GRAIA » Activities

Video-monitoring of the fish migrations in the fish passages

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 11:55:07 +0000

The main goal of the video-monitoring is to verify the effectiveness to the fish transit and that this condition persists during the years. It is not sure that a fish passage runs in any case during its life; some exceptional events (natural or not) can occur, able to modify even in a small scale the fish passage structure negatively affecting its effectiveness. This is the motivation because it is important to do monitoring campaigns, in order to verify the efficiency of the infrastructure during the years, first allowing the fish to localize the entrance, then overpass the whole structure and come out without injuries. Thanks to the monitoring activities it is possible to deduce some ecological information about the fish in transit as: the life stage of the fish, the date of the transit and so the period of the year, strange behaviours, the general status of the fish and other information.

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LIFE Programme

Stefania Trasforini — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 14:12:20 +0000

Graia boasts a multi-year experience in the LIFE Programme field and it has been or is currently partner of the following projects:

LIFE PREDATOR – LIFE21 NAT/IT/PREDATOR n. 101074458 – PREVENT, DETECT AND COMBAT THE SPREAD OF SILURUS GLANIS IN SOUTH EUROPEAN LAKES TO PROTECT BIODIVERSITY – Ongoing project (2022 – 2027)

LIFEEL – Life19 nat/it/000851 – Urgent measures in the Eastern Mediterranean for the long term conservation of endangered European eel (Anguilla anguilla) – Ongoing project (2020 – 2024)

IdroLIFE – Life15 nat/it/000823 – Conservation and management of freshwater fauna of EU interest within the ecological corridors of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola – Project completed

LifeTicinoBiosource – Life15 nat/it/000989 – Enhancing Biodiversity by Restoring Source Areas for Priority and Other Species of Community Interest in Ticino Park – Project completed

CON.FLU.PO – Life11 nat/it/188 – Restoring connectivity in Po river basin opening migratory route for Acipenser naccarii and 10 fish species in Annex II – Project completed

The LIFE programme 2021-2027 is the only EU funding programme entirely dedicated to environmental, climate and energy objectives. It contributes to the shift towards a clean, circular, energy efficient, climate-neutral and climate-resilient economy, including through the transition to clean energy, to protect and improve the quality of the environment. To date, LIFE has co-financed more than 5,000 projects.

In terms of specific objectives, the programme seeks to develop, demonstrate and promote innovative techniques, methods and approaches to reach EU environmental and climate goals. It also supports the development, implementation, monitoring and enforcement of relevant Union legislation and policy, including by improving governance at all levels. Moreover, the programme aims to act as a catalyst for the large-scale deployment of successful technical and policy-related solutions by integrating related objectives into other policies and into public and private sector practices, by mobilising investment and by improving access to finance.

For more information, visit the LIFE PROGRAMME official website: https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/programmes/life_en

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Fish passages

admin — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 18:41:37 +0000

It is very rare for a fish to spend its entire life in a single place, in water courses. Most of the fish species, in fact, move from a place to another, depending on the season or the stage of life, looking for better sites for food and reproduction purposes. Just think of highly migratory species such as eels, sturgeons and salmons or the numerous species that migrate for shorter routes, like adult brown trouts, South European nases or Italian riffle dace.
Being strictly connected to fundamental activities such as feeding and reproduction, the migratory activity represents an extremely important behavioural adjustment in response to food shortage or extreme competition for trophic and reproductive sites.
Water courses, however, are often interrupted by barrages, weirs or dams,insuperable barriers for fishes to leap up.
The issue is partially solvable thanks to dedicated solutions called fish passages, artificial structures that allow fishes to overcome huge gaps,creating a true ecological corridor. The reinstatement of the natural connection between different fluvial habitats is therefore the main target of the new policy in dealing with aquatic ecosystems. The realization of new artificial ladders for fishes, allowing migratory flows for fishes, is the first, important step towards the realization of such aim.

