharges in the Sea, characterized by over-

loads of total nitrogen (TN) and orthosilicate (SiO4), which increasingly enhanced the P-

limitation (phosphorus) of the primary production in the northern Adriatic Sea. Responsible

for the N load in the Po, is the intense agriculture within the Po valley; although wastewater

disposal in the watersheds and along the coast contribute for 35% of the total N and P loads

in the northern Adriatic Sea as a whole, and for 60% of the Po River.

An integral part of the Water Framework Directive (discussed in detail in Chapter 5) is the

Nitrates Directive, which is one the key instruments in the protection of waters against agri-

cultural pressures. In 2006, the European Commission opened infringement proceedings

against Italy for its failure to implement the Nitrate Directive (in force since 1991). Recent-

ly, following the European Commission`s termination of an infringement procedure against

Italy, the country has updated its rules relating to the use of animal waste in agriculture and

still retains hopes of amending the EU`s Nitrates Directive. In March 2016, a new decree has

been approved which includes exemptions for nitrate-vulnerable zones such Lombardy and

Piedmont, which were approved by Brussels on March 1. Minister for Agriculture Maurizio

Martina also confirmed that Italy`s next objective is a full revision of the EU directive on

nitrates. According to EU Directive 676 of 1991 on nitrate pollution, member states are

obliged to monitor nitrate levels in their waterways, develop action plans to protect rivers

and lakes and designate areas that are prone to pollution from agricultural fertilisers. The list

of at-risk areas has to be revised periodically and data on water quality has to be monitored

and conveyed to the Commission. Some EU countries took the decision to provide across the

board protection, while in 2006 Italy faced accusations of imposing overly stringent criteria

on vulnerable zones that were located in pastoral-intensive areas. Additionally, in 2013, a

decree authorising the annual distribution of 340 kg of nitrogen per hectare was criticised for

7 Hypertrophic: very high nutrient concentration, that leads to serious and potentially continuous water quality problems. The level of nutrients present determines the trophic state of a water body. The adjective "eutrophic" describes the initially high nutrient conditions that occur in some types of ecosystem at the start of secondary succession. At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists identified stages in plant community succession that appeared to be directly related to trophic state or nutrient status. They described a series of stages: oligotrophic (low in nutrients), mesotrophic (with intermediate nutrient concentration), eutrophic (high in nutrients) and hypertrophic (very high in nutrients). (www.open.ac.uk) Anoxia: dead zones are areas where the bottom water is anoxic, meaning that it has very low concentrations of dissolved oxygen. The cause of anoxic bottom waters is fairly simple: the organic matter produced by phytoplankton at the surface of the ocean (the euphotic zone) sinks to the bottom (the benthic zone) where it is subject to breakdown by the action of bacte-ria, a process known as bacteria respiration. The problem is, while phytoplankton use carbon dioxide and produce oxygen during photosynthesis, bacteria use oxygen and give off carbon dioxide during respiration. The oxygen used by bacteria is the oxygen dissolved in the water, and that is the same oxygen that all of the other oxygen-respiring animals on the bottom (crabs, clams, shrimp, etc.) and swimming in the water (zooplankton, fish) require for life to continue. 8 Freshet or spring thaw: overflowing of a stream caused by heavy rain or melting snow.

24

flouting EU laws that dictate the maximum amount cannot exceed 170 kg. By adopting

stricter action plans in the industry-intensive Po basin and repealing the offending law, the

infringement procedures against Italy were dropped (http://europa.eu).

Figure 2: Physical Sensitive Area Index to eutrophication, based on 3D hydrodynamic modelling results in the Adriatic Sea (iasonnet.gr).

3.4. Nature and Biodiversity in Danger

Biodiversity loss is a major issue in the Po River basin, even though the problem is still not

perceived as an immediate threat and not many studies have been conducted in the area.

Many species have disappeared, even the ones protected by law, and this is happening with a

lack of interest and concern from the State and the citizens. If we look at the fish population

of the Po, many of the native species are declining or going extinct at an alarming rate. For

example, the Sturgeon (in Latin, Acipensersturio) is considered “possibly extinct”: sturgeons

have been known to be in the Po up to the 70s, studies conducted later revealed that the spe-

cies has now completely disappeared from the river (Zerunian 2004).

At the European level, freshwater fishes are one of the most threatened groups, and major

threats include changing water flow patterns and over-extraction, which in many cases is

25

further exacerbated by increasing droughts due to climate change, pollution and the intro-

duction of alien species. Other major threats come from farming and ranching as a result of

agricultural expansion and intensification, urbanization and tourism (IUCN 2013).

Entire communities of invertebrates are at risk of extinction because of habitat loss. In the

Le Bine Nature Reserve, between the territories of Cremona and Mantua, in the Oglio Sud

Park, WWF has conducted a study that revealed significant environmental changes occurred

from 1972 to 2002. The reserve is located along the Oglio River, a tributary of the Po. The

study highlighted that physical alteration of river flow, excessive water abstraction for do-

mestic consumption and urban/industrial use, and water pollution contributed to habitat de-

struction and loss and decline of many species. Some of these species include molluscs like

the rare Physidae Aplexa Hypnorum (in Latin), now officially disappeared from the reserve,

some amphibians from the Po Valley like the Rana di Lataste (in Italian), and a number of

vulnerable aquatic invertebrates like the Coleotteri idroadefagi (in Italian). The last ones

were abundant in the mid 80s, but today only 24 species can be found in Le Bine Nature

Reserve. The introduction of non-native species represented another threat to biodiversity in

Le Bine Nature Reserve; many of these non-native species are freshwater fishes (like Siluro,

Pesce gatto, Abramide, Misgurno di stagno, Rodeo amaro, etc.) that spread dramatically,

out-competing native species for food and habitat.

The situation found along the Oglio River is the same found in the Po River Basin: 84% of

all the alien species recorded in Italy are to be found in the Po River and its tributaries, some

being very invasive and representing a threat to entire ecosystems (Gherardi et al. 2007).

3.5. Vulnerability and Risks

The management of watercourses in Italy is characterized by a very technical approach that

sees rivers as “channels” and not as natural ecosystems. This kind of approach is very much

focused on water as a “resource for people” and on how people can benefit from rivers –

instead of looking at rivers as complex multi-faceted loci of natural resources.

Throughout history, people have foolishly tried to “control rivers”. These efforts have met

various levels of success, but almost always were plagued with more problems than benefits:

in Italy – like in many other countries – engineers modify rivers through practices of chan-

nelization to control flooding, drain wetlands, improve river channels for navigation, control

stream-bank erosion and improve river alignment (Brookes, 1981). River channelization

results in the removal of sedimentation at the base of the river further increasing flow rates.

Subsequently habitat diversity is jeopardized due to the new flow of the river and natural

pooling is disturbed, which negatively impacts aquatic life. Re-channeling a river requires

actions such as river widening, deepening, dredging or re-aligning, that affect the natural

flow and ecology of a river. Removing or changing sediment deposition at the bottom of a

river changes the velocity and flow of the water body. While this measure can alleviate

flooding in one section of the river, it also enhances the speed of the river, which can cause

downstream flooding that can further impact the surrounding watershed. At least until the

70s, most of the interventions on the Po and its tributaries have been invasive and led to the

destruction of entire ecosystems and to flooding events. Thus, it is necessary to enforce a

more unified policy in order to manage river basins in the country. In the Water Framework

Directive, there is a general “no deterioration” provision that applies to all water including

rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal waters and groundwater. As we will see later in Chapter 4,

among the main aims of the WFD are to: 1) prevent further deterioration, protect and en-

hance the status of aquatic ecosystems and associated wetlands; 2) contribute to mitigating

26

the effects of floods and droughts. Italy has implemented the Directive through the Legisla-

tive Decree 152/2006 (Norms Concerning the Environment, also called Single Environmen-

tal Text) which puts together the environmental laws previously contained in several de-

crees. Unfortunately, as it will be discussed in Chapter 5, this single text has not made things

easier as it does not seem to be enforced properly.

3.5.1. Current Flood Risk

The Po River basin is the most vulnerable area in Italy (Carraro and Sgobbi 2008), not just

because of human activities but also because of its geological conditions. To explain this I

have to briefly describe the geology of the Po River basin. The central-eastern Po plain is a

rapidly subsiding sedimentary basin, with subsidence rates ranging from 0 to 7 cm/year – the

maximum occurring in synclinal areas at the Po delta and near Bologna. In the eastern Po

plain, the recent effects of human activities on subsidence have been judged to be as great as

those resulting from long-term natural processes. It is suggested that the main factor control-

ling modern subsidence is water withdrawal, which was particularly intense during the sec-

ond half of the 20th century, coinciding with accelerating economic growth. There is a clear-

cut correlation between flood frequency and rapid subsidence. In contrast, few floods oc-

curred in low subsidence areas. The anthropic-caused increase in subsidence has now greatly

increased the potential for additional flooding (Carminati and Martinelli 2002).

The present-day network of the Po River is commonly divided into four main stretches: the

Upper Po (with a drainage area of approximately 37,000 km2), the Middle Po (68,000 km2),

the Lower Po (70,000 km2) and the Po Delta (Zanchettin et al. 2008). In the early 19th centu-

ry, the river morphology has evolved from a geometry with irregular meandering channels

controlled by discontinuous levee alignments and riverbank protection to a geometry with

artificial meandering or straight channels that are controlled by flood corridors and continu-

ous riverbank protection (Govi and Maraga, 2005, in Zanchettin et al. 2008).

The present levee system, which was completed during the 1960s by the Magistrato per il

Po, is a flood canal along the final 420 km of the Po River watercourse (including also the

final stretches of its tributaries), with a remarkable channel storage capacity in the Middle Po

stretch. The progressive expansion of existing levee systems have resulted in decreased

flood proneness of the Upper Po sub-basins (e.g. Sesia, Tanaro and Ticino Rivers) and an

increasing vulnerability of Po Plain areas (lower Po and Po Delta). The Po Plain is subject to

hydrological hazards, which is seen as an increasing value of the flood peak with high prob-

ability (Marchi et al. 1995, in Zanchettin et al, 2008).

The annual regime of the Po River, which is characterized by two low-water periods (winter

and summer) and two floods periods (late fall and spring), is strongly influenced by the sea-

sonal pattern of precipitation. The first flood period reflects the intensification of rainstorms

in late fall, while the second flood period reflects the contribution of snowmelt processes in

the most elevated portions of the catchment (Cattaneo et al. 2009; in Zanchettin et al. 2008).

Concerning the seasonal to inter-annual response to climatic forcing, a robust dependence of

wintertime precipitation and discharges on the state of the NAO is assessed on a centennial

time scale, this dependence resulting in stronger (weaker) precipitation and higher (lower)

discharges during negative (positive) anomalies of the NAO index 9 (Zanchettin et al. 2008).

9NAO, North Atlantic Oscillation: an irregular fluctuation of atmospheric pressure over the North Atlantic Ocean that has a strong effect on winter weather in Europe, Greenland, north-eastern North America, North Africa, and northern Asia. The NAO can occur on a yearly basis, or the fluctuations can take place decades apart (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

27

Agriculture is the main land use over the Po Plain, which explains the huge total length of

the network of artificial canalisations over the basin (about 16,670 km), and in particular the

impressive 85 km-long Cavour irrigation canal, which was opened in 1866 and diverts up to

110 m3/s from the Upper Po to the Ticino (Zanchettin et al. 2008).

Average Po River discharge is about 1,500 m3/s. After 1916, flooding episodes with daily

peak discharge above 8,000 m3/s occurred, specifically in 1917, 1926, 1928, 1951, 1976,

1994, 2000 and 2008, with the absolute maximum discharge observed on 20 May 1926

(9,780 m3/s). The minimum daily discharge observed during the 1807 – 1916 period was

recorded on 12 May 1817 (277 m3/s). After 1917, at least five drought events culminated in

a discharge minimum below 300 m3/s: in 1938, 1949, 2003, 2005 and 2006, the latter event

coinciding with the minimum daily discharge ever observed (168 m3/s, on 21 July 2006)

(Zanchettin et al. 2008).

The development of infrastructures along the fluvial network to protect urbanized and farm-

ing areas in alluvial plains has increased average river discharge and flood peaks. In particu-

lar, until the late 1950s, the defence system was made of discontinuous levee stretches

(mostly erected since the late 19th century) that allowed a natural damping of the peak-flow

discharge of the Upper Po tributaries. River discharge increase is also due to the change of

the damping effect of many great sub-alpine lakes on high discharges because of lake man-

agement, specifically because of the regulation of the water surface level by sluice-gates.

In the period 1831 – 2003, precipitation has significantly increased in winter whilst changes

in the rest of the year are apparently negligible; evapotranspiration has increased in summer;

discharge values have increased in winter and strongly decreased in summer (Zanchettin et

al. 2008).

3.5.2. Future Flood Risk

A very strong increase (locally more than +40%) in the 100-year flood level of the Po River is projected by the end of the century (2071-2100) under the SRES A2 emissions scenario10. For the Po River, the projected future return period of a current 100-year flood is projected to be less than 20 years. Less strong increases in extreme flood levels were also found in several other rivers on the Italian peninsula (Dankers and Feyen 2008; in MET Office 2011). However, projections of future flood risk in Italy are different among researchers. Some also predict a mean decrease of annual average flood risk by 2030 of approximately 18%, based on several models and two emission scenarios (SRES A1B and A1B-2016-5-L), with projec-tions ranging from a decrease of 40% to an increase up to 20%. By 2100 the models become more evenly divided between increases (up to 100%) and decreases (up to 75%), although a majority still predicts a decline; the mean of all projections for 2100 is a decrease of average annual flood risk of 10% (MET Office, 2011).

10 SRES A2, Special Report on Emissions Scenarios: a report by the IPCC published in 2000. The SRES scenarios were developed by considering various possible futures of world development in the 21st century, including factors such as eco-nomic development, technological development, energy use, population change, and land-use change. Four major story lines were developed and a total of 40 different scenarios across the four story lines were constructed. The A2 story line is characterized by heterogeneity. Self reliance and local identities are emphasized, and population increases continuously. Population reaches over 10 billion by 2050. Economic development is regionally oriented and technological development is relatively slow, compared to the other story lines. From these major factors, and using Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), emissions of the major greenhouse gases were developed for the 21st century (www.ucar.edu).

28

3.5.3. Inland Navigation and “Bacinizzazione”

The Po River is a waterway of international importance and it is the supporting column of

the Padano-Veneto Waterway System, which is very important for the growth of commercial

traffic between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. The development of inland

navigation in Italy started in the Middle Ages and had a great impact on trade and economic

growth for the country. In the 20th century, the projects to make the Po River navigable

mainly failed and resulted in the loss of geomorphic dynamic equilibrium for the river.

Recently, new projects of inland navigation along the Po and the idea of bringing back to life

the old "Piano di Bacinizzazione" have been discussed. These projects would probably be

beneficial for the country's economy but they will further alter the river's ecological balance.

The modern history of navigation along the Po River began in 1919 with river regulation

works along the Po's tributaries Enza and Crostolo, and since then many other works have

been carried out, although they often resulted in unfinished and insufficient works. In the

70s, the "Piano di Bacinizzazione", mentioned above, was proposed: according to this pro-

ject, the river was to be turn into a big artificial canal. This project was partially implement-

ed allowing navigation (for commercial purposes) in the Po River only for a section of 400

km long.

