On Friday 18th November 2022 representatives of the NEXUS-NESS Consortium from Università degli Stranieri di Perugia, Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Madrid (Spain), Institute Agro-Sol (France), Institute Regions Aride de Medenin (Tunisia), and Università di Firenze visited the Italian Nexus Ecosystem Lab in Val di Cornia. The visited started at the Guardamare wastewater treatment plant in San Vincenzo, thanks to the support of the water utility ASA spa. The site visit helps the participants to get insights on tertiary treatment processes, energy consumption and maintenance costs for the use of reclaimed water in irrigation areas. The Mayor of Suvereto municipality, Jessica Pasquini, and the president of the Land Reclamation and Irrigation Consortium Toscana 5, Giancarlo Vallesi, participated to the light lunch and presented their vision on the need to integrate at planning level water resources management with management of energy production and consumption, with special regard to agricultural production. Rudy Rossetto, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, then drove the Consortium to visit the Suvereto Managed Aquifer Recharge scheme built within the framework of the EU LIFE REWAT project. Participants were interested in this nature-based solution to provide water at low costs and with no environmental impacts. The tour ended at the Otello Poeta Farm, where rainwater harvesting schemes are in place in order to recover water for irrigation and to control the high Boron contents in groundwater, potentially causing damages to irrigated crops grown in greenhouses.
