The ARPA-SIM Emilia Romagna is strongly engaged in studies and projects to combat desertification. A comparative study among surface water availability and human needs has been carried out for the Basin Authority of the Reno in the river Santerno valley. The main aim of the activity was to identify useful tools/methods to support decision makers for: i) planning and controlling water withdrawals, especially for  agriculture and in the frame of the dispositions established by national laws (Italian National Law no.152/99), ii) reorganising the agriculture sector in order to minimize the gap between the demand and the availability but, at the same time, keeping high the production in the primary sector and protecting the river ecosystem.
ARPA-SIM has been involved in several European projects such as  the Project DEMETER concerning  the use of seasonal forecasting for agriculture practices planning, especially to protect plant species and for irrigation purposes. In the frame of the National Italian Programme for Research in Agriculture named CLIMAGRI and supported by the Italian Ministry for Policies on Agriculture (MiPAF), ARPA-SIM has been involved in modelling the water balance by means of the model CRITERIA as a useful tool for water resources management and for studying the evolution of future scenarios that can be foreseen on the basis of global warming. L’ARPA-SIM Emilia Romagna has also been a partner of the Projet DesertNet.

Activities in the frame of the Project DesertNet
"Local water balances linked to seasonal forecasting models and to the elaboration of future scenarios; their application in the sensitive areas to desertification localised in the thematic cartography of reference”

The main aim of the activity carried out by ARPA-SIM in the frame of the Projet DesertNet has been to identify useful tools/methods to support decision makers for the management of the agronomic sector. The results coming from the action have been the following:
1. Implementation and calibration of the water balance model at a basin scale (CRITERIA), integrated with other data layers  (ex.: regional cartography of soils at scale 1:250.000) et new routines (ex.: use of the interpolation and rendering program GS Surfer and of the data from remote sensing to soil use localisation; use of the data obtained from the models applied to climatic scenarios);
2. Application of the water balance model integrated with remote sensing data in a chosen sample area (Valle del Lamone) already identified in the Italian National Action Plan to Combat Desertification as highly sensitive area to desertification processes, in order to study the evolution of water needs in the agronomic sector related to future climatic scenarios;
3. Computer and information tools to disseminate results and sensitisation of farmers to the thematic of desertification such as, for instance: web site especially made, CDs on the project results, article publication of articles on scientific journals and organisation of a regional event.

Contacts:
Lucio Botarelli - Phone no.: 0039 051 6497565 - Fax: 0039 051 6497501 - E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - web site: http://www.arpa.emr.it/ia_siccita/desertnet.htm