In general, river channelization increases the shear stress on riverbeds, thereby lowering the

elevation of riverbeds as a consequence of erosion of bed materials (Emerson 1971). This is

exactly what happened in the Po River. Since navigation is allowed only when water level is

within a certain range, and the Po's water level did not guarantee navigation all year around,

finally the river regulation works proved to be money consuming and harmful for the envi-

ronment. As explained in the sub - chapter 3.5., the environmental and watershed impacts

(such as flood risks and loss of biodiversity) of channelization should not be underestimated.

3.5.4. From Emergency to River Restoration

In Italy, environmental protection seems to be enforced only after natural disasters or water

crises occur and control measures do not seem to be part of the country's strategy to prevent

environmental disasters. Nevertheless, a new priority has been identified in the last few

years: river restoration (in Italian, rinaturazione or riqualificazione fluviale). In its most

basic form, river restoration is taking a river channel which is deemed to be degraded in

some way and attempting to improve the status of the river through some form of interven-

tion such that the degradation is reversed or minimised. Broadly speaking, river restoration

is deemed necessary or worthwhile where there is a legacy of human river modification.

This modification could be direct such as dredging, or indirect such as agricultural practices

increasing sediment delivery, but generally the river in question has been altered in some

way from its "pre-human" state. Previous river modification may have altered the processes

within the river such that the way the river looks, behaves, or functions is not meeting socie-

tal expectations (e.g. local people, river uses, legislators, etc).

There are a very broad range of projects under the umbrella of "river restoration" and many

are the semantic debates around the term. The term "restoration" implies moving something

backwards towards a pre-existing state. "River restoration" does not seem to involve as-

sessing how the river used to look and function and recreating this, however in reality "river

restoration" has become a term which encompasses virtually any work on a river which aims

to improve something about the river. Perhaps, "river restoration" should be replaced by the

29

term "river improvement", but this might raise a further semantic question: improvement

from whose point of view?

The field of restoration ecology suffers from a lack of conceptual clarity concerning its

meanings, goals and objectives. Since the mid-1980s, the field of river restoration has

evolved in an attempt to better meet societies' needs to more effectively repair damage to

rivers (Cairns and Heckman 1996; Carr and Chu 1999; Cairns 2001). In 2002, the Society

for Ecological Restoration (SER, 2002) defined restoration as the ‘..process of assisting the

recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed’. Regardless of this

definition, the goals and objectives of river restoration are not clear. Rolston (1988) believes

that where possible ecosystems should be returned to their "natural" or "original" condition.

Westra (1995) argues that restoration should focus on restoring ecosystems' abilities to con-

tinue their ongoing change and development unconstrained by human interruptions past or

present. Cairns (2001) asserted that the goal of restoration should be devoted to ‘returning

damaged ecosystems to a condition that is structurally and functionally similar to the pre-

disturbance state’. Alternatively, others involved in the field of restoration ecology provide

definitions for restoration that more explicitly focus on historical, social, cultural, political,

aesthetic and moral aspects. For example, some scholars argue that conservation and, by

implication, restoration goals should take into account the views and practices of rural and

indigenous people who depend on the ecosystems for their physical and cultural subsistence,

and should also include scientific and non-scientific considerations (Gomez-Pompa and

Kaus 1992; Westra 1995; Light and Higgs 1996; Higgs 1997; Chauhan 2003). Regier (1995)

proposes an abstract definition for restoration that is dependent on what people believe as

fostering a state of "well-being". Obviously, lack of conceptual clarity about restoration in-

troduces an element of uncertainty into restoration problem solving (Darby and Sear 2008).

The expression "river restoration" is somehow misleading, because talking of actual "resto-

ration" is a bit unrealistic. "Restoration" involves detailed assessments of how the river

would have appeared and functioned at some imagined-Neolithic point in time, the objective

being to recreate the river as it was before any human intervention. In practice, this is usual-

ly impossible to achieve due to the difficulty in defining the target state of the river. Maps do

not go back far enough and although it is sometimes possible to recreate the geomorphologi-

cal evolution of the river through modelling or sub-surface mapping, and the ecological

composition of the environment through coring, such an exercise is usually beyond the

scope of most projects. Furthermore, it is exceptionally challenging to remodel a river in

terms of its planform and ecosystem. This is largely an issue of semantics, but it is important

to be aware that river restoration may not involve any actual restoring, but rather general

improvements to a degraded river.

The EU Water Framework Directive requires member states to attain good water status for

all water bodies. The WFD promotes integrated river basin planning in order to achieve eco-

logical objectives, and large-scale restoration activities can play a key part in enhancing the

quality of river systems from the source to the sea. In 2008, the River Restoration Directive

proposed by the Po River Basin Authority was finally approved from the President of the

Council of Ministers and since then a few restoration works along the Po River have begun.

Italy's longest river, often referred to as the "big sick river", is in need of very careful resto-

ration in order to increase its self-cleaning capacity, to enhance its ecological function and to

recreate ecological continuity in the river. Restoration projects, for a variety of reasons and

at great cost, are now common all throughout Europe and range from small-scale local initia-

tives to highly technical and well-funded projects on a larger scale. However, despite legal

mandates, massive expenditures, and the rise of the aquatic and riparian restoration industry,

rivers continue to deteriorate and many restoration activities have failed. One of the main

30

reasons many rivers are still degrading today is poor land management and the biggest ob-

stacles to the implementation of river management plans are the lack of appropriate agencies

with interdisciplinary expertise and the slow response of pre-existing institutions. Further-

more, despite the rapid increase in river restoration projects, little is known about the effec-

tiveness of these efforts: restoration outcomes are often not fully evaluated in terms of suc-

cess or reasons for success or failure. Lack of or inadequate monitoring to determine project

effectiveness is often a common reason why many restoration efforts fail or fall short of their

objectives. The increasing emphasis on river restoration in Italy and in particular along the

Po is a positive trend, but it is a challenge. River restoration projects should take place with-

in the context of the River Basin Management Plan for the WFD, and as I will explain in

details in chapter 5, Italy has often failed to comply with EU legislation on water protection.

The struggle for the country to adapt to the WFD and the complex management framework

behind the Po River represent two obstacles to achieve successful river restoration projects

(WWF & CIRF 2008).

3.6. Actors and Roles: Behind the Po River Basin Management System

The Po basin is characterized by high territorial heterogeneity and a complicated governance

structure in the water management sector. Roles and responsibilities often overlap and are

not clearly defined between different levels of governance and a multiplicity of institutional

actors. In 1989, Law 183 established the river basin as the basic unit within which all regula-

tory actions concerning water resource management, water pollution control and soil protec-

tion are to be coordinated for economic and social development and for environmental pro-

tection. The law also established major basin authorities and entrusted them with planning

responsibilities – like the Po River Basin Authority (discussed in details below).

In 1994, Law 36 introduced a reform under which municipal utilities were aggregated into

Optimal Territorial Areas (OTAs), which are responsible for the management and supply of

water services such as wastewater treatment, sanitation and drinking water provision. OTAs

also have to draft Optimal Territorial Plans (OTPs), which analyse the availability of water

resources and plan for their current and future use. Basin Authorities have the responsibility

of verifying that the OTP is coherent with basin plans and objectives.

Legislative Decree 152 was introduced in 1999 to protect water resources by preventing and

reducing pollution and improving water quality. It also requires regions to classify water

bodies (i.e. surface, ground and coastal waters) and establish limits for the pollution loads

that can be discharged into the environment. The Water Protection Plan, which directly

complements the basin plan required by Law 183, is the main instrument for implementing

the laws enacted by Legislative Decree 152. This decree is considered a forerunner of the

EU Water Framework Directive of 2000, as it also aims for a comprehensive action frame-

work for water resources protection by introducing measures for specific uses (drinking wa-

ter, etc.) and for specific sources of pollution, such as agricultural and industrial effluents. In

2006, a consolidated text on environmental protection, Decree 152, was approved. It in-

cludes rules for waste management, strategic environmental assessment and environmental

impact assessment procedures, and water resources protection and management, as well as

for dealing with environmental damage. The part concerning water resources protection and

management formally adopts the contents of the EU Water Framework Directive, for exam-

ple by creating river district authorities and assigning them the task of producing river basin

management plans.

31

3.6.1. The Po River Basin Authority

National river basin authorities, whose members include representatives of the central and

regional administrations, have as their main role the preparation of basin plans, which aim to

protect water resources, mitigate hydrogeological risks (such as floods, landslides and ero-

sion) and promote sustainable use of water resources in an environmentally conscious way.

The Po River Basin Authority and five other national river basin authorities (along with a

pilot basin authority) were created by Law 183 in 1989. Before 1989, the Po River Basin

was under the authority of the Magistrato delle Acque di Venezia, established in the 16th

century and then become Magistrato delle Acque later in 1907 – in charge of all water re-

sources in the northern part of Italy. It was the only body responsible for water management

of northern Italian rivers and their basins, Venice lagoon and its sea.

Over the following years, the authority on the Po River passed through different bodies alt-

hough the Magistrato delle Acque was still the body with more responsibilities over the ba-

sin – until the mid-60s when local bodies (regions and provinces) gradually increased and

limited the power of the Magistrato delle Acque. It was the Law 183/1989 that completely

dismantled the Magistrato delle Acque and introduced the Po River Basin Authority (in Ital-

ian, Autorità di Bacino del Fiume Po, AdBPo) in 1989. This new body was established by

law to enhance ‘protection of lands, water rehabilitation, the use and management of hydro

resources for the rational economic and social development, and protection of related envi-

ronment’ (Art.1) within the water basin of the Po River.

For the Po River Basin, the most important body for water resource management, together

with the regions, is the Po River Basin Authority. The Po RBA is a collegiate body in which

both the State and the regional authorities are represented, and comprises of a Secretary

General, an institutional committee, a technical committee and a technical-operational secre-

tariat. As the main decision-making body, the institutional committee includes the presidents

of the Regional Councils in the basin, the representatives of seven ministries (Public

Works/Environment, Territory/ Agriculture, Forestry/ Cultural Assets) and the Secretary

General. The technical committee, chaired by the Secretary General and formed by experts

and regional representatives, is the consultive body of the institutional committee. The Sec-

retary General, who is elected by the institutional committee, plays the central role of over-

seeing and coordinating the basin authority’s activities and directing the Secretariat. The

main objective of the Po RBA is the drafting and implementation of a River Basin Plan,

which covers soil defence, hydrogeological and hydraulic reorganisation, and water and land

utilisation within the entire river basin. Therefore, the plan represents an attempt of integrat-

ing all the water management and flood risk projects that are already in place at more decen-

tralised levels, i.e., within municipalities, provinces and regions.

The River Basin Plan is prepared by the Po RBA Secretariat in cooperation with the tech-

nical committee, and is adopted as a project proposal by the institutional committee. Subse-

quently, the proposal is published in the official gazette and regional newspapers so that all

interested parties can comment on it. The regions analyze the comments collected within

their jurisdiction and send a revised Basin Plan to the institutional committee for adoption.

After a second approval by the institutional committee, the Basin Plan is passed on to the

national level for final validation by the National Council of Ministers. In compliance with

its mandate under Law 183/1989 and with the EC WFD 2000/60, the Po RBA conducted the

drafting and implementation process for the Po River Basin Plan in 2009. The main idea was

that this document should integrate all the water and flood risk management plans that al-

ready existed at the regional level within the Po River basin. As mandated by the Basin Plan,

and in line with the objectives of the EU WFD 2000/60, the Po RBA also conducted the

consultation process that informed the Water Balance Plan of the Hydrographic District of

32

the Po River (in Italian, Piano di Bilancio Idrico del distretto idrografico del fiume Po,

henceforth PBI) and initiated a Draft Hydrogeological Risk Exposure Plan (in Italian, Piano

stralcio per l’Assetto Idrogeologico, henceforth PAI) in 2011, in accordance with the EU

Directive on the Assessment and Management of Flood Risks (2007/60). The PAI aimed to

produce a comprehensive mapping of the Po River basin’s territory, in order to identify the

zones that are most vulnerable to landslides, floods and other hydraulic risks. In turn, this

vulnerability assessment served to guide the planning process of targeted protection and pre-

vention policies. Interestingly, the provisions of the PAI had an immediate and legally bind-

ing effect on all public administrations and public entities. According to the indications of-

fered by the Po RBA, priority should be given to: (a) reversible actions to integrate uncer-

tainty; (b) “soft adaptation” measures to account for the scarce availability of resources; (c)

research and monitoring to increase the existing knowledge base; (d) building the water’s

system resilience by integrating policies in differing but relating sectors (soil and environ-

mental protection, agriculture); (e) disasters risk prevention; (f) downscaling of climate

models and projections to the local scale; and (g) information and data sharing, also and es-

pecially across disciplines, individual actors and organizations, including at the international

level (AdbPo 2010).

In many respects, the Po River Basin Authority anticipated the WFD requirements before

2000. Knowledge developed, based on data collected since 1992, allowed identification of

the most critical environmental issues within sectors, as well as development of the process

of planning and intervention in the river basin area in order of priority, with efficient and

effective results. Many critical issues have been addressed in regional protection plans, and

various measures have been implemented. Following the requirements of the WFD, the In-

stitutional Committee adopted the Po River Basin District Management Plan in 2010. The

plan must still be approved by the Council of Ministers, but some general and urgent

measures came into force during a temporary transitional period and are being implemented

by the authority and through planning at lower level, by means of regional protection plans.

The Po River Basin District Authority (RBDA) has opted for an extension of the deadline

for achieving good status of water up to 2027. The arguments put forward include technical

unfeasibility to achieve the required improvements by the deadline of 2015, and the fact that

achievement of these improvements would generate disproportionate costs. Concerning the

former, the Po RBDA states that further background studies are required to better understand

the reasons for the alteration of water bodies’ ecological status. With respect to the latter, the

RBDA states that further cost-benefit analysis is needed (OECD 2013).

3.6.2. Regions and OTAs

From the 1970s onwards, the water policy regime has evolved towards incorporating a high-

er degree of complexity, characterised by broader and multiple policy objectives. It ad-

dressed quantitative and qualitative issues, and related water to its environmental and health

dimension. The regime has also moved towards a higher degree of decentralisation, as a

never increasing number of actors have been brought in to perform water management-

related tasks. The first fundamental change with respect to the traditional system for water

resources management, whereby municipalities were in charge of withdrawing and distrib-

uting water resources, was brought about by the Galli Law (Law 36/1994), aimed at the

modernisation of the hydraulic sector and the initiation of ‘a new deal towards the privatisa-

tion of water services’(Bardelli and Robotti 2009).

The Galli Law fundamentally attempted to reduce fragmentation by charging operators (and

not municipalities) with both the production and distribution of drinking water within their

33

territories of competence. This new Integrated Water Service Management (IWSM) ap-

proach was achieved through the establishment of Optimal Territorial Areas (OTAs), de-

fined as specific relevant areas for the operation of water services, such as drinking water,

wastewater treatments, sewers, and so forth. OTAs were defined on the basis of the river

basins’ geographical limits (principle of territorial aggregation), and fell under the jurisdic-

tion of regional authorities. In addition, the reform initiated by the Galli Law recognised the

centralisation of water management in comprehensive organs denominated River Basin Au-

thorities (RBAs). These RBAs were already established in 1989 by Law 183/1989 and

charged with the ‘protection of lands, water rehabilitation, the use and management of hydro

resources for the rational economic and social development, and protection of related envi-

ronment’ (Art.1). Basically, the Galli Law provided for four levels of regulatory responsi-

bilities.

