SWAMRISK – Subsurface WAter monitoring and Management to prevent drought risk in coastal systems
Interreg Italy-Croatia Programme 2021-2027
The Mediterranean region is subject to increasing pressures induced by climate change. The increased frequency of droughts and the spread of saline contamination in aquifers and soils are among the primary concerns. In the Adriatic coastal areas, oriented towards tourism and agriculture, water supply for the population and economic activities is increasingly at risk.
In the context of climate change, the availability of groundwater resources in poorly studied onshore and offshore areas, often affected by saline intrusion, could be crucial to addressing drought crises. It is therefore crucial to identify, quantify, and manage these freshwater and low-salinity resources through sustainable coastal environmental actions.
The overall objective of SWAMrisk is to increase knowledge of the impact of climate change on Italian and Croatian coastal aquifer systems, in the Veneto and Neretva regions. This falls within specific objective 2.1 of the Priority Programme: "Promoting climate change adaptation and disaster risk prevention, taking resilience into account through ecosystem-based approaches."
To forecast the short- and long-term availability of groundwater resources at Italian and Croatian sites, monitoring networks will be developed, hydrogeological surveys conducted, and modeling simulations will be conducted. Furthermore, a "hydro-cloud" will be created containing information on the characterization of the study areas, monitoring results, hydrogeological model outputs, and aquifer vulnerability maps associated with drought, salt intrusion, and sea level rise.
Project partners::
PP8: National Research Council – Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (CNR IGG), Italy
LP: University of Split, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy (UNIST-FGAG), Croazia
PP2: Regione del Veneto (VR), Italia
PP3: M3E srl (M3E), Italia
PP4: Regional Development Agency Dubrovnik-Neretva County (DUNEA), Croazia
PP5: Croatian Water – Water Management Institute (CW), Croazia
PP6: Aequum Ltd (AEQUUM), Croazia
PP7: Land Reclamation Authority Adige Euganeo (AE), Italia