“The water cycle towards the groundwater is fundamental”
“Against drought and storms, it is necessary to aim at restoring the water cycle towards the groundwater through the renaturalization of the territory”.
from Daniela Burrini, Lipu Florence delegate
August 27, 2022
The extreme and persistent heat of this summer 2022 was followed by torrential rains and tornadoes in a tropical climate that leaves little space for global warming deniers. Drought and storms are the sides of the same coin, the increase in the energy of the system – the sea water has an average temperature 5 ° C higher than the norm – destructive phenomena are discharged. The fires resulting from the drought destroy the countryside and woods. Nature is under stress, agriculture is brought to its knees, cities are flooded, damage to people, animals and things is enormous.
Too little or too much water. They are connectedthey can be easily managed in the most extreme events, but the negative consequences can be mitigated with appropriate solutions that make the area more “welcoming” for water.
The solutions that are proposed for the effects of drought – a thousand artificial reservoirs to intercept rainwater – seem the right ones but they lack a short-sighted vision and a partial analysis of the causes. The Invasi Plan of Anbi and Coldiretti alone is not enough if the trend towards the artificialization of the territory is not reversed. Every second there is 2 square meters of fertile soil lossequal to 70 square kilometers a year, the Ispra 2021 land consumption report tells us.
We need to aim for restoration of the natural water cycle, where the accumulation is mainly in the groundwater, subtracting water from the surface and returning it to the soil from which it will infiltrate the aquifer, restoring its function and related ecosystem services. As and more than any property, fires have plagued the woods, exposing the land to washout, to combat them they are authorized preventive cuts of forest vegetation but the fear is that without the necessary competence and control, further damage will be caused by increasing the problem of leaching.
Also cultivated land plays an important role in the water cycle: the historical Tuscan landscape that alternates cultivated fields together with natural vegetation with dividing hedges, woods and ditches, in an – agro-ecosystem – capable of providing numerous ecological advantages to the environment and to agriculture itself, is giving way to monocultures a vine, no more terracing and with rows arranged perpendicular to the valley bottom that do not retain rainwater.
Soil waterproofing on the one hand and soil washout on the other it cannot infiltrate rainwater to reach the ground with the consequence that it will flow quickly towards watercourses, increasing their flow up to peaks and floods. Soil management and the role of vegetation are fundamental for mitigating the problem of drought and floods. Lipu deems it essential to promote the renaturalization of the territory aimed at managing the water cycle for the well-being of nature which includes all forms of living plants, animals and humans.
The factors on which to intervene are many and correlated:
Vegetation
Re-naturalization of watercourses making parts of contiguous territory floodable, in addition to the expansion tanks which are artificial works of moderate impact;
afforestation of river basins and proper forest management;
plant trees in cities.
Agriculture
No to the trivialization of the landscape with the expansion of monocultures;
maintenance and maintenance of the bands of spontaneous vegetation that intersperse the cultivated fields;
restoration of terraces, ditches and small basins;
fight the artificialization of the territory;
for soil consumption, on asphalt;
use of drainage floors;
space for permeable water collection ditches on the sides of roads and asphalted areas;
green areas and parks instead of asphalted squares also for parking lots.
Raising awareness of citizens and training of professionals
Small and widespread in the area, they can slow down the flow and infiltration, limit and reduce the amount of water flowing to the surface, reduce the risk of underground water reserves for agriculture and civil uses useful in periods of drought. As an added value they will be habitats suitable for hosting numerous species of flora and fauna that will enrich biodiversity.