Hydrological cycle of the CADSES regions

Partners

• National Consortium of Universities for the Physics of Atmospheres and Hydrospheres - CINFAI

  C.I.N.F.A.I. (International Consortium of Universities for Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Physics ) is a national consortium of Italian universities devoted to Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Physics. The Consortium was founded in 1997 at the University of Torino (Department of Physics) where it still has its legal headquarters.
  Its primary objective was promoting and coordinating the research activity of the eight constituent universities in the context of national and international activity, in cooperation with public and private research institutions as well as the industrial and service sector, etc.
  Today, having the same basic purpose, CINFAI brings together twenty universities which are distributed throughout Italy and organized in research units (each with its specific scientific focus) that can operate together as well as individually.

  
  Fields of intervention of the institution and its past experience in trans-national co-operation actions 
  The National Consortium of Universities for the Physics of Atmospheres and Hydrospheres ( CINFAI) is a consortium of about 20 Italian universities with a well established academic tradition in Meteorology, Oceanography and Hydrology. CINFAI has a long experience in international research projects concerning the atmospheres and the hydrospheres, including EU research (V Framework, Voltaire just to give a recent example) and INTERREG II C (Drought prevention). CINFAI is currently operating as project leader, main contractor, etc. in several national projects.  
   
   Specific role of the partner in the implementation and management of the project:

     Being the LP of HYDROCARE, CINFAI will perform the following managing activities:
  Continuous coordination ad management of the project: check of the technical status of the project, contacts with the European bodies (especially JTS) and with the PP representatives. Organization of the meetings of the Assembly of Partners and of the Managing Committee.
   
  Organization and management of the administrative aspects of the project: basic administrative duties, definition of the terms of joint convention, check of the financial status of the project, financial flux management, contacts with the Managing and Payment Authorities.
   
  CINFAI will also take care of the following activities related to publicity and dissemination:
   
  Organization of conferences and seminars during the project duration to disseminate the obtained results. Preparation of publications both in paper and multimedia formats. Training activities. Development and maintenance of a web-site containing all the information regarding the project.
   
  The more technical activities can be enucleated as follows: 
   Reconstruction of the large-scale hydrological cycle in the CADSES area by high-resolution model-assisted climatological definition of the tropospheric flux of water of Mediterranean origin. Analysis of mean state, variability and extreme events.
   
  Statistical intercomparison of the reconstruction of the hydrological cycle in the in the CADSES area as obtained from models of different level of complexity. Analysis of the differences between forecast and climate models in the definition of the seasonal climatology as well as of the statistics of the extreme events.
   
  Why is this partner essential for the success of the project? 
  PP1 is essential for the success of the project because it has a deep experience both in managing, technical, and dissemination activities at national and international level. Previous experiences in European projects and especially within the INTERREG context has proved successful and satisfying for all the partners involved, for the direct beneficiaries of the projects, and in terms of longer terms effects. Moreover, its very nature of being a consortium of universities at national level in the field allows it to find an excellent level of expertise in the various sectors of activity. Finally, it has to be emphasized that the very scope of the consortium is to have a direct connection with the local authorities and to perform activities with direct impact at economic, environmental and societal levels.

  Coordinator	acts as project coordinator
  Type
  Country	Italy
  Web site	http://www.cinfai.it
  Contact	Dr. Donato Di Camillo, Position: General coordinator of the project Phone/fax: +39.0737 402375, +39.0737 402376 Email: donato.dicamillo@unicam.it ; donato.dicamillo@cinfai.it ; pp1@hydrocare-cadses.net

• National Agency for the Environmental Protection and Technical Services - Department of Internal and Marine Waters Protection

  Fields of intervention of the institution and its past experience in trans-national co-operation actions 
  The National Agency for Environmental Protection and the Technical Services (APAT) mission is to perform technical and scientific activities of national interest to protect the environment. APAT main areas of intervention include: environmental monitoring and control; soil and water protection; coastal management; collection of environmental data at national level; modelling and forecasting activities; coordination of the Environmental Protection Agencies of Italian Regions (ARPA) and Autonomous Provinces (APPA). APAT is involved in many European programmes related to hydrological issues and water resource management like NETWET 2, CADSEALAND, HYDROPTIMET, SEDEMED, AQUAMED, FORALPS.

  APAT takes part in Voltaire project financed by European Commission in the frame of V Frame Programme for Research and also in CRUE- ERANET project (VI FP), a coordination action of the European research in flooding prevention. Representatives of APAT are members of the Italian Surveillance Committee of INTERREG IIIB Programmes - CADSES, MEDOCC, ALPINE SPACE and ARCHIMED and advisors in the Hydrology Commission of WMO and members of the Forum of Hydrological Services of the river Danube . APAT officials take part in the meetings of the working groups in charge of the Water Frame Directive implementation.  
   
  Specific role of the partner in the implementation and management of the project

    A databank of hydrological data referred to all Italy covering the historical series since 1921 till now enables APAT to perform studies and analyses for the optimisation of the current hydro-meteorological forecasting techniques. Thanks to its Sistema Idro-meteo-mare APAT develops meteo-hydrological forecasts at a basin scale and short-term quantitative precipitation forecast assessments using categorical statistics to quantify the skill of predicting the occurrence of rain (WP 2 and 3).

  Being APAT also the national contact point of the European Environmental Agency with its network EIONET linked to SINANET, which is the Italian environmental information system, the dissemination of activities and results of HYDROCARE project will be executed with the widest and integrated approach (WP5).
   
  Why is this partner essential for the success of the project? 
  The APAT Department of Internal and Marine Waters Protection has the function of collecting, processing, evaluating and releasing the water resources data concerning the whole national territory. In order to carry out its task, this Department is now realising a national trust network of the hydrological information in cooperation with the Italian regions, the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano , the national and interregional basin authorities. This national network of hydrological data referring to all Italy enables the APAT Department of Internal and Marine Waters Protection to analyse the distinguishing features and peculiarities of the hydrological phenomena, in order to adopt the appropriate measures for preventing floods and mitigating drought effects.

  APAT also carries out its activities thanks to the Sistema Idro-meteo-mare, a forecasting system consisting of a high-resolution meteorological limited area model (QBOLAM) coupled in cascade with three ocean models (WAM, POM and VL-FEM) for the forecast of the Mediterranean Sea and of "acqua alta" events in the Venice Lagoon.
   

  Type
  Country	Italy
  Web site	http://www.apat.gov.it/site/it-IT/
  Contact	Eng. Giuseppina Monacelli, Position: Phone/fax: +39-0644442471, Email: giuseppina.monacelli@apat.it ; pp2@hydrocare-cadses.net

Funding sources

• European Commission

  Source	European Commission
  Programme	Interreg III (Espace Cadses)
  Type
  Funding rate	56