Comunicato Progetto Interreg IPA CBC Italy – Albania . Montenegro

The Hydrogeology Research Group coordinated a proposal for the INTERREG IPA CBC ITALIA- ALBANIA- MONTENEGRO PROGRAMME, Aaxis 3 “Environment protection, risk management and low carbon strategy”, focusing on the l’Obiective SO 3.1 “Increase cross-border cooperation strategies on water landscapes”.

The title of the project, whose acronym is IMAGE, focuses on the goals:

Integrated MAnagement of Groundwater related water Environments and biodiversity through Italy, Albania, and Montenegro

IMAGE focuses on Programme Area wetlands which are complex natural systems with very high: environmental value, cross-border affinity, biodiversity and hydrological contiguity. They are affected by climate change and increasing negative anthropogenic impacts and are mainly GDE, groundwater dependent ecosystems.The challenge is to preserve and to valorise delicate equilibria, biodiversity, and water landscape of wetlands with an integrated multi-methodological approach, validated on selected test sites, and able to be applied to the whole Programme Area.

The cross-border approach expresses the awareness of the physical and environmental contiguity of the areas, including flora and fauna, reason for which is mandatory to overcome the inflexible concept of national border, vanished by the fluid nature of borders, mainly constituted by continental and marine waters.

The project partnership includes, in addition to the CNR-IRPI, which coordinates the proposal through the Group’s Scientific Person in Charge, Dr. Maurizio Polemio, the following institutions, according to different ways, provided by the call: iBiology Department, University of Bari; Hydro-Meteorological Institute of Montenegro; Albanian Geological Survey, Geological Survey of Montenegro;  Co-PLAN; Apulia Region – Department: Agriculture, rural development and environmental protection – Section: Water Resources; Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism; Water Basin Agency of Drini-Buna rivers  under the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Administration (AUB Drini-Buna); WWF.