WAT-CHANGE Water-related ecosystem services for adapting societies to climate change
One week dedicated to nature-based solutions for adapting to climate change
The first edition of the WAT-CHANGE Seasonal School dedicated to the role, use and design of nature-based solutions for combating and adapting to climate change closed on October 20th. International students from China, Kazakhstan, India, Turkey, Germany, Slovenia and Italy attended the Seasonal School, co-organised with the H2020 PRIMA NEXUS-NESS project, and supported by ERM Italy.
While climate change is setting traditional water resources management at risk, there is an urgent need to devise low-energy, low-impact solutions to adapt the environment, societies and economies to this threat. Nature-based solutions were recognized in 2021 by the Council of the European Union as one of the main tools to combat climate change (https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021/06/ 10/council-endorses-new-eu-strategy-on-adaptation-to-climate-change/).
The WAT-CHANGE seasonal school, coordinated by Dr. Rudy Rossetto of the Crop Science Research Center of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, therefore had the objective of introducing participants to nature-based solutions for water supply, water treatment and flood risk mitigation, such as managed aquifer recharge, river restoration, constructed wetlands, sustainable drainage systems and the remediation of contaminated sites using phytoremediation techniques.
The course was based on 20 hours of interactive and interdisciplinary learning from the academic and professional world together with 8 hours of laboratory exercises. A filed trip took place, supported by the Consorzio di Bonifica 5 Toscana Costa and ASA Spa, to visit the blue/green infrastructures of the Val di Cornia area. This territory was recently recognized by UNESCO (Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme) as a site of global interest for ecohydrology.
The final workshop “Nature-based solutions in the real world. Application, case studies and market prospects“, organized within the INTERREG REs_EAU project, allowed the students and over 100 participants to gain knowledge of the technical solutions and their application status, together with the present regulatory framework and the prospects of the market. The Seasonal Schools are short, intensive, excellence training programmes, strongly interdisciplinary, and focused on the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna frontier research topics. They are open to University students enrolled in Bachelor Degree, Masters’ Degree and PhD courses, with same grade characteristics as the School’s students. The Seasonal Schools are also opportunities for meetings and exchanges with other high-performing students from all Italy as well as from abroad, to get experience of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna facilities and laboratories.