At the national level, the Committee for the Control and Use of Water Resources (Comitato

di Vigilanza sulle Risorse Idriche, COVIRI), a Ministerial body without enforcement pow-

ers, was tasked with the overall supervision of water resources management. At the basin

level, Regions and Basin Authorities dealt with environmental regulation, infrastructural

planning and benchmarking. At the sub-basin level, OTAs provided for service contract,

economic regulation, and control of performance. Finally, at the local level, municipalities

retained the ownership of the infrastructure and the responsibility for setting up the OTAs

(Triulzi 2004). In 2006, the Environmental Code (Legislative Decree 152/2006) repealed the

Galli Law, but the main legal framework for water services in Italy has remained anchored

on the latter’s provisions. Despite the model proposed by the Galli Law, the Italian authori-

ties followed Law 152/1999, stipulating that water resources should be primarily managed at

the regional level. Accordingly, the most important bodies deputed with water resources

management are the Regional Councils and the Regional Agencies for Environmental Pro-

tection (Agenzie Regionali per la Protezione Ambientale, ARPAs). Each Region enacts its

own laws, while Provinces are in charge of local implementation. At the national level, the

Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (IMELS) and the National Agency for

Environmental Protection offer overall supervision and coordination of water management

efforts (Mosello 2015).

34

Chapter 4: A River of Resources and Catastrophes

Total water resources in the Po basin amount to 80 billion of m3/year. Water abstraction

from surface water bodies is about 25.1 billion of m3/year (63%), versus 5.3 billion of

m3/year from groundwater (37%). However, different uses employ surface or groundwater in

different percentages. Irrigation mainly uses surface water (83%), while the 80% of potable

water comes from groundwater sources, the 15% from streams, and only the 5% from sur-

face water (Raggi et al. 2007). Urban runoff is unmeasured but plays an important role for

irrigation purposes especially during periods of drought. Infrastructure for treating

wastewater only partially covers urban areas, which can cause several problems in terms of

water quality and pollution. Lakes also offer an important source of freshwater, in particular

in Lombardy. Some artificial sections intersect natural branches of the Po River basin for

about 375 km (from Tanaro to Po di Goro); some of these sub-basins are used for hydro-

power generation. Artificial reservoirs along the river and its tributaries are also used for

flood control (AdbPo 2010).

The current utilization regime of water resources in the Po River basin is the result of the

process of economic development that has characterized Northern Italy since the 1950s,

which has brought to a strong increase in water demand. For example, from 1975 to 1987,

water withdrawals underwent an augmentation of 35%. Overall, the Po area has become a

strategic region for the Italian economy, with significant agriculture, livestock, industry and

tourism sectors that account for 40% of the Italy’s total GDP. However, two economic activ-

ities prevail: agriculture and industry. The Po basin is home to 37% of Italy’s industry, and

provides 35% of the country’s agriculture production. Irrigation in the Padan Plain repre-

sents the major use of surface accounting for 40% of total water withdrawals from surface

water. At the same time, industrial (excluding hydropower) and household consumption ac-

count for, respectively, 4.5% and 11% of total surface water withdrawals – these needs are

mainly met by groundwater resources.

The most important industrial activities in the area are chemicals, engineering, textiles, pa-

per, and food production. To sustain their energy needs, hydroelectric stations and some coal

and oil power stations using the water of the Po River as coolant have been built in the Pa-

dan Plain, on the flanks of the Alps. Electricity consumption in the Po River basin accounts

for 48% of the national total and is supplied by 269 hydroelectric plants and 11 thermal

power plants (Raggi et al. 2007).

The legislative framework that governs the system for the release of authorizations for water

withdrawals in Italy still comprises the “Testo Unico sulle Acque” (Royal Decree

11/12/1933) approved in 1933. It contains the regulations for large and small water with-

drawals, as well as for public use of water resources. The 1933 Royal Decree was ground-

breaking in its attempt to regulate water catchments directly, and to harmonise the scattered

legislative and administrative scenarios that had governed water resources in the recently

unified Italy. However, the problem is that the 1933 Royal Decree remained in force until

1998, while the type and intensity of water use in the country had obviously undergone radi-

cal changes well before then. In 1998, the Legislative Decree n.112 was enacted to reallocate

35

the management of public waters to regional and local administrations, provinces and town

councils. Yet, the 1998 legislation largely failed to consider water as a primary good to be

protected and managed in an integrated way. The decree treated water instead as a tool to

achieve economic development - the same way as the previous decree.

Figure 3: Water Stress by Country (World Resource Institute 2013)

Even today, withdrawal licenses are allocated on the basis of considerations related to the

availability of water resources, without taking into account the water balance of the river

basin level. Despite the relative abundance of water that the Po River basin has always expe-

rienced, the risk of conflicts over water has grown over the years. Water consumption for

agriculture and livestock is estimated to account for 67.8% of the total water availability in

the Po River basin, leaving the other economic sectors with only 32.2% of water resources

(Braga and Bertolo 2006).

The current water governance in the Po River basin shows a number of problems at different

levels of analysis. Quantitative water rights are a major factor of concern: upstream regions

use a larger amount of water than downstream ones, thus leaving the latter in a situation of

water shortage especially in summer, when lack of rainfall increases the risk of droughts. As

seen before in previous chapters, the quality of the Po River is severely affected by unregu-

lated discharges from point sources that result in water pollution. Farms that raise livestock,

such as cows, pigs and chickens, represent sources of point source pollution in the basin.

When farms do not treat their animals’ waste materials, these substances can then enter

nearby water bodies as raw sewage, radically adding to the level and rate of pollution. Water

quality problems especially concern Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy, both being character-

ized by intensive agriculture, and where water quality monitoring is scarce – resulting in the

Lambro-Olona River violating water quality standards. Downstream effects of pollution

along the Adriatic coast are also a cause of major concern for the tourist industry. (Raggi et

al. 2007)

On the one hand, the Po River basin is endowed with natural water resources favoured by its

geographical location. On the other hand, the intense exploitation of water resources in the

last decades has translated into water stress for the basin, with demand for water exceeding

natural supply. In 2013, the World Resource Institute mapped the world’s most water-

36

stressed countries. Using statistical methods to account for where water is being used within

a particular country, they brought local-level data to the country scale, looking at baseline

water stress11, as well as floods, droughts, inter-annual variability, and seasonal variability.

On a scale from 0 to 5, Italy scored 3.4 experiencing high baseline water stress. This is high-

ly relevant for the country’s economy, environment, and communities and these data clearly

should signal a call for action: Italy needs to implement more efficient management and

conservation strategies to secure the country’s water supplies (www.wri.org).

4.1. Looking Backward: A Historical Perspective from Venice

The complexity of the relationship between humans and water could be grasped early on in

Venice, highly successful in its way and at certain times a model admired throughout Eu-

rope. In Nature and Power (2008), Radkau writes:

“were one to proceed from the ideal of untouched nature, Ven-

ice would appear in an environmental history only as a nega-

tive example of a highly artificial nature. But if one uses the

prudent and forward-looking shaping of the natural environ-

ment as the yardstick, Venice in its heyday could be consid-

ered an exemplar”.

The Venetians have always been very aware that they were living on unstable ground. Rad-

kau argues that the history of Venice is pervaded by a feeling of ecological uncertainty, and

perhaps the city attained its astonishing, thousand-year stability precisely because it never

felt sure of its environment. From Radkau’s perspective, it seems like the history of Venice

could demonstrate that a certain ecological pessimism has its advantages: the relationship to

the water produced conflicting impulses toward action that forced the Venetians to develop a

diverse way of thinking. The use of natural resources in Venice gave rise early on to a quite

advanced environmental policy. As the Venetian economy developed, certain measures be-

came inadequate for solving environmental problems and this was a crucial issue for Vene-

tians; the environment in need of protection assumed concrete shape already in the Middle

Ages. In the first few centuries, the chief goal was protection against the water, draining of

part of the lagoon, expansion of solid ground for the growing population, and the opening up

of agricultural land and pastures. Later on, however, there was a change in thinking. In the

fifteenth century, draining ceased to be seen as a good thing and most of the other practices

were recognized as a deadly threat too. Environmental policy stood against whoever was

considered a threat to the common good, merchants too, even in a commercial city like Ven-

ice. After 1500, the hydraulic exertions of Venice increased dramatically and in a situation

when the city’s hegemony on sea and land was under threat, the need for a water authority

became apparent. In 1501 the authority to deal with water issues was consolidated in the

newly created Magistrato alle Acque. The new body was involved in everything and became

increasingly the control center of power; in Venice water and power were linked and the

connection grew stronger over time, especially under pressure of crises. Although surround-

11Baseline water stress measures how much water is withdrawn every year from rivers, streams, and shallow aquifers for domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses. Scores above 4 indicate that, for the average water user, more than 80% of the water available is withdrawn annually. That means companies, farms and residents are highly dependent on limited amounts of water and vulnerable to even the slightest change in supply. Such situations severely threaten national water security and economic growth – especially if a country does not have adequate water-management plans in place.

37

ed by water, the Venetians nearly died of thirst a few times in their history and were forced

to import water on boats from the Brenta River. The first and foremost reason why the Mag-

istrato alle Acque was established was the Venetians’ concern for the city’s health: the city

in the lagoon did not have a very salubrious climate and in the 1700s Goethe complained

vociferously about the lack of cleanliness among the Venetians. But this did not stop Venice

to be for a time far ahead of most of the rest of Europe in its public health policy. In 1768, an

Italian hydraulic engineer wrote: “the architecture of water was born in Italy, and it was al-

most entirely here that it developed to perfection”. Radkau (2008) writes that at the begin-

ning of the sixteenth century, the advance of rice cultivation in the Po Valley had led in

some areas to a reshaping of the landscape in an almost Chinese manner. And in the nine-

teenth century, Italy was considered in Europe the “classic land of irrigation”, where irriga-

tion technology became science. However, Radkau says, the lagoonal water wisdom of Ven-

ice remained the exception in Italy.

4.2. The Evolution of Agriculture

Land use has changed considerably over time, with increasing intensity after the Neolithic.

For example, in the central Po plain much of the original vegetation cover disappeared dur-

ing the Bronze Age (Marchetti 2002). Since the Etruscan-Roman period, agricultural activi-

ty, together with changes in climate, became the progressively dominant process changing

land use patterns. Climate directly affected the intensity of erosion and indirectly influenced

land use changes. An initial cold and rainy climate increased the intensity of soil erosion on

hillslopes. A climate warming occurred around 300 BC and contributed to the spread of the

Romans in the Mediterranean. During the Roman Age, at least 60% of the Po plain was de-

forested and converted to agriculture. As a consequence, intense soil erosion occurred as

documented by the delta increase of large rivers (Po, Arno, Tiber).

At the end of the Roman period, migration of Asiatic populations towards the west, in coin-

cidence with a cold-humid climatic change, caused a crisis for agriculture by reducing rural

populations and cultivated lands. This situation continued for most of the early Middle Age,

being reflected in a slight erosion of the delta of major rivers. From the 10th century and for

most of the Middle Age, the rural population increased together with the amount of cultivat-

ed lands. After a temporary population reduction in the 14-15th century caused by the “black

death”, demographic growth was stimulated by the feudal reorganization occurring in the

late Middle Age. Agriculture was also favoured by milder climatic conditions. Deforestation

accelerated during the climatic phase known as “little ice age” between 1550 and 1850.

Timber harvesting reached a peak in the late 1700s, resulting in considerable delta enlarge-

ment. Around the late 19th century, a significant policy change in water management was

recorded as hydraulic developments shifted from the valley floor to upland areas with the

issuing of the first laws on reforestation (1865, 1877) and construction of weirs along moun-

tain streams. The change in river management increased during the 20th century with the

issuing of new laws (1912, 1923, 1933) encouraging reforestation, slope stabilization, and

construction of weirs in upland portions of rivers.

Since the end of World War II, Italy has undergone a substantial economic transformation

involving industrial growth and development of large urban areas. The proportion of em-

ployment in the agricultural sector decreased from 45% of the total labour force in 1951 to

19% in 1971, whereas that of the industrial sector increased from 22% to 43%. This change

occurred so rapidly that it was impossible to ensure rational land use in accordance with the

availability of natural resources, water in particular. In the last decades, economic develop-

ment associated with industrialization resulted in progressive population migration from

38

rural areas to cities. Abandoned croplands are often overgrown by shrubby vegetation, typi-

cal in areas with Mediterranean climate, thus reducing the volume of sediment supplied to

rivers. Today, land use patterns vary within the different physiographic units. Alpine and

Apennine mountain areas are dominated by uncultivated lands, forests and pasture; northern

Piedmont and central and southern hilly areas are dominated by vineyards, crops and olives;

the Po plain and other alluvial plains are characterised by a variety of cultivated lands, pas-

tures and grasslands; and urban areas occupy a significant percentage of the country and are

concentrated along main alluvial valleys and coastal plains. Climate anomalies that have

recently occurred in southern Europe and particularly in Italy caused great concern for vari-

ous water-dependent activities, especially in areas where the natural availability of water has

been widely acknowledged as supporting economic development. In the northern plains of

Piedmont and Lombardy, where irrigation has been used for centuries, the decrease in rain-

fall has caused serious problems, for farmers accustomed to withdrawing water from rivers

and lakes. There are presently 500 storage reservoirs spread across Italy. The impact of wa-

ter storage has been detrimental to aquatic life, as water withdrawal is particularly intensive

in the absence of other resources. Low flows have also increased pollution levels in rivers

(Tockner, Uehlinger and Robinson 2009).

Figure 4: Land Use in northern Italy. (Wikimedia)

4.3. Hydropower production in the Alps

Man-induced alterations of Alpine streams affect water quality and quantity, and stream

morphology. Point-source pollution has been reduced, at least partially, by sewage treatment

plants, but nutrients and contaminants from diffused sources are an increasing problem. This

is due to the increased use of fertilizers and to the reduction of denitrificating hot spots in

buffering riparian corridors, following channelization, land claiming, and flow alterations. In

39

most Alpine watersheds, agricultural sources contribute to more than 50% of total nitrite

load. River discharge has been severely changed in several Alpine streams by abstraction for

hydropower, agriculture, industry, drinking water, and artificial snow, thus altering the tem-

poral dimension of the flow regime in its main components (magnitude, frequency, duration,

timing, rate of change, etc.) with cascading effects on the ecosystem that in turn affect bio-

diversity and ecological functioning. Channel morphology of Alpine rivers has been modi-

fied to a large extent in the past 200 years with effects on the longitudinal, lateral and verti-

cal dimensions. Longitudinal continuity has been fragmented in the last century by the con-

struction of dams meant primarily for hydropower production, and of weirs and embank-

ments for flood protection and erosion control. Lateral connectivity has been altered by the

reduction of river channel length and width due to land claiming for agriculture and urbani-

zation. This also caused a decrease in vertical connectivity because the hyporheic zone,

where water and organic matter exchanges occur, may be clogged by the reduction of flow

and extreme flood events in regulated rivers (Robinson et al. 2004).

Hydrological regime, water quality, and channel geomorphology, are among the most im-

portant parameters that limit the distribution and abundance of riverine species, and they

vary with stream typology (Poff & Ward 1989; Karr 1991; Cortes 1992; Death and Winter-

bourn 1995). The natural flow regime is strictly dependent from the geomorphological, cli-

matic and environmental characteristics of the watershed and its natural changes occur over

hours, days, seasons, and years. It is defined by five critical components: magnitude of dis-

charge (amount of water passing per unit time), frequency of occurrence of flow (how often

a flow above a given magnitude occurs over a time interval), duration of specific high or low

flow conditions, timing or predictability of flows (the regularity with which they take place),

and rate of flow change (how quickly flow changes from one magnitude to another) (Poff et

al. 1997).

