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Environmental Management
Published in: Environmental Management 4/2012

01-10-2012

Agro-Ecological Analysis for the EU Water Framework Directive: An Applied Case Study for the River Contract of the Seveso Basin (Italy)

Authors: Stefano Bocchi, Daniele La Rosa, Paolo Pileri

Published in: Environmental Management | Issue 4/2012

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Abstract

The innovative approach to the protection and management of water resources at the basin scale introduced by the European Union water framework directive (WFD) requires new scientific tools. WFD implementation also requires the participation of many stakeholders (administrators, farmers and citizens) with the aim of improving the quality of river waters and basin ecosystems through cooperative planning. This approach encompasses different issues, such as agro-ecology, land use planning and water management. This paper presents the results of a methodology suggested for implementing the WFD in the case of the Seveso river contract in Italy, one of the recent WFD applications. The Seveso basin in the Lombardy region has been one of the most rapidly urbanizing areas in Italy over the last 50 years. First, land use changes in the last 50 years are assessed with the use of historical aerial photos. Then, elements of an ecological network along the river corridor are outlined, and different scenarios for enhancing existing ecological connections are assessed using indicators from graph theory. These scenarios were discussed in technical workshops with involved stakeholders of the river contract. The results show a damaged rural landscape, where urbanization processes have decimated the system of linear green features (hedges/rows). Progressive reconnections of some of the identified network nodes may significantly increase the connectivity and circuitry of the study area.
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Footnotes
1
Due to the unavailability of one of the original aerial photos, it was not possible to assess the entire river buffer and to quantify land use changes along the entire study area. However, this problem does not limit the further step of identifying scenarios of ecological restoration because the scenarios are based on the reconnection of actual agro-ecological structures.
 
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Metadata
Title
Agro-Ecological Analysis for the EU Water Framework Directive: An Applied Case Study for the River Contract of the Seveso Basin (Italy)
Authors
Stefano Bocchi
Daniele La Rosa
Paolo Pileri
Publication date
01-10-2012
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Environmental Management / Issue 4/2012
Print ISSN: 0364-152X
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1009
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9925-3

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