Geography

Italy is located in Southern Europe, at the very heart of the Mediterranean. The country is characterized by a predominantly hilly territory (41.6% of the total area), followed by the mountainous area (35,2%) and plains (23.2%) (ISTAT, 2019). The total area amounts to 302,073 Sq.Km. and the average altitude of the territory is 337 m. Placed in the middle between the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkans, the country is bordered by France in the North West, by Switzerland and Austria in the North and by Slovenia in the North East. It has a high latitudinal extension, being linked to central Europe in the north through the Alps Mountains, and to the African continent in the South, through Sicily island, laying in front of the Tunisian coast.

Population and land use

Italy is a densely inhabited country, representing the fourth European nation by population with 60.244,639 inhabitants (ISTAT 2019), mostly located in the coastal areas and the plains of the country. More than two thirds (67.9%) of Italian municipalities fall into the low urbanization class, predominantly rural areas, equal to 72.5% of the overall total and where 24.3% of the population is living in. On the other hand, 32.1% of the Italian population is presently living in highly urbanized municipalities, which represent only 3.3% of the national total and with a total land area of 4.8% over the total. The remaining 42.4% of the total population is concentrated in the residual 28.7% of the municipalities, presenting an average degree of urbanization, over a territorial extension of 22.7% of the total. The Capital city, Rome, is the largest and most populated city situated in the central part of the country, accounting for 2,837,332 inhabitants.

Climate and rainfall

The climate widely diverges among different Italian regions, characterised by extremely variable conditions across the more than 10 degrees of latitude existing between the Alps and the Mediterranean Sea. Rainfall is extremely variable in the Country, both spatially and temporally. There is a semi-arid Southern area (precipitation ranging over 450-600 mm/year and average temperature of 18^oC); a sub-humid conditions area (500-800 mm/year and 15^oC) in the Northern plain; and a humid condition area (800-1,530 mm/year and 13^oC) on the Alps and Apennine mountains. Rainfall regime greatly depends on the orography and latitude, ranging from more than 1,000 mm/year well distributed over the year, as recorded in the northern plain - and up to 3,000 mm/year on the Alps, where snow is present for most of the year - to less than 500 mm/year, mainly concentrated in the autumn-winter periods, as recorded in Southern regions.

Food and agriculture

Italy represents the third most important European agricultural Country, after France and Germany. The agricultural area ranges around thirteen million hectares, whilst added value on average amounts to € 33.1 billion, or 2.3% of GDP. According to data reported in the last survey on Agriculture carried out by Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), more than half (56,5%) of the total area of Italy is farmland (17.1 Mha) and 75.3% of this (12.9 Mha) is used for agricultural purposes; the total agricultural land area has decreased about 7.9 Mha (-31.8%) since 1970, whilst Useful Agricultural Area (SAU) has been facing a decrease of about 4,6 Mha (-26.4%) since then. As of today (ISTAT, 2017) there are almost 2 M (1,621,000) of agricultural and livestock farms actively operating in the country, with a decrease of 1.9 million (-55.1%) since 1970. Almost 1/4 of them are managed by women, the average size of a farm is 8.4 ha.

Irrigation and drainage

Italy is the second most important country in Europe in terms of irrigated area, with more than 2.4 Mha of irrigated land (about 15 % of total agricultural land) after Spain (3 Mha), annually deploying on average 20 billion m³ of water for agriculture and food production and overall moving more than 700,000 farmers. In more than half of the irrigated area (1,3 Mha out of the total 2,4 Million), irrigation is collectively managed by Land reclamation and Irrigation consortia. The main source of irrigation water is surface water coming from rivers (67%), followed by reservoirs (6%) and groundwater (27%). In terms of distribution, more than half (55,7%) of the Italian farms are served by canals and pressurized aqueducts, with water provided either on a round basis or always available. Furthermore, 25.5% of water is resulting from underground water, withdrawn from within or near the farms; 5.1% is derived by surface water resources included within the farm perimeter or area (internal sources), such as small embankments, artificial or natural basins and so on; 9,9% comes from sources located outside the farm, such as lakes, dams, rivers or great waterways; and 3.7% is of other nature.

Water resources management

Italy is undoubtedly a country rich in water. Considering, the widespread network of water storage structures existing in Italy (dams, reservoirs, barrages etc.), potential water availability is of 110 billion m³, but however the volume of exploitable water resources in Italy can be reasonably quantified as ranging around 40 x 10⁹ m³ per year, where 30 x 10⁹ m³ refer to the large regional aquifers, and the remaining 10 x 10⁹ m³ contribute to local aquifers balance; about 30% of the latter are related to spring outflow. Another 12 billion m³ derives from groundwater exploitation, making for a total of 52 billion m³ yearly nationwide.

Water policies

In 1944, the ANBI (National Associations for reclamation, irrigation and rural development) was established. ANBI grouped Consortia for the reclamation, Consortia and agencies for the rural development and Consortia for water management, mainly farmers’ associations who rule the irrigated areas by means of autonomous acts; they have specifically conceived governing bodies.

The Government has been financing in time structural works for the reclamation of marsh and ponds, for reforestation, for the control of mountain streams, for strengthening slopes and dunes, for flood control and structures required for rural development. Land owners are obliged to belong to Consortia and are called in to bear the costs of the services provided by Consortia according to the benefits received.

ICID and National Committee

Italy is one of the eleven Founding Members of ICID, joined in 1950. The Italian National Committee, ICID (ITAL-ICID) was created on behalf and under the initiative of Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ITAL-ICID has been hosting several important international meetings in the past, such as the 9th and 46th IEC Meetings, held in Rome in 1964 and 1995, respectively; the 3rd European Regional Conference (ERC) held in Rome in 1965, the 11th ERC at Rome in 1977, and the 22nd ERC held in Pavia in 2007. ITAL-ICID had the honor of having six Vice Presidents; Mr. F. Curato (1955-58), Prof. M. Bottalico (1969-72), Dr. Pier Luigi Romita (1984-87), Prof. C. Fassò (1993-96) and Prof. Lucio Ubertini (2007-10), Dr. Marco ARCIERI is the currently Vice President for the term 2018–21 and he is also currently the Secretary General of ITAL-ICID. Prof. Eng. Piergiorgio Manciola is the President of ITAL-ICID and can be contacted at info@italicid.it

Prepared by:VP Dr. Marco Arcieri, and Secretary General, ITAL-ICID.