Changes in water quantity in Alpine streams have altered the natural flow. The quantity of

available water depends on several natural factors: origin, distance from the source, stream

order, geology, climate, and by the cumulative effects of management. Management of hy-

dropower is particularly relevant in the Alps and it can be summarized in three phases: ab-

straction, storage, and release. The cumulative effect of water abstraction is a reduced dis-

charge, with frequent interruption of superficial flow which disrupts downstream colonisa-

tion by drift, isolating benthic communities, which loose resilience. The lower discharge

following abstraction changes temperature patterns which, together with lower water veloci-

ty and higher channel stability, favours the development of periphyton12, and loss of special-

ized taxa in benthic communities which become dominated by more opportunistic species.

Stream typology is not taken into account when selecting water for abstraction. The headwa-

ters of Alpine streams can be originated from glacial melt, snow/rain melt, spring-fed, and

lake outlets. The different origin generates streams with specific ecological signature, which

host different biological communities which contribute to overall Alpine diversity (Maiolini

and Lencioni 2001; Milner et al. 2001).

Though hydropower generation at a global scale is a “green” energy source as it produces no

greenhouse emissions, it has no dangerous residuals and the “fuel” is free and renewable, at

the local scale its impacts on freshwater ecosystems may be severe (Cereghiño and Lavandi-

er 1998; Cereghiño et al. 2002; Cortes et al. 2002; Maiolini et al. 2006). Storage of water in

reservoirs and dam effects are well documented (Friedl and Wüest 2002; Poff and Hart

2002) and involve modifications of the chemical and physical parameters of the water, of

12Periphyton, microscopic biota on submerged objects. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

40

downstream hydro-morphology and flow regime, and creation of barriers to upstream-

downstream movement of organisms and nutrients. All this affects the biota in the down-

stream channel, the riparian areas and related floodplain wetlands.

Finally, the release of turbinated waters to the channel may impose dramatic and sudden

changes (hydropeaking) not only in discharge, but also in chemical and physical properties

of waters. The negative effects propagate for long distances downstream of the power sta-

tions (Friedl and Wüest 2002, Wüest 2003). Benthic communities are impacted by water

abstraction/diversion and stocking (Armitage 1984; Brittain and Saltveit 1989), and also

hydropeaking (Cereghiño and Lavandier 1998; Cortes et al. 2002). Alpine hydropower

plants are typically operated intermittently, being particularly adapt to satisfy peak energy

requests. Operation of hydropower plants discharging directly into the channel is followed

by sudden, frequent and severe changes in discharge, current velocity, turbidity, streambed

stability, and temperature (Cushman 1985; Allan and Flecker 1993; Maiolini 2006).

4.3.1. Recommendations for Research and Management

In view of climate change and a foreseen increase in water demand in the Alps for hydro-

power and other uses, such as artificial snow production, it is crucial to direct Alpine re-

search to a better understanding of the changes occurring in freshwater ecosystems in order

to produce new ecologically sustainable management recommendations.

According to the European Water Framework Directive 2000/60, most river systems im-

pacted by flow alterations may be classified as Heavily Modified Water Bodies and thus

would not undergo the rehabilitation measures needed to reach a good ecological sta-

tus.These rivers would follow a different managing guideline aimed to achieve good ecolog-

ical potential and good surface water chemical status. For this purpose, better tools to classi-

fy the effects and the ecological relevance of anthropic impact such as hydropower produc-

tion and river regulation, and to define possible emendation measures, are needed.

Arthington (2006) suggests that scientifically defensible approaches are needed to define

environmental flows for the complex array of Alpine rivers, and sharing of ecological and

hydrological knowledge among the scientific community is urgently needed as extreme cli-

mate events are likely to lead to more water-engineering and to increasing ecosystem stress.

Maiolini and Bruno (2007) argue that, in particular, hydropeaking effects need to be better

understood and classified in order to recommend mitigation measures and discriminate the

Heavily Modified Water bodies from others than can reach good ecological status. They

suggest that mitigation measures to be taken into account for operational and structural plan-

ning of hydroelectric power plants should include the following considerations:

1. Stream typology is not evaluated when selecting waters for abstraction, whereas

maintenance of ecological continuity needs to take into consideration the natural se-

quence of stream typologies.

2. Headwater streams have high diversity and most ecosystem functions are maximised.

The protection of pristine low order streams of different typologies and the restora-

tion of impacted ones should be a priority.

3. Hydropeaking could be reduced by reuse of turbinated waters for further hydroelec-

tric production or for other downstream users (irrigation, artificial snow production,

etc.) (Maiolini and Bruno 2007).

41

4.4. Flood Facts

Although earthquakes and hurricanes are the hazards that usually produce the greatest losses

per event (Munich Re 2006), floods and storms occur with such a temporal and spatial fre-

quency throughout the world that, in total, they are the disasters responsible of the major

economic and human losses (UNISDR 2009a). In Europe, the countries mostly affected by

floods in the last decades were France (22% of the total events in Europe) and Italy (17%).

Most of deaths were in Italy (38%), Spain (20%) and France (17%) (Llasat 2004).

The 20th century flood inventory in Italy records nearly 3000 sites affected by at least one

flood event during the period (Guzzetti et al. 1994). In fact, for Mediterranean Europe,

floods are the natural hazard that produces, on the average, the major numbers of deaths and

economic damages (Llasat 2009; Estrela et al. 2000). However, also in Mediterranean coun-

tries, the perception of the danger due to floods by the population at large is poor (Brilly and

Polic 2005). Floods are a hazard that tends to be viewed as natural and familiar, and these

features may reduce the perceived seriousness of the hazard (Enander 2005). A “this-won’t-

happen-to-me” attitude is sometimes overwhelming (Skiple Ibreek et al. 2005). Personal

experience is the most important factor in the development of the perception of flood risk in

people living in floodplains. In fact, in communities with a “flood-culture”, pre-event adap-

tations and adequate in-event responses minimize damages (Nunes Correia et al. 1998). The

problem is that many inhabitants of floodplains do not know or do not care that they live in

an area prone to floods. Fordham (1992) suggested that inhabitants of floodplains most fre-

quently take decisions in a condition of ignorance of their exposure. That’s the reason why

most flood prone areas still increase in population density and change the land use into ur-

ban, affecting the flood regime and flood risk.

In the last decades of the past century, Civil Protection (CP) organizations have been estab-

lished around the world and this represents an important step towards the understanding of

adverse conditions, emergencies or disasters (UNISDR 2009). The Italian CP is a self con-

tained agency taking care of all the steps for the mitigation of the risk – in case of flooding:

the mapping of risk areas, the prediction and the forecasting, the dissemination of warnings

and eventually the relief actions if needed. In Italy, the Civil Protection has the responsibility

to coordinate all the agencies and governmental organizations involved within the process.

The European Commission made efforts, and still is making, to support from the scientific

and technological point of view the development of CP organizations in Europe.

4.4.1. Characteristics of Disastrous Floods in Italy

Various analysis of disastrous floods that have occurred in Italy during the last fifty years

show the peculiarity of rainfall and basin geomorphology characteristics of the northern-

Mediterranean region. Generally, the storms producing catastrophic floods have extremely

high rainfall intensity: the maximum daily precipitation often attains 30%, and sometimes

even 40% of the mean annual maxima. Outlying storms are characterized by low variability

of rainfall intensity in time and space, and by steeper growth curves, compared to storms

producing the ordinary annual maxima.

Flood events present very different features according to the geomorphology of the basins.

Excluding the Po River, with its basin area of 70,000 km2, rivers have upstream basin areas

included between 2,000 and 16,000 km2. Therefore, the mean response times of the hydro-

graphic network are short, extreme floods cause short-term erosion and sedimentation, and

hence instability and changes in channel and flood plain configurations.

42

The flooding events in the mountain streams have quite a different feature, because they

have smaller basin areas, steep slopes, and very short response times. Unlike plain rivers, the

main responsibility of flooding by mountain streams cannot be always ascribed to water dis-

charge above critical values, but often to conspicuous deposits of sediments, which occur

under particular circumstances in the streambed. During outlying rainfall storms, because of

landslides from hillslope and/or debris and mud flows from steeper tributaries, the sediment

supply to main stream is enormously greater than the transport capacity, so that the sedi-

ments tend to deposit along the stream with striking effects at confluence sites (Di Silvio

1988). Backwater effects of natural or artificial narrowing, or slope changes, reduce abruptly

the sediment transport capacity and form obstructions or natural dams, with the risk of lat-

eral spilling or overtopping with erosion or breaking, as during the Valtellina flood in July

1987. The overaggradation of the bed in many cases does not only cause a rising of water

levels, but can even bury buildings and structures located near the stream under a thick mass

of mud and debris.

4.4.2. Flood Risk Management: An Example from the Past

In the Middle Ages, in Europe, the ingenuity of humans was developing tools and proce-

dures to protect villages and towns from the floods: the case of the bourg master of the small

medieval town of Finale (today Finalborgo, in Luguria, Italy) is a good example. Finale,

which belonged to the noble Del Carretto family, which ruled the area controlling the main

access ways from Western Liguria to Piedmont for the trade of salt, is a medieval town

completely surrounded by walls, lying on the floodplain of the Aquila torrent. The opening

of the entrance of the western wall used to be the only way the Aquila River could flood the

town. A simple system of barrages, or planks, was used to close the main gate whenever

floods were feared. The decision to place wooden planks to prevent the river from flooding

the town was made by the bourg master. His decision was based on scenarios analysis, it is

to say, the adverse meteorological conditions and their potential impacts to the town. The

scenario available to the burgmaster – to make the decision whether it was or not necessary

to use the planks, which would have made the entrance inaccessible to carts, carriages and

animals – was based on the experience of the previous floods which had brought devastation

to Finale, killing animals as well as people. The burgmaster’s mind was functioning, like

today, comparing future outcomes costs. He used to close the entrance when the fear of a

possible scenario of flood was stronger than the possibility that no flooding would occur.

The burg master of Finale took his decisions based on scenario analysis, the same way as it

is done today. The main difference was that his knowledge was based on traditions and cul-

tural heritage, while nowadays scenarios can be obtained from deterministic or probabilistic

approaches based on numerical and statistical models. In our much more complex society, it

is necessary to be provided with scenarios that can be used for prevention from natural haz-

ards (Siccardi 2010).

In the last decades, the National Research Group for the Prevention of Hydrogeological Dis-

asters of the Italian National Research council has established a number of interdisciplinary

projects to enhance research in the field of disaster mitigation as well as to improve the per-

ception of Italian natural hazards (Rossi and Siccardi 1991).

4.4.3. Historical Background: Flood Control Problems

Italy has had a long history of flood protection and soil conservation schemes, which dates

back to the Roman period. Until recently, flood control schemes have been carried out main-

43

ly by structural measures which aim at improving the land drainage of alluvial plains, and

the hydraulic capacity of major rivers. Along the Po River between 1801 and 1876, as many

as 214 levee breaks were recorded; due to river training works and levee rehabilitation from

1918 up to 1990, the breaks have been only 63. As a consequence of structural works the

Italian territory became much safer from flood risk (Nemec, Nigg and Siccardi 1993).

Nevertheless, the disastrous Po flood of 1951 brought up, once again, the issue that whatever

the design flood, an exceedance risk13 does exist. In 1952, a plan of soil conservation and

flood control works, still based only on passive measures, was passed by law. However, in

the same year, some Italian engineers pointed out that the long systems of embankments

could not represent a final and safe solution to the problem of protection from floods be-

cause reinforcements and raising of levees did make disasters less frequent, but not prevent

them; when the critical discharge is exceeded and defence works fail abruptly, the inunda-

tion can assume the importance and the character of a national disaster. After the Florence

flood in 1966, a Committee for the study of flood control and soil conservation problems –

presided over by the engineer Giulio De Marchi – was set up to update the 1952 plan of

structural works with a broader view, taking into account all relevant technical, economical,

legal and administrative problems. At the experimental level a small number of tele-

hydrometric gauges were set up on larger rivers, and – as an integral part of the existing and

planned structural works – non-structural measures in the form of emergency procedures and

flood warning systems were considered necessary and beneficial. However, because of the

short hydrological response time and the heavy population and development of the flood

plains, the lead time from hydrometric measurements is not enough for the social environ-

ment to take efficient precautionary measures. For this reason, a real time flood forecasting

system had been developed in Italy only for the Po River, based on hydrometric reporting

gauges. (Nemec, Nigg, and Siccardi 1993)

4.4.4. Flood Risk in the Po River Basin

The average annual precipitation over the Po River basin is 1,200 mm. The highest precipi-

tation rates are found in nearly all Lombardy, some areas in Piedmont, and on the Tuscan-

Emilian Apennine chain. The low precipitations characterize the valleys Val di Susa, Valle

d’Aosta, Valtellina and the downstream Po Valley. The highest precipitations rates are con-

centrated around the great lakes located at the base of the mountains some 2000 – 2500 m

a.s.l.14 (Fig. 6). (AdBPo 2006)

13Exceedance: example, the probability that an earthquake will generate a level of ground motion that exceeds a specified reference level during a given exposure time. The concept of exceedance can be applied to any type of environmental risk modelling. (www.thefreedictionary.com) 14A.s.l., Above Sea Level.

44

Figure 5: Annual mean precipitation in the Po River basin by mm/year range amounts. (AdBPo 2006)

The current knowledge allows us to identify some macro-areas within the Po River basin,

which are characterized by large scale uniformity with regard to the prevailing processes of

hydraulic and hydro geological instability; some of these processes are specific and descrip-

tive of these macro-areas. In particular, the risk of flooding concerns: the plain areas along

the main and the secondary hydro graphic network, together with some associated erosive

processes and sediment deposit; and the mountain areas, characterized by prevailing stream-

like dynamic, also affected by processes of transport and storage of debris along the conoids.

Figure 7 (below) describes the prevailing processes causing flood events for the homoge-

nous areas. These processes are summarized by the AdBPo (2010) as: 1) proper flood

events, caused by gradual and natural inundation of the flood plain; 2) mobility processes in

the riverbed, with erosion, transport and sediment deposition; 3) flooding processes related

to an embankment rupture scenario.

45

Figure 6: Macro areas of the river basin with associated hazardous processes. (AdBPo 2009)

Each macro area is associated with some prevalent process.The Po Valley terminal sector is

an area of maximal expansion of the flood wave, with a flood plain surface ranging from

3,000 to 10,000 km2. Events involve the main course and can be caused by embankment

rupture and consequent progressive flooding of the plain. They can affect cities, towns and

major infrastructures. The Po Valley intermediate sector is an area of expansion of the flood

wave ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 km2. Events are often in the main course and can be

caused by embankment rupture and consequent progressive flooding of the plain. They can

involve cities, towns and major infrastructures. The Foothill Apennine sector is where events

are caused by embankment rupture or river overflow. The available area is less than 1,000

km2. The events involve the Po Apennine tributaries. The Foothill Alpine sector is where

fast flood events are caused by water infiltration or river overflow, with associated land-

slides. The available flood area is less than 1,000 km2. The events involve the Po Alpine

tributaries. The Mountain Apennine sector is an area where strong erosive processes occur

along the streams with associated landslides. The Langhe15 hill sector is where strong erosive

processes occur along the main and secondary network, with associated landslides. Over-

flows and extensive flood events along the major tributaries. The Mountain Alpine sector is

where strong erosive and transport processes occur along the secondary network, and river

overflow occurs along the main network. Major landslides affect stream flowing, fast ava-

lanches. The Sub-Alpine lakes are where progressive flooding of riparian areas occur during

flood events, and diffuse erosive and transport processes along the secondary network.

