HYDROCARE, a Spatial Development Project on Water Management and Risks.

The project HYDROCARE - Hydrological cycle of the CADSES regions has been approved in the 3^rd call of the INTERREG IIIB - CADSES neighbourhood programme of the EU. CADSES stands for Central, Adriatic, Danubian and South-Eastern European Space. The project will last 2 years starting January 1^st 2006, its budget is about 2.5 M€ and it involves 11 institutions from 6 countries (Italy, Germany, Greece, Poland, Romania, and Slovak Republic). The project is coordinated by an Italian Lead Partner, the Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Fisica delle Atmosfere e delle Idrosfere - CINFAI (National Consortium of Universities for the Physics of Atmospheres and Hydrospheres, www.cinfai.it), which associates about 20 Universities all around Italy. The mission of HYDROCARE is to study the hydrological cycle of the CADSES area by adopting an integrated and multidisciplinary approach. Some preliminary information on the project can be found on the web-page; the official web-site of HYDROCARE (www.hydrocare-cadses.net) is in construction and will soon be publicly available.

HYDROCARE originates from the acknowledgment of the strategic relevance of the water for the linked issues of economic development and environmental protection. The proposed integrated approach based on the coupled analysis of both water resource and hydrometeorogical events derives from the appraisal of the suitability of transdisciplinary approaches to complex problems.

HYDROCARE entails a set of quite different and complementary partners covering a large portion of the whole CADSES region. Local authorities, scientific institutions, and technical services participate with their diverse expertises and experiences. Collaboration is foreseen between bodies based in both old and new EU member states as well as in non-member states.

The public presentation of HYDROCARE will take place in Potsdam on Tuesday February 14th 2006 at 15.30 in the conference hall of Hotel Mercure Berlin (Lange Brücke, 14467 Potsdam, Germany, Tel: +49-331-2722 Fax: +49-331-2720233 E-mail: H1582@accor.com). Attendance will include representatives of the diplomatic bodies in Germany of the other 5 countries involved in the project, representatives of EU institutions, representatives of the INTERREG IIIB - CADSES programme, representatives of National German and Italian institutions, representatives of the Brandeburg Lander and of the city of Potsdam, as well as media professionals. The presentation is organized as follows: a one-hour session comprising brief speeches from representatives of some institutions and of the INTERREG IIIB - CADSES programme, presentation of the project by the Lead Partner, then a round-table discussion and finally a coffee-break. The detailed programme of the day will soon follow.

The public presentation of HYDROCARE has been jointly organized by the Lead Partner CINFAI and by the German Project Partner, the Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung - PIK (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, www.pik-potsdam.de).

Project Title
Hydrological cycle of the CADSES regions

Start/End date:
01/01/2006 - 31/12/2007

European Union Programme
Interreg IIIB - CADSES - 3^rd call

Total Budget:
2.466.200,00 € (EU Cofinancing: 1.441.625,00 €)

Lead Partner
National Consortium of Universities for the Physics of Atmospheres and Hydrospheres

Partners of HYDROCARE:

1. National Consortium of Universities for the Physics of the Atmospheres and of the Hydrospheres (IT) - Lead Partner
2. National Agency for the Environmental Protection and Technical Services - Department of Internal and Marine Waters Protection (IT)
3. Marche Region - Public Works Design Service (IT)
4. University of Camerino - Department of Earth Sciences (IT)
5. Autonomous Province of Trento - Service for Hydraulic Works (IT)
6. National Technical University of Athens - Department of Water Resources, School of Civil Engineering (GR)
7. Municipality of Kefalonia (GR)
8. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (DE)
9. Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SK)
10. Institute of Meteorology and Water Management - Branch of Wroclaw (PO)
11. National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management (RO)

Summary of HYDROCARE

HYDROCARE wishes to develop an integrated system capable of assessing the impact of hydrometeorological events on the water resources in the CADSES region. Emphasis will be put on the development of effective transnational tools for a rational exploitation of the water resources, with the purpose of preserving and enhancing economical and environmental welfare. Such managing tools will be illustrated also in practical terms by performing some case studies. Main points of the project will be reconstructing the large and basin-scale hydrological cycle in the CADSES area by suitably merging observations (both local and remote) and models, and developing a high level ICT network within a transnational frame for collecting and exchanging hydrometeorological data and providing relevant information to end-users such as farmers, entrepreneurs, public administrations and agencies.

Objectives of HYDROCARE:

• Development of an integrated view of the water resource management, bridging directly the evaluation of the quality and quantity of the water resources of the CADSES area with soundly based tools able to reconstruct and model the large and basin-scale hydrological cycle.
• Development of effective, internationally shared tools for public and private institutions for the correct management of the water resources as well as for planning future development of the CADSES area, with particular attention to dynamics of the costs of potable water.
• Development of set of standards at European level for the collection, evaluation, storage and interpretation of the hydrometeorological data coming from different sources, with particular regard on extreme events of great potential impact on the welfare of the population and on the state of the environment.

Contacts:
Home Page: www.hydrocare-cadses.net (In construction)
Dr. Valerio Lucarini (Technical Director of HYDROCARE)
Email: valerio.lucarini@unicam.it
Tel: +39-3476141563