Water Action Plan for the Piemonte Region, Italy

Abstract

The EU member States have started to implement the long discussed European Water Framework Directive. This Directive seeks to protect and improve the terrestrial environment through a sustainable use of water resources and introduction of protective measures. The water resources authority of each defined river basin district is required to analyze the water environment and introduce measures to improve it if necessary. Such an analysis is carried out for the Piemonte Region, Italy, with emphasis on agricultural and industrial load to the groundwater and surface water system. The region covers an area of more than 25.000 km2 and several water resources numerical tools have been applied as support for the planning. Models for plant growth and nitrogen consumption, groundwater and surface water flow and quality and overall water and solute balances are introduced. The models are applied to investigate various schemes for reorganization and/or rationalization of the water use in the region with a focus on the overall water management and water budget as well as water quality. The paper describes the development of the various models for the Piemonte Region.