The hydraulic configuration of the Po river basin is made up of different types of streams,

running through a variegated environment, from alpine to low plains. This means that the

hydrological regimes are quite different from each other, which cause, during heavy rain

15 The Langa, which means “narrow strip of land”, is an area of wine hills and valleys between the River Tanaro and the Ligurian Apennines.

46

events, a variety of flood situations along the water network. Information on historical floods

is being used to define four major typical scenarios, based on the most frequent association

of tributaries involved in flood events (AdBPo 2005):

First type (Piedmont): this type of flood is mainly caused by the significant contribu-

tions of the Sesia, Ticino and Tanaro. The involved catchment area is the western

part. Events of this type occurred in 1705, 1755, 1857, 1907, 1994 and 2000, all of

them happened in autumn.

Second type (Lombard): the floods of the second type are due to the simultaneous

participation of Ticino, Lambro, Adda and Oglio. The involved part of the basin is

mainly the central one. Events of this type occurred in 1807, 1812 and 1868.

Third type (Piedmont-Lombard): these floods are mainly caused by the Sesia, Ta-

naro, Adda and Oglio. In this type of events, the central and western alpine slopes

are mostly involved. The floods of 1801, 1917 and 1926 all fall into the scenario.

Fourth type (whole Po basin): this type of flood is caused by the contribution of a

large number of streams of the Po River network. The initial flow contribution comes

from various tributaries in the western part of the basin, including the Sesia and Ta-

naro; while, further downstream, it is the Olona, Lambro, Adda and Oglio. Events of

this type occurred in 1839, 1872, 1879 and 1951.

The basin surface which is prone to flood hazard is calculated as 3,517 km2, which is the 5%

of the total basin surface (MATTM 2008). The river basin spreads over eight (out of twenty)

Italian regions including Valle d’Aosta, Piedmont, Lombardy (all three entirely included in

the basin area), Emilia-Romagna (with about a half of the area within the basin), the auton-

omous province of Trento, Veneto, Liguria and Tuscany (marginally included in the basin

area). Figure 8 illustrates the distribution of flood risk in Italy.

Figure 7: Percentage of flood prone areas per Region. (MATTM 2008)

47

Out of the eight regions extending over the river basin area, Emilia-Romagna is the most

risk-prone territory to floods (8.2% of the whole territory is prone to floods). The Po River

flows through heavily developed areas with large damage potential. Piedmont ranks second

with 6.2% of the territory being at high risk. Lombardy is among the six most-exposed re-

gions to flood hazard in absolute terms, with some 5.2% of the territory being at high hydro

geological risk. Valle d’Aosta is marginally exposed to floods (1%).

Figure 8: Hydrogeological risk map of the Po River basin (AdBPo 2001). The Po River Basin Authority creat-

ed this hydrogeological risk map for the river basin, classifying the risk in 4 qualitative ranges: R1 – Moderate

Risk (marginal socio-economic damages) ; R2 – Medium Risk (minor damages to buildings and infrastructures

are possible, without endangering human lives or the performance of socio-economic activities); R3 – High

Risk (functional damages to buildings and activities are possible, safety of people is not granted. Buildings are

very likely to be damaged and socio-economic activities are interrupted. Cultural heritage can be damaged

too); R4 – Very High Risk (serious harm to people and human casualties are possible. Serious damage to

buildings and cultural heritage, destruction of socio-economic activities can happen).

4.4.5. The Polesine Flood of 1951

The 1951 inundation of the Polesine region was a natural catastrophe and had major hydro-

logical relevance as, during the event, the historical maxima of discharge and water stage

were observed in the downstream part of the Po River, even though a breach occurred while

levels were rising. The 1951 peak discharge is therefore a crucial value for flood assessment

in the lower Po basin, because many studies on flood risk management in the Po River have

been based on the estimated peak discharge of the 1951 flood. It exceeded all the previous

registered events in the basin, inundating an area of 1080 km2. The discharge levels reached

a peak of 12,000 m3/s. The regions involved in the flood were Veneto, Emilia-Romagna,

Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria (Marchi et al. 1995; AdBPo 2009).

The causes of this catastrophic event have been investigated. At the time, the flood was di-

rectly linked to the intense rainy season that preceded the event. Everyone was blaming the

“crazy weather”, and the event has been considered one of the biggest natural disasters in

48

Italy triggered by climatic conditions for a long time – and still is today. Starting from No-

vember 8th, constant and intense rainfalls were registered over the whole basin. The total

amount of rain was 214 mm over 7 days (30.6 mm per day), causing high peak of discharge

in almost all Alpine and Apennine tributaries; their flood waves converged together in the

main river branch causing a fast increase in the Po water level. On Monday 12th, at Ponte

della Becca (near Pavia), the Po River reached the top discharge level at all the stations,

starting to flood the lowlands. Two breaches (near Parma and Reggio) were not sufficient to

reduce the water flow, and the distance between the dykes and the river’s mouth became too

narrow, causing the water flow to further increase. On Wednesday 14th, a flood wave com-

ing from the Crostolo tributary stream broke the levees few hundred meters from the conflu-

ence point, inundating the town of Gualtieri. Before reaching Pontelagoscuro station (in

Rovigo), the left embankment was overtopped by the water very early in the morning and

then collapsed around 8pm, followed by other two levee breaks (Bosco and Vallice di Pavi-

ole, in Rovigo) for a total length of the rupture of 736 m causing a flood lasting for about

20h. Over 8,000 m3 of water flowed out of the river and crushed on the plain (lying below

sea level) inundating an area of 1080 km2 in Polesine lowland (near the river’s delta), for 11

days. Rovigo, Adria, Caverzere and Loreo, completely flooded, were evacuated on Novem-

ber 19th. Mantova and Venice were also reached by the water, but not evacuated. Finally, on

November 20th, the flood wave discharged in the Adriatic Sea (Turitto 2004; Marchi et al.

1995; Lastoria et al. 2006; AdBPo 2009). The flood left over 160,000 people homeless,

caused at least 150 deaths and caused damages that would amount to about €200 million

(̴4% of 1951 Italian GDP) (Lastoria et al. 2006). The economic consequences of the 1951

flood were devastating for the region and the whole country.

Figure 9: The lower portion of the Po River and the Polesine Region, with Ostiglia and Papozze gauging sta-

tions.

More on the Polesine Area

49

The Polesine area, the scenery of the disastrous 1951 flood, is not exactly a part of the Po

River basin but it is strictly related to it – especially when it comes to floods and impacts.

The Polesine is a hybrid river basin, including the area located between the lower portion of

the Po and the Adige River, up to the Adriatic Sea. Morphologically, the Polesine is a wide

lowland region, with large areas below sea level. A network of embanked rivers and chan-

nels crosses the region, defining a number of sub-areas that are isolated from each other. The

Polesine is officially called “Fissero-Tartaro-Canalbianco River Basin”, and today includes

the Rovigo province and Cavarzere (in Venice territory). The term Polesine means “swamp

land”, as this area was prone to constant modification and submergence caused by rivers

flooding, before the huge drainage work carried out through the centuries. The canal Tartato-

Canalbianco is one the few Italian rivers originated from spring water. For the first 52 km of

its course it is called Tartaro, while the mid section is an artificial canal called Canalbianco,

which crosses the entire Rovigo province for 78 km up to Volta Grimana. The final section

flows into a former Po delta branch named Po di Levante, which runs for 17 km into the

Brondolo canal and the delta. The total length of the river is 147 km and it is part of the wa-

terway system connecting Mantova to the Adriatic Sea. The present morphology of the Po

River delta is the result of man-made transformations carried out by authorities over the cen-

turies. Between 1600 and 1604, the Venetian Republic diverted the stream of the Po River

towards the south, preserving the Venetian lagoon from further transformations caused by

sediment transported by the river, and from changes of the hydro graphic profile of the land.

In the 20th century other interventions influenced the basin, such as methane extractions and

sediment excavation, causing subsidence and lowering the floodplain to 3.5 meters below

sea level. Today, the Polesine territory stretches for about 100 km and covers an area of

1930 km2, including 50 municipalities. It is delimited for almost all its perimeter by em-

bankments and barriers and it is characterized by a strong agricultural connotation, lack of

forestry, consistent water projects to defend the province and also to provide irrigation, and

sparse, scattered urbanization through the monotonous landscape. The inner hydrographic

network includes more than 2000 km of canals and 80 dewatering pumps, constantly work-

ing to drain the excess of meteoric water. This system is highly stressed during intense pre-

cipitation seasons, when the inner network is at risk of flooding. The sea level rise also adds

pressure to the dewatering system; in fact, the drainage system of the basin is completely

artificial.

Figure 10: The Fissero-Tartaro-Canalbianco River basin. The area regulated by a mechanical drainage sys-

tem is highlighted in blue (Regione Veneto 2009).

50

Despite the massive amount of water defences, numerous floods involved this territory, with

the 1951 event being the most disastrous of the last century. From 1952 to 1966, some twen-

ty floods engaged the province; after that, methane extraction wells were closed to avoid

further subsidence, and defence measures were taken to avoid similar events in the future.

Figure 11: Map of hydraulic risk for the Polesine territory. (Fissero-Tartaro-Canalbianco River Basin Autho-

rity)

There are three different land-reclamation authorities operating in the Polesine area. The

Polesine-Adige-Canalbianco Authority manages the 532 km2 area between the Adige and

the Canalbianco. The Padana Polesana Authority manages the western area of 579 km2 be-

tween the Po and the Canalbianco. The Po-Adige Delta Authority is responsible for the east-

ern area of the basin of 512 km2, between Canal Brondolo, the Adriatic Sea, the Adige River

and the Po di Venezia.

It is clear that, in the same way as the Po River, different bodies are involved in the man-

agement of the Polesine area and this very likely represents an obstacle to an efficient and

functioning system.

As mentioned before, the heavy rains of the early November 1951 were blamed for the dis-

astrous event that followed; the reasons appear to be more complex than the simplistic and

fatalistic, meteorological ones given directly after the event. Coherent policy aimed at organ-

izing flood defences for the whole Po River basin was lacking at the time – more than today.

Huge investments would have been needed to improve conditions along the Po’s right tribu-

taries, which had become dangerous due to the neglect of the river basins and high level of

erosion caused by consistent deforestation. Moreover, levees had been poorly maintained

and the river’s gradient reduced by continuous deposits of detritus in the delta, leading to a

heightened risk of storm surges. Experts had issued clear statements on all these risks long

before the Polesine flood, but the Italian State reacted late and ineffectively (Hardenberg

2013).

4.4.6. Flood Risk Management Today

51

In May 1993, the Po River Basin Authority together with the NRA16 released a document

about the collaboration programme – the two bodies were working on – that aimed to im-

prove monitoring systems for river quality. This agreement had the specific objective of

producing best practice guidelines for undertaking planning, design and operating of river

water quality monitoring programmes.

In the review stage of the monitoring activities and needs, the main problems that prevented

from an efficient coordination of the flood risk prevention services were described:

Lack of co-ordination among the public bodies operating in the field of ground pro-

tection with reference to: river maintenance and waterways police; water abstraction

control; land use control; discharges control.

Inadequate legislation.

Lack of personnel and of personnel control.

Inadequate management of the State areas beside the river main courses.

The actions to overcome the problems were also proposed:

Re-classification of the water bodies to clarify the areas of responsibility of the bod-

ies involved.

Re-organization of the public bodies operating in this field.

Regarding the Po basin, the two authorities listed the main problems faced with the hydro-

logic monitoring networks:

Lack of coordination among networks existing by several public bodies.

Incompatible informative systems among them.

Lack of maintenance and control on the expenditure for minor networks.

Characteristics and total number of existing stations in the Po basin unknown to date.

Lack of personnel in the State Technical Services.

The actions proposed were:

Set up the National Informative System and start the National Monitoring Network,

established by Law 183/89.

Define common technical standards to be applied to all public networks.

Clearly define roles and responsibilities of the public bodies operating in the field of

prevention and emergency services: Civil Protection, Prefects and Police, Minister of

the Public Works, Regions and Municipalities.

Involvement of the private users of public waters, that are obliged to install monitor-

ing instruments as requested by the Administration following Art.8 of Law 275/93.

The document goes on describing the flooding problems in the Po basin: the analysis carried

out by the Authority pointed out that floods and landslides largely depend on a non-adequate

territorial management. The consequences are severe due to the hydrogeological vulnerabil-

ity of the Po catchment area. Even in case of rainfalls and hydrological events presenting a

5-10 year period, the catchment territory reveals a higher vulnerability if compared with the

past. The actions suggested in the document include: checking the efficacy of the existing

regulations defining the areas covered by hydrogeological constraints; re-organisation of the

legislative framework concerning ground defence; reducing bureaucratic procedures and

16 Established on 1st September 1989, the National Rivers Authority (NRA) came into being as a result of the 1989 Water Act and was created as a public body whose main task was to protect and improve the water environment in England and Wales and provide protection against flooding from rivers and the sea. In the 1996, the NRA ceased to exist when it was subsumed into the Environment Agency.

52

monitoring times of approval and realization of the projects planned; issuing guidelines to

co-ordinate the hydrologic monitoring networks existing by several public bodies and to

improve the flood prevention systems; issuing guidelines to re-organise prevention and

warning police services carried out by several public bodies; definition of the areas subject

to hydro-geological risk (RBA and NRA 1993).

It is interesting to see how the problems regarding flood-prone areas and flood risk man-

agement in the Po basin (and generally in Italy) have not been solved in the 1950s (after the

devastating 1951 flood) nor in the early 1990s (when the document mentioned above was

published), and they clearly still exist today. According to a recent study of the European

Environment Agency (EEA Report No 1/2016), Italy is one of the European countries most

at risk from floods, and has the largest population living in flood-prone areas. The 81.2% of

Italian municipalities face risks of landslides and floods, and up to 6 million people live in

areas of high risk. Based on reporting from nine countries, the report maps the share of pop-

ulation living in floodplain areas and - among those countries - Italy has the largest popula-

tion living in flood-prone areas (11% of the population). According to a report (Legambiente

and MATTM 2016) recently published by the Italian environmental association Legambi-

ente, in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea, since 2010

some 140 people have died as a result of flooding in the country. There have been 204 ex-

treme weather events, including floods and landslides, that have affected 101 municipalities

across Italy in the last 5 years. More than 32000 people have been evacuated as a result. The

objective of the Legambiente report is to highlight the need for Municipal Climate Change

Adaption Plans, which are plans at the city level where areas at major risk are identified and

preventative actions are taken to ensure citizen safety. Facing climate change is difficult, as

magnitude and direction of future events are difficult to predict, but it is only a component of

the risk equation. Other anthropogenic changes, such as land use or water use change, have a

significant and direct impact on the population at risk, especially in urban environments.

