DESERTIFICATION IN BASILICATA AND THE PROGRAMME INTERREG III B MEDOCC
The "Dipartimento Ambiente,Territorio e Politiche della Sostenibilità" involved in the Project since its establishment has promoted several initiatives against desertification and drought:
1. Regional Plan to Combat Desertification and Drought in Basilicata (approved by the D.G.R. n. 418 of the 27th March 2002).
2. Partner of the Project "Ippolito", coordinated by E.S.A. – ESRIN, whose end was to monitor the forest ecosystems, the wetlands and the arid zones by means of remote sensing.
3. Participation, as focal point, to the Project DESERTLINKS, in collaboration with the "Dipartimento Tecnico Economico per la Gestione del Territorio Agricolo-Forestale of the University of Basilicata".
4. Partner of the Project DESERTNET, in collaboration with the "Dipartimento di Produzione Vegetale" of the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Basilicata where actions of training,  participation, sensitisation, information, and  coordination towards local people and institution were carried out.
5. Convention with the Italian National Committee to Combat Desertification and Drought to carry out local actions in cooperation with other Italian Regions at desertification risk.

Activities foreseen by The Region Basilicata for the Project DesertNet II

The activity in the frame of the Project DesertNet II will be composed of two actions
Action 1– Forests and natural environments (responsible prof. Agostino Ferrara).
Action 2 – Water Sustainable Management with special concern to salinisation processes (responsible prof. Cristos Xiloyannis).  

Action 1
The main objective of this activity is the analysis of environmental sensitivity with particular regards to forests and natural environments. In this ambit the soil-water-vegetation system dynamics will be analysed, taking into account the role of forest on water draining, soil conservation and more in general, on the forest soil hydrological balance and to evaluate soil moisture ratio.
The definition of the environmental sensitivity will be forwarded on the base of the Desertification map of the Basilicata Region  (developed through the ESA methodology) and the forestry map of the Region. Main phases of the work are:
• Data collecting and updating, setting up of the whole data-base;
• Data analysis and evaluation of different environmental sensitivity levels for the forests of the Basilicata region;
• Evaluating the key elements of the environmental sensitivity of the Basilicata Region forests.

Action 2

In the Metaponto area, the amount of salts and mineral elements deposited in the soil every year by irrigation  (approximately 5-6000 m3 of water per hectare) is far in excess of plant requirements. High evaporative demand, insufficient rainfall, loss of  soil fertility, continuous tillage and low water-drainage are all factors that hinder the leaching of salts from the soil.Our objective is to monitor orchards in this area irrigated over the last 15 years by drip or microjet systems and with water from different sources. An evaluation of orchard management systems will indicate strategies to check salinization  and  techniques for sustainable water  management.

CONTACTS

Responsible: dott. Andrea Freschi – Phone no. 0971 668849; fax 229082; e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Referent: arch. Paolo Baffari – Phone no. 0971 669022; fax 0971 669082; e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Technical referent: geom. Luciano Abruzzese – Phone no. 0971 669030; fax 0971 669082; e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Scientific referent for the pilot actions:
Prof. Cristos Xiloyannis – mobile 329 3606262; e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Prof.. Agostino Ferrara – mobile 329 3606257; e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

UNIVERSITY OF BASILICATA
Prof. Agostino Ferrara
Full Professor: Forest management, Forest inventories
Dipartimento di Scienze dei Sistemi Colturali, Forestali e dell’Ambiente
Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano
85100 Potenza  - Italia

mobile  +393293606257
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www.unibas.it/utenti/ferrara