Conference - The experience of the LIFE RII Project: objectives and findings

The conference, organized in the final phase of activities under the European funding, has made the point on the actions carried out, the achieved objectives and outlined the future steps after the end of the LIFE RII Project.

The event was divided into a first morning session dedicated to LIFE RII, while the afternoon was dedicated to three guests LIFE projects.

 Conference programme (ITA) (212.62 KB)

 Conference poster (2.41 MB)

 Picture gallery

The first session

The morning session was opened by Paola Gazzolo, Councilor for soil and coast protection, civil protection and for environmental and mountain policies of the Emilia-Romagna Region, and Franco Zambelli, Special Commissioner of the Central Emilia Reclamation Consortium, who led to the present greetings of Administrations.
It has been confirmed once again the importance that this innovative project has played in regional, having been the first who trod the commissioning of security issues in small streams called "minor", enhancing the environment around them and promoting biodiversity conservation.
The project has had great success in Europe for the innovative features that distinguish it.

Subsequently, Andrea Tagliavini, Mayor of Quattro Castella, speaking on behalf of the four municipalities involved, explained the work carried out by local authorities in the different phases of the project.

With a brief ceremony, the "RII Covenant” was signed officially, an agreement built on the example of "River contracts", a voluntary commitment signed by various public and private entities, various interested on watercourses, which identified ways to pursue shared objectives of environmental restoration, landscape and socio-economic evaluation of the system of small canals situated in the territory of the four municipalities of Albinea, Bibbiano, Quattro Castella and San Polo d'Enza.

They have given rise to this agreement, during the conference, the representatives of all institutions and local governments involved in the project, representatives of citizenship, to which was added the councilor Paola Gazzolo, representing the Region.

Councilor Gazzolo then announced that now, at the end of the project itself, for the future management of the smaller streams, the canals and build a network of economic, human resources, knowledge and techniques necessary to achieve more results effective, they will be holds the capacities of the maintenance of the network of the four municipalities that participated in the LIFE RII project to the Central Emilia Reclamation Consortium with an experimental special agreement signed with the Region.

With an introductory technical intervention, Monica Guida, Head of the Soil, coast and reclamation Service of the Emilia-Romagna Region, briefed the audience of those present all the actions undertaken in the course of almost four years have elapsed since the operating LIFE RII, focusing in particular on the role of the innovative partnership between the different bodies involved and the importance played by one hand from the experimentation of new solutions, the other by sharing and public participation in the decisions then made.

Speech is then passed to Aronne Ruffini, technician of the Central Emilia Reclamation Consortium, which illustrated in detail the design approach followed, interventions developed, the problems faced during the construction phase and the individual prototypes.

Marco Monaci, technician of the Central Emilia Reclamation Consortium, then continued the speech illustrating the first results obtained by the interventions, with a emphasis on morphological findings detected in the country, and comparing them with what is expected to start work.

The morning session then continued with the contribution by Alessandra Castellini and Alessandro Ragazzoni, researchers of the University of Bologna, who explained in detail the work carried out in the scope of the project dedicated to finding innovative ways legal - administrative management territory.
In particular, it has been illustrated the legal principles and evaluation at the base of the calculation model of a "flooding servitude" for the management of agricultural land for the purposes of mitigation of hydraulic risk and environmental requalification, and its applicability to real cases, even outside the territory covered by LIFE RII. This innovative tool could then become an effective and economically viable to more "traditional solutions" in the future, such as the expropriation of land for the construction of lamination  areas.
The last speaker of the morning, edited by Leonardo Altieri and Giulia Iotti of the Department of Sociology, University of Bologna, has been dedicated to the effectiveness of participation in actions and communications undertaken during the project.
The two speakers explained the quantitative and qualitative monitoring work carried out, highlighting the strengths, weaknesses and future prospects obtainable participatory experience in LIFE RII, providing insights useful to optimize future similar activities.
The morning session ended, finally, with a debate among participants.

The afternoon session

The afternoon was devoted to networking with other European projects.
The first project, curated by Marco Fabbrizzi and Chiara Marchina, explained in detail LIFE REWAT.
This interesting project, born from the territories concerned, aims to implement a series of demonstration projects for the sustainable management of resources, structural (pilot intervention) and non-structural (awareness and training) measures, which, accompanied by preliminary cognitive insights and a monitoring program, will form the basis for a governance path (the Basin Agreement) aimed at the shared participation of a medium / long-term strategy for sustainable water management in hydrogeological system of the Cornia Valley.
The speech is then passed to Carmela Vaccaro, who illustrated LIFE WARBO.
The project has the aim to preserve, protect and enhance the water and terrestrial, through the adjustment of the artificial recharge of aquifers and the analysis of different application methodologies.
In particular, we illustrated the ongoing activities at the pilot sites in the Western portion of the Friuli plain (in the province of Pordenone) and Emilia Romagna in the municipality Copparo (in the province of Ferrara).

 The last contribution, by Francesca Staffilani and Giampaolo Sarno, was dedicated to LIFE HelpSoil.
This project (which LIFE RII has started a collaboration few months ago) aims to increase the role of agriculture in combating the hydrogeological promoting conservation agriculture techniques in pilot sites of northern Italy.
Even the work of the afternoon ended with a debate among participants.
The event was well attended (about 130 total admissions), comprising technicians from public institutions, professionals, representatives of associations and numerous university students.

Presentations:

First session

Afternoon session