Moreover, while actions and responsibilities against climate change are global and time-

demanding, effective and immediate actions can be taken at the local scale, to understand

and prevent other anthropic-induced changes and reduce exposure and vulnerability. With a

local focus, clear roles and responsibilities can be defined, both for the public administrators

and the citizens. Working on a limited number of records and observations, we may not have

enough statistical bases to assert whether an extreme event is a direct effect of climate

change or not; nevertheless, global climate change is scientifically proven and it is a matter

of fact that frequency of high-magnitude events seems to be increasing in Italy as shown by

Legambiente – with cases where almost the average yearly rainfall total has fallen in just a

few days. On the other hand, it is important to consider that damages, impacts, and human

losses in cities are mainly due to the extraordinary level of exposure to hydro-meteorological

risks reached with unplanned urbanisation and inappropriate structural and non-structural

actions of prevention. Major cities, like Rome, Milan and Genoa, have been affected by re-

current flooding over the last few years, with Genoa suffering the worst. Between 2011 and

2014, as many as four extreme floods affected the Ligurian regional capital causing relevant

damages and loss in human lives. The catastrophic effects reported in Genoa were mainly

caused by the man-made obstruction and coverage of the Ferraggiano and Bisagno Rivers.

According to the EEA report (EEA Report No 1/2016), the rise in floods will only continue

in Europe. Annual flood losses can be expected to increase fivefold by 2050 and up to 17-

fold by 2080. More rain will fall as the years pass because of climate change (which will

contribute to about one fifth of future flood damage), but the majority of the cause will be

from building on wetlands. The study claims that infrastructure will have to be adapted in

order to cope with flooding in the future, and suggested that maintenance of existing flood-

plains was a key, whilst building new methods, and using river basins. One of the authors of

53

the EEA report (2016) Beate Werner said: ‘We need to free up areas for a more natural way

of flood protection, giving room for the river.’ This method proved successful after Germany

and the Netherlands suffered from the terrible flooding in 1995, when the Rhine river burst

its banks. In areas where there were fewer communities, man-made defences were destroyed

so as to re-join the river with the surrounding wetlands. The study insists that this is the way

forward in flood control. Floodplain land should be kept as it is – serving its purpose as was

intended, in areas where fewer people live. In an interview with New Scientist (2015), Wet-

lands International's Jane Madgwick said: ‘Damaged ecosystems, like the destruction of

floodplains, are the hidden hand behind many supposedly natural disasters. They can be

what turns extreme weather into human calamity.’

54

Chapter 5: Multi-level Environmental Governance in Italy, Water

The content of this chapter is based mainly on the third review of Italy’s environmental per-

formance published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

(OECD) in 2013. It evaluates progress towards sustainable development and green growth,

with a focus on policies that promote more effective and efficient water management and

provides better incentives to tackle climate change.

5.1. Key environmental trends

5.1.1. Water availability and quality

Italy`s average annual rainfall of 1000 mm/year is well above the European average. How-

ever, due to high evapotranspiration17, rapid run-off and limited storage capacity, average

freshwater availability for the population (2900 m3/per capita) is one of the lowest among

OECD countries.National data on freshwater abstraction is only partially available, but esti-

mates indicate that total abstraction decreased by about 10% during the last decade. Despite

this decrease, the rate of gross freshwater abstraction per capita is still high. At a rate of

about 30% of total available renewable water resources abstracted, Italy is classified as a

medium-high water-stressed country according to the OECD definition. The agricultural

sector remains the main water consumer, using nearly 50% of total water abstracted, mostly

for irrigation. About 19% of water is used by households, 17% by industry, and 15% for

cooling purposes in energy production.Water abstraction for public water supplies, mostly

from groundwater, has increased. It is the highest per capita among EU countries and is well

above the OECD average.Groundwater is the main source of water for public supplies and

industry. Signs of overexploitation have been recorded in the lower reaches of the plain of

the Po River and around Venice due to industrial and agricultural uses as well as gas and oil

extraction.

In some regions, the use of groundwater for irrigation above recharge rates is undermining

the economic viability of farming. In the southern part of Apulia and in the coastal plains of

Campania, Calabria and Sardinia groundwater withdrawal is the main reason for intrusion of

saline water. Average water quality in rivers has been stable, with class 2 (good) and class 3

(moderate) dominating. There has been a trend towards a decrease in class 5 (bad). In 2009,

on average 46% of Italian waterways were classified as class 1 (high) or class 2 and 81%

were in classes 1 to 3. About 72% of lakes were in these three top classes. For coastal bath-

ing waters, the rate of compliance with both mandatory values and guide values increased

between 1990 and 1999 and stayed relatively stable at above 90% in the 2000s. The number

of bathing sites closed (sites where swimming was banned) during the summer season in-

creased from 125 (2.6%) in 2002 to 310 (6.3%) in 2009, but it fell to 33(0.7%) in 2010.

17 Evapotranspiration, a term used to describe the part of the water cycle which removes liquid water from an area with vegetation and into the atmosphere by the processes of both transpiration and evaporation. Evaporation occurs when liquid water is converted to water vapour and hence removed from a surface, such as a lake, soil or wet vegetation, into the air. Transpiration occurs when water in plant tissues is lost to the atmosphere, predominantly through the small opening in the leaves of plants and grasses called stomata (www.fao.org).

55

Closing of these sites has been linked to toxic microalgae blooming, which occurs in many

coastal regions.Low rate quality is mostly associated with “hot spots” which occur, in par-

ticular, where medium or small streams drain areas with large urban or industrial centres.

The concentration of industrial sectors with a heavy environmental impact is the most im-

portant cause of pollution. Approximately 70% of livestock rearing in northern Italy has a

significant impact on water quality. The low level of wastewater treatment is also an im-

portant factor.

Figure 12: Ecological Status of Rivers. SECA Index (Index on Ecological Status of Waterways), excluding the

data from the following regions: piedmont, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Umbria, Calabria, Campania and

Sardinia. In evaluating the data, it should be taken into account that the number of monitoring stations varies

across regions. (ISPRA 2010)

5.1.2. North-South disparities

Italy`s water challenges vary across regions, as do climate and precipitation. Water availabil-

ity is low on average, but the situation differs between seasons and regions. While the north-

ern parts of the country enjoy relatively stable and abundant flows in watercourse throughout

the year, southern Italy often experiences long periods without precipitation, which result in

droughts and water rationing. From a hydrological point of view, river networks vary signif-

icantly. There are large river basins fed by the Alps in the North, characterized by abundance

of water; and there are many watercourses with irregular outflow paths within smaller basins

along the Apennine Mountains. The river network is sparse in the South, especially in the

region of Apulia. The surface water deficit has been compensated by the growing use of

groundwater and water transfers between regions. For example, Apulia that suffers from low

precipitation, limited watersheds and over-exploited coastal aquifers, has signed water re-

sources transfer agreements with neighboring regions including Basilicata and Campania.

Around 60% of water used in Apulia comes from water transfers.18 Groundwater is also dis-

tributed unevenly. Out of approximately 13 billion m3 of groundwater available annually,

some 70% is located in the North in alluvial plains, especially in the Po River Plain. Far

lower volumes are available in the South. In some locations they are close to total depletion

due to exploitation, mostly for agriculture. The quality of surface and groundwater also dif-

fers across Italy. River quality is better in northern Italy, where 70% is class 1 and 2, com-

18Several water transfer systems (Ionico-Sinni, Ofanto-Sele-Calore or Fortore) have been built to divert water resources

from the Sele, Calore, Ofanto, Basento, Biferno and Sangro Rivers toreservoirs in Apulia.

56

pared to 44% in the Centre and 35% in the South (including the islands). Around 22% of

rivers in the South – 8% in the North – are classified as poor or bad quality. Groundwater

quality shows significant regional differences: in the regions of Liguria, Lazio, Marche and

in the provinces of Trento and Bolzano, between 75% and 93% of groundwater resources are

class 1 or 3; in Abruzzo 43% and Umbria 32% are class 4 (poor). In Emilia-Romagna 57%

and in Apulia 52% of monitored points are class 0, denoting poor quality due to natural

causes.19

Availability of resources for drinking water supply is threatened by qualitative factors in the

North and quantitative ones in the South. Water supplies in the North rely substantially on

underground resources that are increasingly contaminated because of agriculture and indus-

trial discharges. In the South, the main challenges are related to limited storage capacity and

competition between different water users.The southern regions face significant challenges

with respect to water infrastructure. Water supply in many areas is inadequate, especially in

Sicily. Around 20% of households in the South complain about irregular supply of water

from the tap, with rates as high as 27% in Sicily and 32% in Calabria.Peak summer demand

due to tourism represents another pressure that adds to scarcity problems. At the same time,

the rate of non-revenue water in the networks in the South is high, reaching 47% in Apulia.

The share of the population connected to wastewater networks with treatment remains much

lower in the South, at a level of 70%, and can be as low as 55% (e.g. in Sicily). The applica-

tion of advanced wastewater treatment technologies is also low. All of Italy’s regions face

problems of aging infrastructure, but these problems are particularly acute in the South. The

average age of treatment plants is 21 years in Apulia, but some sewerage networks can be 50

years old or more.

5.2. Evolution of the policy, legal and institutional framework of water management

5.2.1. Three major reforms in three decades

By the turn of the century, Italy had developed a comprehensive policy and institutional

framework for water management. This framework was shaped by two key reforms. The

first followed the adoption of the 1989 Water Resources and Soil Conservation Act, which

helped to co-ordinate sectoral policies concerning water use, water pollution reduction and

soil conservation. By establishing river basin authorities as the basis for water management,

the Act placed Italy in the forefront of water reform among EU countries. The second wave

of reforms followed the 1994 Galli law, which helped mitigate territorial fragmentation of

water and sanitation services through aggregation and rationalization of the sector.

Since 2000, the EU Water Framework Directive has been a key driving force for the devel-

opment of the legal, planning and institutional framework for protection and restoration of

clean water across Italy, and for ensuring its long-term sustainable use. By transposing the

WFD, Italy committed to meet a number of specific objectives, including its ultimate objec-

tive of achieving “good ecological and chemical status” for all Community waters by 2015.

Italy`s 2002 Environmental Action Strategy for Sustainable Development echoed the objec-

tives of the WFD and established a number of operational objectives, such as reducing leak-

19Water quality designated as Class 0 is affected mostly by volcanic and tectonic activities. These waters are often exploited

as a thermo-mineral resource. Groundwater quality can also be affected by contamination of saline water intrusions.

57

age in water supply systems, reducing water consumption and re-using treated wastewater,

particularly in agriculture, and reducing the pollution load, particularly through wastewater

infrastructure development. Quantified, measurable and verifiable targets were also set for

the eight regions of southern Italy and for the Ministry of Public Infrastructure in imple-

menting the regional development policy and the use of EU Structural Funds.20Specific water

infrastructure targets set in 2007 included reducing the rate of water losses in the network

from 38% to 25% and increasing the share of the population served by wastewater treatment

plants from 57% to 70% by 2013.

Adoption of the 2006 Environmental Code brought the Italian legal system closer to the re-

quirements of the WFD. It introduced river basin districts, required economic analysis of

water management and confirmed the full cost recovery principle. As a result, different regu-

lations on water protection and water services are now contained in one legislative docu-

ment. However, the reform process was spread over time and, to date, the implementation of

some of its provisions is pending mainly because of difficulties in introducing and using the

new model of governance. Indeed, the river basin districts designed by the Environmental

Code, which involved the state, the river basin district authorities and the regions, required

more time for proper strategic planning and sequencing. Implementation of the reform was

re-launched in 2009, but some of the steps envisaged by the WFD have not been implement-

ed. In march 2012, the EC delivered a reasoned opinion on Italy`s failure to transpose a

number of the WFD´s articles correctly, including the lack of some measures to achieve the

“good status” objectives set for river basins before the agreed deadline and the requirement

to keep an updated register of protected areas. Italy´s failure to reply in a satisfactory manner

may lead to it being referred to the EU Court of Justice.Several water-related legal acts

adopted at the national level guided the national water management policy. However, im-

plementation on the ground has been uneven due to environmental and socio-economic dif-

ferences across the country, different approaches and lack of coherence across levels of gov-

ernment, as well as the absence of a coherent and common information frame of reference

for decision makers. Poor monitoring and evaluation of water policy outcomes, and a mis-

match between administrative responsibilities and available funding for public authorities to

carry out their duties were also important factors. In addition, it has been suggested that un-

coordinated distribution of water management tasks among several actors from different

administrative levels (including the central government, regional governments, river basin or

district authorities, ATOs, provinces, and reclamation and irrigation boards) is a barrier to

timely and adequate implementation of the WFD.

To address current strategic and legal challenges, Italy might consider formulating a long-

term strategic vision which could help define clear policy objectives, in line with the WFD,

and improve performance of the water sector. This vision could point towards more effective

multi-level governance, better policy coherence and planning (including climate change sce-

narios), more systematic use of economic instruments, alignment of river basin authorities,

comprehensive and consistent information systems and public participation, and better fi-

nancing and regulatory frameworks for service provision. The process should provide a basis

for engaging a broad range of stakeholders from the national and sub-national level in apply-

ing innovative solutions. The development of a vision for reform of the water sector should

also take into account North-South asymmetries in terms of access quality and quantity of

water (in order to rebalance regional disparities), and define the contributions and scope of

20A total of EUR 1.6 million was devoted to water from EU Structural Funds received in 2000-06. Inparticular, capacity

building of regional environmental administration has received support from Structural Funds, especially in the South (e.g.

a task force of 150 experts to support regionalenvironmental authorities and ARPAs).

58

action across levels of government needed to make water reform happen. Such a strategic

vision would require a high level of leadership and commitment to raise the profile of water

on the national reform agenda. Its development would also benefit from a bottom-up ap-

proach and public participation mechanisms to align visions across multiple stakeholders

and create collective commitment and ownership through better transparency, information

disclosure, enforcement and compliance.

5.2.2. Italy`s water reform: objectives and scope

The 1989 Water Resources and Soil Conservation Act (Decree 183/1989) set out the princi-

ples of integrated water resources management and developed a structured water policy,

while reorganising competences between the central government and local administration.

The Act was innovative in three main ways: it defined a river basin as an optimal area of

intervention for an integrated policy of soil protection and water management; it created

river basin authorities, which involved participation of both the state and the regions; and it

made provisions for designing river basin plans. Under this new law, Italy was divided into 6

watersheds of national significance, 18 watersheds of inter-regional significance, and 20

watersheds of regional significance. Later, basin-wide hydro geological risk exposure plans

were developed along with water quality protection plans, which identified the interventions

and measures necessary to reach and maintain both the quality and quantity objectives for

the water system. These plans were based on the concepts of “water balance” and “compati-

ble water uses” with respect to the use priority and both the quality and quantity characteris-

tics of different uses.

The 1994 Galli Law (Law 36/1994) aimed to improve the water supply and wastewater sec-

tor by establishing a clear-cut separation between service provision and public administra-

tion activities, and by improving overall efficiency through the gradual independence of the

financial systems and operations based on income derived from water and wastewater tariffs.

The Galli Law reduced fragmentation of water services through the aggregation of utilities

into larger multi-municipal units called Optimal Territorial Areas (Ambiti Territoriali Otti-

mali, ATOs), managed by autonomous authorities with a legal status. The reform provided

for economies of scope and vertical integration.

Adoption of the EU Water Framework Directive in 2000 prompted a number of legal and

institutional steps that aims to strengthen the water management framework and harmonise

Italy`s legal framework with EU requirements.

