Implementation of a geographic database containing all the information on the sewage and purification system, the discharges of productive activities and the pressures produced in the territory.

Client needs: to develop an analysis methodology to reconstruct the magnitude and spatial distribution of environmental pressures related to urban, domestic and industrial wastewater discharges

The WFD Directive 2000/60 of the European Community, assigns a strategic role to the knowledge of anthropogenic pressures insisting on the aquatic matrix, which is indispensable for the determination of risk conditions, the definition of monitoring networks and programs and the identification of protection and restoration measures. The analysis of pressures on the Umbrian regional territory is aimed at updating the Water Protection Plan (PTA) and the Management Plan of the Hydrographic Districts to which they belong.

The results of this analysis will allow ARPA Umbria, the regional entity in charge of monitoring surface and groundwater bodies, to define new monitoring programs according to the type and level of pressure actually exerted on individual water bodies. One of the main causes of environmental criticality is pressures from the urban sewage system and discharges from production activities discharging into surface water bodies or onto the ground.

For this reason, the development of an analysis methodology is necessary to reconstruct in great detail the magnitude and spatial distribution of environmental pressures related to urban, domestic and industrial wastewater discharges and, at the same time, one that can be reproduced at least as frequently as is consistent with the obligations arising from the implementation of the Water Directive, the Nitrates Directive and other sector regulations.

Solution: technical and organizational support

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gisAction has provided full workflow support from information technology to organizational process, both within ARPA Umbria and with external bodies.   

It has developed and used an analysis methodology, repeatable over time, which gives back detailed information on the entity and the distribution in the territory of environmental pressures deriving from the urban sewage treatment system and from discharges of trading activities extracted from the Discharge Cadastre of the Umbria Region. 

Benefits

The project gave ARPA Umbria the possibility to achieve a geographic database containing all the information on the sewage and purification system, the discharges of productive activities and the pressures produced in a spatially homogeneous environment, conforming to the requests of the European Community and extremely useful for all monitoring activities. 

Who we worked with

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Arpa Umbria is an environmental prevention and protection agency.

The Agency’s mission is to provide technical and scientific support to the Region and other Local Authorities in the field of pollution prevention and environmental protection and, consequently, protection of the quality of life and health of citizens through knowledge of the state of the environment and the pressures acting on it.

The Agency’s activities cover numerous topics including air, water, electromagnetism, noise, soil, waste, biodiversity, radioactivity, training (through the School of Advanced Environmental Training), and environmental information and education.

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