INHABIT project

Water Research Institute, National Research Council

Institution Profile
The Istituto di Ricerca Sulle Acque (CNR-IRSA, Water Research Institute) belongs to the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), the major Italian public research institution, including more than 100 research institutes. IRSA carries out studies on ecosystems structure and dynamics and on their response to anthropogenic pressures, and develops methods for environmental monitoring and restoration, especially focusing on rivers. IRSA has been actively involved over many years in working groups on the European scale related to e.g. ecological classification (ECOSTAT), WFD Intercalibration,  development of WFD methods, and is, or has been, partner in a number of FP V-VII EC co-funded research projects (e.g. AQEM, STAR, REBECCA, Eurolimpacs, MIRAGE), often directly focused on defining practical tools for WFD implementation.
More in detail, CNR-IRSA has been recently coordinating the IP AquaStress project, aimed at generating scientific innovations to improve the understanding of water stress from a multisectoral perspective, including the  assessment of the effectiveness of existing water management measures, the development of alternative ones and proposing tools to evaluate different mitigation options and their potential interactions. CNR-IRSA supports the Italian Ministry of Environment (MATTM) by providing technical aid and a scientific basis to its political decisions with respect to water quality, management and water treatment issues, both in long-term planning of environmental problems and by deriving solutions of urgent problems. Recently, the Institute especially focused on WFD-related issues, such as typology, reference conditions, methods, assessment systems, water quality-quantity interactions, for which key results were transferred or are being transferred into environmental legislation.

Contact person at CNR-IRSA
Andrea Buffagni
Scientific Coordinator

Mr. Andrea Buffagni is the coordinator of the 'INHABIT Project'.