COUNTRY
PROFILE - ITALY
Physiography and
People
Italy, with a surface
area of 301,341 km2, is situated in Southern Europe at a central location
in the Mediterranean basin with a high latitudinal extension, and linked
to central Europe through the Alps mountains and also to the Sicily isle
lying in front of the African coast. The country is bordered by France
in North East, by Swtizerland and Austria in North and by Slovenia in
North East.
The country has four
main land regions with a wide physiographical variation as; the North
the Alps mountains chain, extending from the west to east (including the
highest peak in Europe: Monte Bianco); the South of the Alps, the lowland
of the large basin of the Po river and its 141 tributary streams of first
and second order; the peninsula, 800 km long, including the central Apennine
mountains running from North to South and the coastline (7,500 km long)
bordering the Adriatic sea in the East, Ionio sea in the South-East and
Tyrrenian sea in the West; the two wide isles Sicily and Sardinia located
respectively at the South and the West of the peninsula.
The Alps act as a
protection barrier against the cold wind blowing from the North, giving
rise to a climatic pattern different from that of Central Europe.
Rome, is the largest
city situated in the central part of the country. The official language
is the Italian.
The population of
the Country is 57,680,900 with a density of 190 inhabitants per km2; the
population growth over the last few years has been almost entirely the
results of foreign immigration, while the size of the Italian population
has decreased. The population engaged in agriculture is decreasing year
by year.
The urbanisation process
is progressively absorbing land in Italy. There is a tendency for the
total amount of unproductive land to be absorbed further by the spread
of built-up areas and infrastructure. The areas of agricultural land,
on the other hand, has decreased by about 2.7 million hectares (-15.3%)
since 1970 (almost 10% of national territory). Many anthropic factors
such as deforestation, fires, careless agricultural activities along the
slopes, development of settlements and road network along the slope increases
the soil erosion risk.
Out of a total land
surface area of about 30 million hectares, only 23% is lowland in the
North, 18% in the South and 9% in Central Italy. As a whole, Italy is
still geologically a relatively new land, nearly all its territory has
emerged from the more recent orogenetic upheaval (the alpine upheaval),
whose movements, although weaker, spread into the axis of the Central
and Southern Apennines.
The GNP was 350,220 billions of dollars. The ratio, country deficit/GNP
is decreasing by 2.7% and the inflation has decreased to 1.5%. The per
capita GDP is $20,170.
There are four major
river basins in Italy: Po, Tevere, Adige, Arnb, etc. In the North East
of the country, the rivers Adige, Brenta, Piave, Tagliamento and Isonzo
from the Alps flow into the Adriatic sea. From the Central Apennines,
the flows of the rivers Reno, Metauro, Tronto reach the Adriatic sea while
those of the Arno, Tevere, Volturno, Garigliano, Sele discharge into the
Tyrrhenian sea.
From Southern Apennines, the streams Pescara, Sangro, Biferno, Fortore
and Ofanto are flow into the Adriatic sea while Bradano, Basento, Agri
reach into the Ionic sea.
In the Sicily isle,
the Alcantara river is reaches the Ionic sea while in the Sardinia isle
the Flumendosa river flows from the northern region into the Tyrrhenian
sea.
Climate
The climate varies
widely among the several Italian regions, characterised by extremely variable
conditions across more than 10 degrees of latitude between the Alps and
Mediterranean Sea and ranging; semi-arid Southern area (precipitation
ranging over 450-600 mm/year and average temperature of 18oC), sub-humid
conditions (500-800 mm/year and 15oC) in the Northern plain, and humid
condition (800-1530 mm/year and 13oC) on the Alps and Apennine mountains.
A wide range of climate
results in differences in water resources availability. Southern areas
of the peninsula, such as Apulia, as well as isles of Sicily, Sardinia
and some regions in the Centre-North are sometimes subject to serious
shortages of water supply for various sues and in particular for drinking
purposes. Other Southern coastline areas located in the Campanian - Lucanian
areas normally receive adequate amount of rainfall which in conjunction
with carbonate aquifers, provides sufficient water availability.
Italian climate is characterised by a spatial highly variable precipitation,
concentrated over short periods of the year (mainly spring and autumn,
by a large inter-annual variability and by frequent extreme events such
as floods and droughts).
Rainfall regime greatly depends on the orography and latitude, more than
1000 mm/year well distributed over the year, are recorded in northern
plain - and up to 3000 mm/year on the Alps - whereas less than 400 mm/year,
mainly concentrated in autumn-winter, are recorded in Southern regions.
