An important MedWet partner, the Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research

(ISPRA) is pleased to inform you that next 1-5 September 2014 will take place in Perugia, Italy,

the Fifteenth World Lake Conference (WLC15), organised by ILEC and USMA.

Concerning the Conference topics, one of the focus of ISPRA will be Session MS 12-02 “Mitigation and

Adaptation” on Shallow lakes and wetlands of Mediterranean area. Furthermore,  in the Italian

Regional Environment Agencies context, it is proposed to organise a special Workshop on the

“Water Framework Directive environmental quality assessment of lake water bodies in Europe”.

MedWet, ISPRA, ARPA and WWF-Italia invite you to submit your abstracts for oral and poster

presentations, until the deadline of 31 of March.

You can find some technical details on topics of the sessions, in the conference website

http://www.wlc15perugia.com/index.php/abstract-submission

Session:MS12-02    “Mitigation & adaptation”

conveners:    A. Martinelli, A. Agapito Ludovici

and S.D’Antoni (angiolo.martinelli@arpalazio.it;

acque@wwf.it ; susanna.dantoni@isprambiente.it )

Mediterranean shallow lakes and on stream-artificial wetlands are specially sensible to

anthropogenic impacts because of water scarcity or abrupt changes in water level, impacts at the

catchment scale. Periodic rainfall crisis, jointly with strong uptakes, are causing pollutants

concentration, drying of peripheral wetland areas, occupation and alteration of shoreline zones,

alteration effects on ecosystem equilibrium bringing often to middle term irreversible damages,

especially when water bodies are included in protected areas for biodiversity preservation. The

fragmentation of legislation and administrative responsibilities, the lack of wide analysis of

ecological risks, represent the most difficult obstacles to prevent inappropriate sectorial

measures. To join together case studies of good management, the integrated planning processes and

monitoring, a large stakeholders participation, are obliged points to enhance adaptation measures to

climate change and to propose a virtuous safeguard pathway.

Important contributions to the session concern the following topics:

– reduction of diffuse pollution and persistent pollutants transported by rivers;
– accumulation of toxic and persistent pollutants in sediment;
– solutions to prevent the habitat damaging and water quality;
– case studies on management participative approaches;
– case studies on Habitat, Bird and WFD directives integration

Workshop: MS12-08  “Water Framework Directive environmental quality assessment of lake water

bodies in Europe”

conveners:

A. Martinelli (angiolo.martinelli@arpalazio.it )
A.Cingolani (a.cingolani@arpa.umbria.it )

EU member states realised the first cycle of lacustrine water bodies monitoring and

classification in the last years, adopting new methodologies defined according to Water Framework

Directive WFD2000/60CE and composed of several quality elements of aquatic ecosystem. The new

assessment system, made of an articulate and still un-complete pathway, has permitted to better

analyse lake systems in their complexity, to enhance the knowledge of animal and vegetal

communities, clarifying the relationships between quality factors involved into environmental

conditions variability.

The elaboration of all collected data, at regional, river basin district or national scale, permit to

evaluate the lake water bodies ecological and chemical status, creating the basis to enhance

measures for water protection and restoration plans. The workshop can be an important moment to

evaluate the state of the art of WFD implementation process involving, at different level,

institutions, environment agencies and research centres, focusing on:

– monitoring strategies and results;
– emerging operational criticalities;
– classification criteria effectiveness;
– significance and reliability of ecological assessments.

For more detailed information, you can contact:

Dr.ssa Susanna D’antoni, (susanna.dantoni@isprambiente.it) at the Italian
National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), Nature Defense Department,
Protected Areas and Planning Service.