INHABIT project

A preliminary set of activities aiming at identifying Italian regions potentially suitable for the study has been established during the analysis of RBMPs. Selection of areas and study river reaches has been carried out together with Sardinia Region (RAS) and Piedmont Environment Agency (ARPA – Piemonte), according to some general criteria:

• selected water bodies belong to the same river type;
• two different river types should be included in each region.

In Piedmont, where a high number of Hydroecoregions are simultaneously present, experimental activities have been focused on two areas (HERs): Western Alps (HER01) and Po Plains (HER06).
In Sardinia most representative river types belong to temporary streams. The approach was to concentrate the activities on ephemeral rivers (type 21EF) and to a lesser extent on perennial rivers (type 21SS), in particular small and medium streams (SS2 e SS3), more representative.

Sites selection in the two regions took place through a joint activity with regional institutions Piedmont Environment Agency (ARPA – Piemonte) and Sardinia Autonomous Region (RAS).
Regarding Sardinia, having monitoring network for 2011 being not definitive at the time of the sampling activities, a dedicated field campaign for sites inspection has been carried out - in November 2010 - before the actual survey campaign. Inspected sites have been described in detail with all the elements useful to perform the final selection (see deliverable Pd2 - in Italian - for sites details).

In Piedmont an established monitoring network was set up by regional Environment Agency (ARPA – Piemonte) at the time of sampling. Preliminary inspections have thus been carried out only in few sites. Piedmont water bodies selected for INHABIT project were part of the 2010 and 2011 monitoring network. All monitoring stations were characterized in detail by ARPA – Piedmont and available information was considered adequate for the final selection of water bodies.