Due to the particular
position of the peninsula, the Italian climate appears very responsive
to the influences of both global changes and human action. Significant
aspects of the global and regional changes are: increase of the sea level;
reduction of glaciated areas; increase of climate variability; increase
of evaporation process; extension of the urban heat isles: growing frequency
of very concentrated rainfall episodes. All these conditions increase
the risk of land degradation, salinisation and deterioration of soil structure
favouring frequent slope processes - from superficial erosion to mass
movement - with heavy repercussion on flood phenomena in the valley and
plain areas. The large diffusion of marked geomorphologic and hydrologic
hazards (earthquakes, volcanic activity in central and southern parts
of the peninsula) is essentially tied to the geologic and geomorphologic
complexity of the territory.
Agriculture
Out of the total surface
area, almost two thirds (22 millions hectares) is farm land with 68% of
this (15 million hectares) in use for agricultural purposes. Italy is
characterised by variations in land use across the areas considered with
an evolution that has reflected, since ancient times, the natural distribution
of water and which has in itself had a great impact on water resources.
The main urban agglomerations in the central and northern parts of the
country are located beside, or in the vicinity of rivers which supply
a range of needs including agriculture, handicraft and sometimes transportation.
The increase in the population and the need to protect riverside settlements
has necessitated the construction of large hydraulic works for flood control
river training and diversion, and large reclamation schemes that still
pose challenge to the natural regime of water.
In southern regions
and in the larger islands the shortage of surface water has led to the
compulsory development of concentrated dwelling areas with high population
density. These are located so as to gain the best possible advantage from
local springs and rely on the supply of rainwater stored in domestic sumps.
Since the end of the
Second World War Italy has undergone a substantial economic transformation
involving the growth of the industrial sector to the detriment of agriculture
and favouring a further increase in the size of large urban agglomerations.
In particular the proportion of employment in the agricultural sector
decreased from 45% of the total labour force in 1951 to 19% in 1971 while
that of the industrial sector increased from 22% to 43%. At the same time
there was a massive migration of approximately 15 million people to the
industrialized towns of the north-west mainly from the southern regions
and the islands.
This change has occurred
in such a rapid and unplanned fashion that it has been impossible to ensure
rational land use in accordance with the availability of natural resources,
particularly water, and with the goals of harmonised social and economic
improvement.
This has aggravated
the conflict among the various users with the consequent deterioration
of both land and water resources. The active population of the countryside
has declined while the urban agglomerations have become an unwelcome model
of bad living conditions.
In the Southern regions
rainfall shortages have exacerbated an endemic incapability of meeting
some essential water demands including that of potable and domestic use,
especially during the summer, when some large urban communities can no
longer rely on the volumes of surface water stored in reservoirs or in
replenished aquifers.
All these phenomena
are relevant to land use since the uncontrolled urban development of recent
years has increased water demand in restricted area and in a comparatively
short space of time. The difficulty of meeting such a demand from the
available resources seems so far to have had very little effect on the
actual trend of urban development and has resulted in the need to harness
new resources resulting in an aggravation of the conflict among users.
Agriculture has suffered
greatly from water shortages as several reservoirs, especially in southern
regions, have remained partially empty for a long period of time. Such
an unexpected event has aroused justified criticism of a planning activity
that, based on the possibility of storing rainwater, had wrought deep
changes in the cultivation patterns and favoured new settlements in areas
where the natural conditions were not suitable for normal living conditions.
It is estimated that
2,470,600 farms exist in the country; 581,100 of them are managed by women.
The average surface of a farm is 5.6 ha.
In 1997, there were
2,302,264 families on Italian farms, numbering 5,804,657 members. People
have been leaving the agricultural sector at a higher rate than in the
past.
In 1997, 96.5% of
Italian farms were managed directly by the farmer, in 80% of these, the
farmer managed his farm with the help of family labour only.
Irrigation, Drainage
and Flood Control
The average precipitation
depth is about one meter, corresponding to approximately 109 m3 of water
received by the whole land in Italy. Rainfall is extremely variable in
the Country, both spatially and temporally.
The surface flow is
about 155 x 109 m3 per year. Not all of this water is directly available
since part of it belongs to bodies that are difficult to exploit. Potential
water availability has been estimated as about 110 x 109 m3.
Considering the existent
water storages systems in Italy (dams, reservoirs, etc.), the total exploitable
water resources in Italy are estimated at approximately 40 x 109 m3 per
year.