Anticipating the WFD, the 1999 Water Quality Management Framework Act (Decree

152/1999) introduced the concept of quality objectives for water bodies, integrated supply

and demand side policy instruments for achieving good ecological status for water bodies,

and instruments for protection of groundwater. The Act also implemented the EU

Wastewater and Nitrates Directives. Moreover, it required the regions to develop monitoring

programmes for surface and groundwater in order to establish a coherent and comprehensive

view of the physical, chemical, biological and hydrogeological status within each river ba-

sin.

The 2006 Environmental Code (Decree 152/2006) formally introduced the WFD require-

ments into Italy`s legal framework. This legal text reclassified the entire national environ-

mental legislation for pollution control, environmental impact assessment, and environmen-

tal decision making. Part III defined water environmental standards and conditions for water

resources management. In transposing the WFD, the Environmental Code divided the Italian

59

territory into eight river basin districts (Serchio, Padano, Eastern Alps, Northern Apennines,

Central Apennines, Southern Apennines, Sardinia and Sicily) and defined environmental and

public health standards for water resources. It also introduced the principle of cost recovery

and confirmed public ownership of coastal and internal waters and groundwater, which had

been extended to groundwater by the Galli Law.

5.2.4. EU Water Framework Directive requirements and status of their

implementation in Italy

The 2000 EU WFD (2000/60/EC) established a number of objectives, such as preventing

and reducing pollution, promoting sustainable water use, environmental protection, improv-

ing aquatic ecosystems, and mitigating the effects of floods and droughts(table 1). Its ulti-

mate objective is to achieve “good ecological and chemical status for all Community Water

(inland surface, translational and coastal water, as well as groundwater) by 2015 (or by 2027

at the latest)21.

Tab.1 EU WFD requirements and status of their implementation in Italy

Requirements of the WFD Status of Implementation in Italy

Identify all river basins lying within the national

territory and assign them to individual river basin

districts (river basins covering the territory of more

than one member state will be assigned to an interna-

tional river basin district).

Designate a competent authority for application of

the rules provided for in this Framework-Directive

within each river basin district.

By 2004 at the latest, produce an analysis of the char-

acteristics of each river basin district; a review of the

impact of human activity on water; an economic

analysis of water use; a register of areas requiring

special protection; and a survey of all bodies of water

used for abstracting water for human consumption

and producing more than 10 m3 per day or serving

more than 50 people.

River basins were assigned to individual river basin

districts in 2006. However, river basin districts iden-

tified in Italy aggregate several “sub-units” made up

of individual river basins. The complexity of the

country`s hydrographic system (some regions with no

rivers, others with large rivers, barriers related to the

Apennines, water transfers) has led to a complex

aggregation of small- and medium-sized river basins

that requires further streamlining.

Existing authorities assigned in 2006 and later in

2009 to prepare river basin management plans. A

report on the competent authorities for implementa-

tion of the WFD according to Article 3 of the WFD

was submitted to the European Commission, with a

delay. District authorities not established due to an

incomplete legal framework, as the ministerial decree

aggregating and transferring the competence and

funding from the existing river basin authorities to

the new authorities was missing.

Produced by the competent authority in July 2006

with a delay of one year.

21 The 2015 time limit can be extended if to achieve “good” status would be disproportionately expensive or the magnitude of improvement needed is only achievable in a timeframe exceeding the 2015 target for reasons of technical feasibility or the natural conditions do not allow timely improvement in the status of the water body. (Article 4(4))

60

By 2009, produce management plans for the period

2009-2015 for each river basin district, taking ac-

count of the results of the analyses and studies carried

out.

Encourage participation by all stakeholders in the

implementation of this Framework-Directive, specifi-

cally with regard to the management plans for river

basin districts (the management plans must be sub-

mitted to public consultation for at least six months).

From 2010, ensure that water pricing policies provide

adequate incentives from users to use water resources

efficiently and that the various economic sectors

contribute to recovery of the costs of water services,

including those relating to the environment and re-

sources.

By 2012, implement the management plans to pre-

vent deterioration, enhance and restore bodies of

surface water, achieve good chemical and ecological

status of such water by 2015, and reduce pollution

from discharges and emissions of hazardous sub-

stances.

Protect, enhance and restore the status of all ground-

water bodies, prevent pollution and deterioration of

groundwater, and ensure a balance between ground-

water abstraction and replenishment; preserve pro-

tected areas.

Management plans produced by 2010, but economic

analysis only partially carried out. Plans lack moni-

toring of the status of surface and ground waters.

Although fulfil the requirements of the WFD, the

programmes of measures to achieve the “good status”

objectives set for river basins need to be specified in

an appropriate level of detail. RBMPs contain charac-

terisation of water bodies. Water quality status is

defined, but in most cases it is based on a classifica-

tion system not compliant with the WFD, due to

delays in the transition to a new monitoring system

and delays in establishing new monitoring methods.

Partially ensured. Management plans subject to pub-

lic consultations for two months and subject to strate-

gic environmental assessment.

Partially ensured. Progress in increasing water supply

and wastewater charges. Water abstraction charges

for industry and agriculture are still low and do not

recover the costs of water services. Some users are

still not subject to a water abstraction charge.

Pending. In some cases river basin authorities are

required to prepare operational plans to ensure that

the measures of the plans are operational by 2012.

Ongoing.

5.2.4. Institutional Setting

Italy`s water institutional organization is characterised by multiple actors involved at central

government level, and a wide range of authorities at the sub-national level. The main gov-

ernance challenges lie in the need to integrate different sectoral and territorial institutions in

water strategic planning and design at central government level, and to co-ordinate activities

across diverse sub-national actors and between levels of government.

At the national level, six ministries and public agencies are involved in water policy design,

regulation and implementation. This level of institutional fragmentation at central govern-

ment level is similar to that in many other OECD countries. Since 1999, the Ministry of the

Environment, Land and Sea (MATTM) has been responsible for water policy and co-

ordinating river basin authorities. It is in charge of planning, priority-setting, and establish-

61

ing overall frameworks for water resources management and water services provision (quali-

ty, continuity, access and tariffs). Other ministries involved in water management include:

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT), which manages national scale infra-

structure (i.e. long-distance water transfers); the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry

Policies (MIPAAF), which plays a crucial role in strategic planning, priority-setting, infor-

mation, monitoring and evaluation related to water for irrigation, and agricultural practices

related to nitrogen and pesticide use; the Ministry of Economic Development (MSE), which

plays an equivalent role regarding water use by industries; and the Ministry of Health, which

oversees drinking water standards and is involved in water monitoring, including that of

bathing waters.

During most of the review period, oversight of water services was the responsibility of the

Water Resources Surveillance Committee (COVIRI), created by the Galli Law. The COVIRI

was responsible for monitoring implementation of water services, proposing rules for tariff

definition and tariff setting, as well as protecting customers` interests. In November 2011, all

these responsibilities have been transferred to the regulatory Authority for Electricity and

Gas (AEEG), which had accumulated vast experience in defining and analysing public utili-

ty tariffs.

The Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), under the MATTM, is

responsible for technical support for defining rules, norms and standards for water discharg-

es, collecting geophysical and meteorological data, and co-ordinating the action of Italy`s

Regional Environmental Protection Agencies (ARPAs), which operate in each region.The

uneven nature of decentralisation, and successive delays in implementing national regula-

tions, have generated several layers of bodies that manage water resources and provide water

services at the sub-national level. These include:

Regions and provinces, which oversee quality and quantity monitoring of surface and groundwater, design plans for water use, update planning instruments, and regu-late water service investment plans. They are also responsible for water licensing, compliance monitoring, and administrative non-compliance response.

River basin authorities, which are responsible for drawing up river basin manage-ment plans and ensuring consistency between the river basin plans and European, national, regional and local rules.

Authorities of Optimal Territorial Areas (AATOs), which are inter-municipal struc-tures responsible for contracting and overseeing the provision of drinking water and wastewater services to the population in areas under their jurisdiction. They develop technical and financial plans, select operators, decide on service levels and tariffs, and enforce water service contracts.22 All local authorities covered by an AATO ad-here to it and take part in its decision-making and management process.

Reclamation and Irrigation Boards, which control land reclamation and water dis-tribution for irrigation. They are managed by associations of landowners.23

22 The ATO authorities (AATOs) can delegate responsibilities for carrying out day-to-day activities related to provision of water services to a third party (i.e. a water operator), which may be publicly and/or privately owned. 23The size, role and type of organization of Reclamation and Irrigation Boards are not the same in Northern and Southern

Italy due to the different structures of the water supply systems. In the Northern part of the country, water supply is highly

segmented and separated among various sectors(urban, industrial and irrigation). In most cases, irrigation is managed col-

lectively through local scale farmers’ associations dedicated only to water supply for irrigation purposes, which do not have

a particular connection with urban and industrial water supply agencies. However, in the South, irrigation is managed main-

ly by large Boards, which are highly interconnected with urban and industrial water supply agencies. This is essentially due

to the fact that most important water structures (e.g. dams, aqueducts, pumping stations) are constructed for multi-sectorial

water useand their management is frequently under the Boards’ competence.

62

Local communities, which take part in the implementation of water management plans adopted by each region; their competences therefore vary across the country.

5.3. Governance Challenges in Managing Water Resources

5.3.1. Aligning River Basins and Authorities

Historically, responsibilities related to water management have rested with the regions in

regard to quality aspects and with the state (principally the Ministry of Public Works) in

regard to quantitative issues. Regions have enacted their own laws and prepared water-

related plans. The 1989 reform established a number of river basins of national, inter-

regional or regional importance. Since 1999, each region has been required to draft a water

protection plan (called Piano di Tutela delle Acque) to achieve the environmental objectives

defined by the basin authority.In 2006, a new framework for managing Italy`s waters was

introduced. It divided the country into eight hydrographical districts. These districts aggre-

gated existing river basins into larger management units. The reform aimed to increase the

efficiency of the management system and respond to the requirements of the WFD.

The 2007 report from the European Commission stated that decisions to consolidate territo-

ries previously belonging to different river basins were often not made in line with the WFD

intentions. It has to be said that the division of Italy into water districts is not optimal and

still complicates effective river management.

The 2006 reform also formally abolished numerous river basin authorities established under

the 1989 law and envisaged the creation of eight river basin district authorities (RBDAs) as

entities competent to manage river basin districts. The RBDAs were expected to take over

planning and programming functions, including the development of District Management

Plans. However, the new institutional framework encountered serious opposition from inter-

est groups and experts, including an influential NGO, the “183 Group”.24 Interest groups

accused the authorities of introducing arbitrary delimitations of the hydrological basins

without adequate consultations with the regions, inconsistency of the new framework with

the previous water basins arrangement and the European directives, and lack of transition

periods for appropriate introduction of the new framework. Due to difficulties in introducing

the new governance system, the RBDAs were not created. To fill the gap and avoid non-

compliance with the WFD, a new legal framework created in 2009 assigned the task of de-

veloping the first River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) to six selected, already existing

national river basin authorities in co-operation with the regions belonging to each district.25

In the case of the regional districts of Sardinia and Sicily, responsibility was assigned to the

regions.This type of arrangement would not be problematic if there were one authority for

two or more districts; however, in Italy the opposite was the case. More than one manage-

ment authority was assigned for a single district.While the former Law 1989/183 was coher-

ent with respect to the river basin approach, the design of the new districts introduced un-

necessary complications to an already functioning framework. For example, the Northern

24The 183 Group is a no-profit organisation established in 1995 by Members of Parliament, environmentalists, and repre-

sentatives of regions, local governments, trade unions and company managers. The aim of the 183 Group is to promote

sustainable development in landmanagement and in the use and management of water resources. 25Adoption of the management plans was the responsibility of an institutional committee withineach district, which com-

prised the basin authority of national importance and membersappointed by the regions included in the district.

63

Apennines is now managed by five different authorities, and the Eastern Alps is managed by

four.Arrangements were made to establish a co-ordinating committee, but these arrange-

ments diluted responsibilities, multiplied management layers, created competition between

authorities, and delayed the development of River Basin District Plans.

In general, the national river basin authority acts as a co-ordination authority for the regions

and only indirectly, through the regions, for regional/inter-regional basins. Conflicts between

authorities were not solved through this sequence of reforms and adjustments to the institu-

tional setting. Although the competences of each authority and administration are set out in

legislation, the lack of a clear understanding of the hierarchy between the different adminis-

trative levels (Regions, Provinces and River Basin Authorities, ATOs, Irrigation Boards, and

their respective Water Management Plans) has made interactions complex and not conducive

to addressing tensions between stakeholders with divergent views. Another obstacle to prop-

er implementation of the WFD is the conflict between national authorities and the regions, as

well as regulatory uncertainty due to the perception of continuous changes in the institution-

al framework. Indeed, when the River Basin Authorities became River District Authorities,

the central government acquired more power regarding river basin management while the

distribution of power among the state and the regions had previously been more clearly de-

fined. The district authority is now considered a source of conflict between the state and the

regions, instead of being a planning and co-ordinating authority.

5.3.2. River Basin Management Plans

The delay in identifying river basin districts and attributing competences to the district au-

thorities reduced the time available for developing River Basin Management Plans before

the WFD deadline of December 2009. To avoid non-compliance procedures by the EU, the

deadline was extended and Italy introduced specific procedures, with strict timetables, which

allowed the competent authorities (National River Basin Authorities and Regions) to devel-

op the RBMPs. The MATTM provided specific guidelines for plan finalisation and approv-

al.The first versions of eight RBMPs were adopted by the end of July 2009 and submitted

for strategic environmental assessment (SEA), as required by national legislation, and for

public consultation, as foreseen by the WFD and the national SEA procedures. All eight

RBMPs were approved in 2010.26 Some RBMPs presented a detailed analysis of the state of

surface and groundwater bodies and a summary of significant pressures and impacts of hu-

man activities on the status of water bodies.However, in other cases they fell short of WFD

requirements on a number of counts. This included: limited identification of protected areas;

limited mapping of monitoring networks and results; incomplete lists of environmental ob-

jectives; limited economic analysis of water use, investments and the determination of in-

vestment needs; and gaps in the programme of measures to achieve a good ecological status

of water bodies. The difficulties encountered in implementing the WFD reflected, in particu-

lar, the inability to provide an appropriate evaluation of measures, as revealed by the status

and content of the River Basin Management Plans. Due to late implementation of the WFD

and the national provision for the preparation of the plans, proposed measures were designed

in only a few months and their evaluation was mostly carried out in parallel with their selec-

tion and design, and hence without sufficient detail. According to WWF Italy, the RBMPs

do not present any substantial modification of the regional water protection plans (Piano di

26For each basin belonging to the district, a management plan for environmental protection of water bodies and rational

exploitation of water resources must be approved. At the same time, ahydrogeological plan for soil protection and hydro

geological risk (called “Piano di AssettoIdrogeologico”, PAI) is also required. It has a different scope and separate approval

procedures.

64

Tutela delle Acque) and the new guidelines and measures included in the plans are superfi-

cial and vague. In many cases, use of water for irrigation was not included due to separate

management structures and particular requirements. This created problems of policy co-

ordination and effectiveness, especially since in many river basins water withdrawals for

irrigation prevail. Adequate implementation was also hindered by lack of resources. The first

round of RBMP preparation was carried out without any additional resources from the Ital-

ian central government.

5.3.3. Public Participation

Public participation mechanisms and transparency in decision-making are important ele-

ments of any governance system. Mechanisms for engaging the public in the preparation of

Italy`s river basin plans have included consultation events involving authorities from the

national and local level, business, the research community and NGOs, and the provision of

information, mainly through publication of official documents on the websites of the

RBDAs and press releases. In some cases, such as during the elaboration of the Po River

Basin District Plan, discussions have resulted in the setting up of permanent panels on spe-

cific themes such as agriculture, industry, energy, research and innovation, tourism, fishing

and biodiversity. The consultation process has also been combined with SEA procedures,

which requires basin authorities to make the river basin plans available for public consulta-

tions for a period of 60 days. Although mechanisms exist for public participation in water

resource management and water services provision, experience with constructive engage-

ment has been limited, thus generating an accountability gap. Delays in developing river

basin plans have shortened the consultation period and events have focused on one-way

presentation of draft-plans, which has not allowed in-depth discussion. Public debate takes

place on the basis of limited data and tends to be passionate and confrontational.

Unofficial consultations are also carried out, particularly when actual implementation of

measures falls under the authority of bodies other than river basin authorities. They are used

to reach agreements (“river contracts”) between the public administration and private actors

(generally through their representative associations) for defining and implementing specific

measures. A number of public campaigns and actions have been carried out by NGOs. For

example, the WWF has been active in countrywide awareness raising and educational activi-

ties including the production of analytical reports on water management in Italian river ba-

sins, filing of complaints over illegal activities, and reaching agreements with other parties

to promote river restoration, such as “a pact on rivers” with the Young Entrepreneurs of the

Italian Industry Association (Confindustria) in 2001, management of the natural drainage

network with the Association for Renewable Energy in 2005, and an agreement on water

saving with the National Irrigation and Reclamation Association in 2006.

5.3.4. EU Policy Package: A Driver to Improve Water Governance in Italy

Over time, the EU has become an increasingly important driver for vertical and horizontal

co-ordination of water policy in Europe. The implementation of EU requirements has creat-

ed some incentives for policy coherence across ministries and public agencies, and for better

co-ordination across regions and between levels of government. The preservation and sus-

tainable exploitation of natural resources, as well as improvement of the quality of environ-

mental services, are priorities within the EU Structural Funds and with respect to national

resources devoted to regional development.

65

Italy introduced an indicator system called the “National Performance Reserve Scheme” for

funds allocated to regional policies in order to improve programme management and effec-

tive spending. This involved setting aside a reserve of a programme`s budget and distrib-

uting it only if specific objectives were achieved. For example, a sub-objective required re-

gions to reduce the water loss ratio from 37% to 25% by 2013. The objective of the national

programme was to improve the administration's capacity for reform, rationalise decision-

making and streamline procedures. Overall, this experience has already produced some posi-

tive results despite a variation in outcomes from region to region. There are opportunities to

broaden this experience in the water sector, and to extend it to other sectors.

5.4. Assessment and Recommendations

Despite relatively high average annual rainfall, freshwater availability per capita in Italy is

one of the lowest among OECD countries. This is due to high evapotranspiration, rapid run-

off and limited storage capacity. Uneven distribution of water between seasons and regions

reinforces the complexity of water management. While northern Italy enjoys an abundance

of water, the South experiences water shortages which are compensated by the increasing

use of groundwater and water transfers between regions. Overall, Italy is considered to be a

water-stressed country, and competition for water resources among alternative uses is likely

to increase in the future. Climate change will exacerbate these pressures.Pollution pressures

have lessened in the last decade due to improved pollution prevention and control and, espe-

cially in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 crisis, due to reduced economic activity.

However, water resources still receive heavy pollution loads from industry, households and

agriculture, particularly in the industrialized and densely populated North. Polluted water is

an additional supply constraint. More than one-third of surface water bodies and 11% of

groundwater bodies did not meet the EU Water Framework Directive objectives for ecologi-

cal status in 2015. Water management in Italy was subject to significant reform before 2000.

This included the pioneering introduction of a river basin approach, and the consolidation of

water supply and sanitation services. Despite these advances, water governance remains

overly complex, largely emergency driven, and oriented towards short-term problem solv-

ing. To address current strategic and legal uncertainties, there is an urgent need to formulate

a strategic vision for the water sector. This vision should include: more effective multi-level

governance; better policy coherence and planning aligned with national and local priorities;

more systematic use of economic instruments; a better alignment of river basin authorities

with hydrological boundaries; comprehensive and consistent information systems; and better

financing and regulatory frameworks for service provision. The process of developing this

vision should engage a broad range of stakeholders from national and sub-national levels in

setting objectives and developing innovative solution (OECD 2013).

In the 2000s, transposition of the EU WFD provided a further push for consolidating water-

related legislation, optimizing water management institutions and increasing water-use effi-

ciency. However, the measures implemented have further complicated the water governance

system. Proposals were made in 2006 to replace river basin authorities with eight river basin

districts to implement some of the main provisions of the WFD. However, they were

blocked by interest groups on various grounds which included not always appropriately con-

sulting with regions. The arrangements put in place by the government using emergency

powers made the governance arrangements even more complex, with some river basins

managed by multiple authorities. The river basin management plans that were later produced

to implement the WFD reflected the institutional uncertainty and provided little value-added

compared to river management plans prepared by the regions.

66

Building on earlier reforms, there has been a consolidation of water service providers. Fol-

lowing the designation of optimal territorial areas – ATOs – the number of water utilities

was reduced from more than 8000 to 115 over the last 15 years. This has helped improve

planning and, in some cases, establish the operation of utilities on a more commercial basis.

However, the governance of the water supply and sanitation sector remains weak and is

characterised by uncertainty and ambiguity. The authorities established to oversee ATOs and

utilities – AATOs – have lacked the means to control effectively water service providers.

The contracts between AATOs and utilities were, in many cases, poorly structured, creating

uncertainties about interpretation and conflict resolution. Participation of local representa-

tives in both AATOs and water utilities has created conflicts of interest. Efforts to more

clearly separate water utilities and municipalities have stalled. Measures to abolish AATOs

were introduced but uncertainty about the institutions that should replace them has resulted

in many continuing to operate. Uncertain and weak governance arrangements have resulted

in poor water service provision in Italy (for example, access to efficient wastewater treat-

ment infrastructure is relatively low).A body that regulates tariffs was established in the

1990s and reorganised after the adoption of the 2006 Environmental Code. However, this

body remained weak, with no executive powers or capacity. As a result, tariffs were set at

the level of ATOs. This in turn resulted in tariffs being set at levels that did not cover the

costs of maintaining or renewing infrastructure, and a lack of transparency that created bar-

riers for new market entrants. The recent allocation of water service functions to the Nation-

al Gas and Electricity Authority (AEEG) – now National Energy and Water Authority (Law

214/2011) – is a potential positive step. Drawing on the experience of managing other utili-

ties, this new regulatory framework is expected to strengthen the financial management of

water utilities, including by: reducing regulatory and legal risks,; further promoting econo-

mies of scale and the wider use of innovative financial products that could help to spread the

financing of water infrastructure over the lifetime of the assets; and introducing competitive

benchmarking of the performance of water utilities.Italy has applied a wide range of eco-

nomic instruments for water management. However, the way they are implemented has not

always led to a more efficient use of the resource, and fails to generate the revenue needed to

invest in infrastructure.

Concerning the management of water resources more generally, instruments in use include

water licenses, water allocation quotas, and various charges for water use and pollution re-

leases. However, water abstraction remains low and exemptions are numerous. The ongoing

reorganization of water management and the revision of River Basin District Management

Plans provide an opportunity for introducing a comprehensive reform of water-related eco-

nomic instruments and underline the need for reform of the wider legal framework. Respon-

sibility for setting water charges and using the revenue generated should be more closely

linked with river basin district planning and management. Monitoring and data collection

related to water quality and quantity remains a challenge at the national level and in several

regions. In the past decade, and under the leadership of the Institute for Environmental Pro-

tection and Research (ISPRA), Italy strengthened its capacity to collect hydro geological,

physical and meteorological data in order to support real time monitoring and standardise

methodologies across the country. However, there are still substantial information gaps, es-

pecially regarding water abstraction, at the regional and local level. Economic analysis is

still poorly incorporated in the development of water policies. ISPRA and the Ministry of the

Environment, Land and Sea have very few staff dedicated to the water economy. This lack

of capacity could be bridged by drawing more on relevant expertise in academic institu-

tions.Here are the recommendations for a better governance in the water sector included in

the OECD Environmental Performance Review Italy (2013):

67

Develop a common and long-term strategic vision of how the national government can most effectively support regional and local authorities in managing water re-sources, taking account of territorial disparities in resource endowments, policy pri-orities and capacities.

Streamline institutional arrangements for managing river basins, and strengthen their efficiency and effectiveness, by aligning them as far as possible with water catch-ment areas and establishing one authority in each district; strengthen their planning capacity and ensure co-ordination with national and local priorities; ensure that ade-quate provision is made for stakeholder and public participation in decision-making, and for transparency and accountability.

Apply economic instruments more systematically (abstraction and pollution charges and user fees) to support the effective management and sustainable financing of wa-ter resources at the level of river basins, including financing measures for adaptation to climate change.

Ensure that the newly appointed regulator has sufficient human and financial capaci-ty to carry out the key regulatory functions for the water supply and sanitation sector, to promote sustainable cost recovery and to benchmark performance of water utili-ties.

Strengthen the collection, analysis and dissemination of information on the economic and financial aspects of water resources management; strengthen the analysis of the drivers of, and trade-offs associated with, competing uses of water.

68

Chapter 6: Concluding Discussion

As we go further into this new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, we risk driving the

Earth System onto a trajectory toward more hostile states from which we cannot easily re-

turn (Steffan et al. 2011). This situation is novel in its speed, its global scale and its threat to

the resilience of the Earth. Indications show that humanity may be pushing exploitation of

finite natural resources and the use of the living biosphere too far, putting at risk the future

stability of the Earth, which is coupled to the regional and global use of freshwater (Mey-

beck 2003; Vörösmarty et al. 2004). Today, water security is already a key issue: we are

witnessing massive human alterations of global water resources like never before. The new

features of a rapidly emerging water agenda in the Anthropocene challenge old ways of

steady state thinking and call for a shift to strategies that can deal with complexity, uncer-

tainty and surprise (Scheffer et al. 2009). If left unmanaged, the potential implications for

global freshwater resources are shocking.

Italy is considered to be a water-stressed country, and competition for water resources

among alternative uses is likely to increase in the future. Climate change will only exacer-

bate these pressures. Water management in Italy was subject to significant reform before

2000, including the pioneering introduction of a river basin approach, and the consolidation

of water supply and sanitation services. However – as we have seen in my analysis in the

previous chapters – despite these advances, water governance remains overly complex,

largely emergency driven, and oriented towards short-term problem solving.

I started this thesis with a clear aim in mind: I wanted to describe water management in Italy

– both in the past and today - and I wanted to use history to do that, tracing back a few spe-

cific events. Events that show how, the way Italians used to perceive water and relate to it

has changed dramatically over the centuries – having a huge impact on the way water was

used and managed. First, I chose to praise Venetians for their exemplar way of consciously

“living with water” – and not trying to impose control on it – at the same time developing a

quite advanced environmental policy early on. Venice owes its outstanding reputation as one

of the world`s prime destinations, and this is also because it is a city that has managed to

benefit from water but never forgot to protect it. Venetians have acknowledged the power

and the danger of water from the Middle Ages, and wisely negotiated with it. We have seen

how, learning from their mistakes, Venetians have listened to what water was telling them

and have changed their way to live around it. They have not stubbornly gone against nature,

they have adapted to nature’s needs. Today Venice is not doing as well as it used to, and the

reason is that when the Serenissima ceased to be independent and became part of the reign

of Italy, it was not Venetians only that dealt with their water anymore – it was Italy as well.

Following the Venetians’ example, I then dedicated almost a whole chapter to floods. If you

talk about the Po River, it is inevitable that people think about flooding. People who grew

along the Po’s shores, people who have harvested in the Po Plain, people who drive every-

day by the Ponte Po – the bridge that links Piacenza to Milan -, or even people who only

heard about the Po’s majesty but never even had a glance at it, everyone knows that the Po is

69

as much a river of resources as one of catastrophes. In chapter 4, I focused on one flood

event in the specific - the Polesine flood occurred in 1951. This was one of the most destruc-

tive floods recorded from the 1950s until today. The interesting thing about the 1951 flood is

that, even though its economic and social consequences were devastating for years to follow,

it did not seem to be a reason of concern for Italians. The reasons behind the 1951 flood

were way more complex than the simplistic and fatalistic meteorological ones given after the

event. At the time, human activities in the area were putting pressure on the river and a co-

herent policy aimed at organizing flood defences for the Po was still lacking. General river

maintenance was also neglected and the Italian government never considered that to be a

priority – not even after the Polesine flood. In 1951, Italians were “surprised” when the

Polesine area was inundated but they have not blamed themselves once. Nature has a mind

of its own, and people do have limits when dealing with it. Italians do not appear to have

understood that, considering that after 1951 many more floods occurred (mainly in the

northern part of Italy) and legislation that regulates floods today is still very inefficient.

The last chapter of my thesis is a long and fully detailed description of the evolution of water

management in Italy in the past century. As I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, this

is based on the OECD Environmental Performance Review of Italy published in 2013. I rea-

soned my work would have benefited from a jump to the present, after a few examples from

the past, and I presented the data as found. I intentionally left myself out of that chapter be-

cause I wanted the OECD information to come out as much objective as possible. The 2013

OECD third review on Italy’s water performance shows very well how Italy has dealt with

water management in the 20th century, mostly failing within the implementation phase. The

complicated network of actors involved in the management of the Po River, for example, has

made the river very difficult to manage and a source of conflict among water users, the Gov-

ernment itself, the decentralised water bodies with undefined and unclear responsibilities,

NGOs, environmentalists, scientists, etc. Over the centuries, the Po River has turned from a

river of dreams, to a river of conflicts.

As it is clear in Chapter 5, Italy needs to urgently formulate a strategic vision for the water

sector, outlining how the national government can most effectively support regional and

local authorities in managing water resources, taking into account of territorial disparities in

resource endowments, policy priorities and capacities. Streamlining institutional arrange-

ment for managing river basins should be accompanied by a strengthening of their efficiency

and effectiveness.

I agree with Rockström et al. (2014), when they argue that for a transformation to the sus-

tainable use and management of water and ecosystem services, inertia in governance and

management structures and systems will have to be overcome, which will require experi-

mentation with resilience-based approaches to integrated water-resource management and

ultimately a deep mind shift towards a new social-ecological water paradigm, where stew-

ardship of water in support of human prosperity is pursued within the safe operating space of

a stable planet. Global environmental change, where water plays a central role in dampening

or reinforcing feedbacks as climate change interacts with the biosphere, demonstrates the

urgent need to increase our understanding of the role of water for ecosystem and biosphere

resilience.

Certainly, water management in Italy needs a long-term vision, a consistent implementation

and a better governance; but a shift in thinking is also essential. A shift in thinking about

water, in which much stronger emphasis is placed on managing water for social-ecological

70

resilience and sustainability, and where we understand the inter-linkages between societies,

ecosystems and the Earth, is necessary.

It appears clear that to succeed with a better water governance in Italy, a mind shift in water

thinking must take place, as well as a change in our views on “the environment”. The key is

to shift away from yesterday`s focus on how to reduce environmental impacts of human ac-

tivities, towards reconnecting our societies with nature – in order to develop within the safe

and operating space of a stable and resilient Earth system.

71

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