According to a recent
study, it has been estimated that the total amount of groundwater available
in Italy is about 40 x 109 m3 per year, where 30 x 109 m3 are relative
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
outlflow. The global national needs for water can be roughly estimated
as 50 x 109 m3 per year. Most of this volume is devoted to agriculture
(30 x 109 m3), the remaining is used by industry (14.2 x 109 m3) and as
municipal water supply (5.8 x 109 m3).
Table
: Water Demand in Italy
Water
Demand |
Volume |
109 m3 |
% |
Agriculture |
30.0 |
|
60.0 |
|
Industry |
14.2 |
|
28.4 |
|
Civil
Use |
5.8 |
|
11.6 |
|
•
Domestic |
|
3.95 |
|
68.0 |
•
Non domestic |
|
0.52 |
|
9.0 |
•
Public |
|
0.46 |
|
8.0 |
•
Industrial |
|
0.87 |
|
15.0 |
Total |
50.0 |
5.80 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
The annual amount
of water used by the municipal water supply systems in Italy is about
5.8 x 109 m3, for about 300 liters/person per day. The water for civil
use is obtained by groundwater (50%), springs (40%) and surface water
(10%). The quantity of water used for agricultural purposes can be estimated
at about 30 x 109 m3 per year, differing from North (78%), to the Center
(5.5%) and to the South (16.5%).The main source of irrigation water is
surfaced water from rivers (67%), followed by reservoirs (6%) and groundwater
(27%).
Drought has also affected
groundwater in the Northern lowlands with aquifers, largely depleted by
domestic sue and by irrigation, displayed an unusual lowering of the water
table, which lasted long after the period of scarcity was over. In the
Central and Southern regions the yield of many springs have greatly decreased.
Hydroelectricity has
been badly affected by drought. Generating plant equipped with reservoirs
was not only unable to store the required amount of water, but also suffered
a reduction of power as an effect of the lower head. In such conditions
the pumped storage, characteristic of the most technologically advanced
plants, was able to make only a very small contribution. Run-of-plants
suffered from shortage of water and low river level, and likewise did
the thermal plants, because of the unavailability of cooling water.
The impact of water
shortage was very heavy on ecology and preservation of aquatic life, as
water withdrawal from bodies was particularly intensive in the absence
of other resources. Low flow in a river meant poor dilution of the discharged
pollutants, and thus a risk of harming aquatic life. This kind of damage
was very serious and persisted long after the emergency had passed.
As shown by the 1988
- 1990 event, a drought, with its associated shortage of water and severe
effect on water resources management can deeply impact the economy of
an entire region. As such events are likely to be repeated, the responsible
Authority should work out rational management criteria to set up suitable
conditions for coping with the effects of a foreseeable drought and reducing
the damage to the water related activities.
In Italy 2,711,000
hectares are irrigated in 1990 whereas 3,882,000 hectares are potentially
irrigable.
In 1944, the ANBI
(National Associations for reclamation, irrigation and rural development)
was established. ANBI included Consortia for the reclamation, Consortia
and agencies for the rural development and Consortia for water management.
The Government has
been financing 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 received benefits. The association operates within the public utility
system and is the type of enterprise that now predominates in the irrigation
districts.
The Consortia collects
sufficient funds to meet the annual charges for the operation and maintenance
as required to deliver water to users and to maintain the systems in good
operational shape.
The equipped surface
served in 1998 with water delivered by Consortia is 2,730,601 hectares
as shown below:
Table
: Equipped Surface Served by Consortia
Region |
Equipped
Surface ha |
North |
2,036,508 |
Centre |
127,322 |
South
and Isles |
566,771 |
Italy |
2,730,601 |
A large number of
works are managed by Consortia.
ICID and Italy
Italy joined ICID
in 1950 as a founder member and has been actively associated with ICID
activities in Italy as well as at the international level. The 9th and
46th IEC Meetings were held in Rome, Italy in 1964 and 1995 respectively.
Mr. F. Curato, Prof. M. Botallico and Prof. C. Fasso were Vice Presidents
of ICID during the terms 1955-58, 1969-72 and 1993-1996. At present, Prof.
Lucio Ubertini is
the Vice President, ICID and Dr.
Gabriella Zanferrari is the President of the Italian National Committee
of ICID (ITAL-ICID). ITAL-ICID is actively represented in more than 16
workbodies. | 