Fish pass of any kind are especially designed to lure fishes in a specific point downline of the obstacle and allow them to overcome the barrier, and thus to leap up -or descend- a water course.
Creating a fish passage is not as easy as it seems. There are different things to keep in mind and neither of those can be ignored when building a perfectly functioning structure. The planning must follow clear stages in order to study all the surrounding conditions and the restrictions dictated by the ecological and environmental characteristics of the area in which the fishway will be located.
At first, the discontinuity under consideration is studied in all its essential characteristics, such as typology, dimensions and above all, the height of the scour and how likely to cross itare the fish species in the river.
In order to allow the leaping up of the fishes the work must have structural and dimensional features as to allow enough water to flow but not much turbulence, or else the animal cannot go against the flow and leap up, making the passage useless. It is also fundamental to pick the right collocation for the fish passage, so that fishes can easily find the initial part of the passage and not be distracted by other points with a high flow velocity.
These criteria need to be fully met and the parameters valued by experts in this field, in order to build a structure that really fulfils its role.

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Managing of the sediment in artificial storages

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 11:53:14 +0000

Artificial storages can suffer from silting up, due to the accumulation of sediment mainly carried during floods. The management of this phenomenon through the emptying of storages, it is a necessary procedure not only for reasons related to the exercise of the dam but most of all for public safety reasons. This procedure can also have significant effects on the fluvial ecosystems downstream. These effects need to be supervised and limited as much as possible through a suitable planning and scheduling of the emptying operations.

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Management and preservation of ecosystems and high altitude environments

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 13:28:34 +0000

High altitude environments are characteristic and full of charm. The climatic and geographical conditions to which they are subjected allowed their evolution and the establishing of characteristic and peculiar environments. These environments are populated by organisms that stand out from the others for rarity, a strong environmental selectivity and a defined chorology. It’s this strong sensitivity to the surrounding environmental and climatic changes that makes them interesting for the purposes of monitoring the global effects of climate change, but it also makes them extremely vulnerable. Further proof of their vulnerability is that, despite being in remote places topography-wise, far from urbanized and industrialized territory of theplains, they are not exempt from the effects of anthropization. On the contrary, the human activities have threatened for a long time their survival with different kinds of direct and indirect impact. For instance, there is a growing interest in high altitude aquatic ecosystems for the production of hydroelectric energy, drinking water or artificial snow for ski resorts, not without environmental consequences. These consequences need to be controlled and reduced as much as possible with measures aiming at the conservation of ecosystems and natural resources in the long run.

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Phytodepuration and lagooning

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 13:33:45 +0000

Phytodepuration is a natural depuration process happening in natural wetlands where, due to animal and/or vegetable organisms in the soil or in the waters, depuration mechanisms happen through physical, chemical and biological processes (filtration, absorption, assimilation by vegetable organisms and bacterial degradation). The techniques and methodologies of phytodepuration are based and therefore take advantage of an intrinsic capacity of natural paludal ecosystems. These environments are artificially recreated, in a way that they can carry out in the best and most efficient way their function and the depurative processes that happen inside them. Apart from being a support for vegetation, the soil has an active role in mechanical and chemical filtration, in fact, it constitutes a single complex system of biological competition towards the bacteria that are present in wastewaters. Moreover, components such as clay have a great ability of absorbing some compounds such as phosphorus and ammoniacal nitrogen. The soil’s microfauna degrades the organic load of the wastewater (processes such as the removal of carbon, nitrification of ammoniacal nitrogen, denitrification of nitric nitrogen) turning it into nutrients for the plant species in the system. The vegetation brings oxygen in deep through the roots (allowing the oxidative, degradative processes to start), absorbs nutrients from the soil, reducing the concentration in the water’s outflow and through evapotranspiration mechanisms it reduces the overall quantitative of the waters that are delivered to the external environments, be it soil or a water course.
The field in which phytodepuration systems are used deals mainly with the secondary treatment of wastewater already partially treated, or the final refinement of waters, to improve the biological quality of the effluent deriving from:

Civil wastewater: ideal treatment for small communities that have a potential inferior to 2000 Population Equivalent and with loads that fluctuate periodically;
Livestock farms: treatment for litter and milking rooms wastewaters;
Clients with wastewaters that can be assimilated to civil wastewaters (of organic nature) located in areas that are not provided with a public drainage system such as bars, restaurants, agritourisms, camp grounds, etc.

The introduction of phytodepuration has different types of realization, in which natural habitats are recreated artificially. Depending on the modality and the direction of the water flow they can be divided into:

SF, Surface Flow;
H-SSF, Horizontal Sub-Surface Flow;
V-SSF, Vertical Sub-Surface Flow;

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Fluvial and lacustrine requalification

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 14:04:44 +0000

The culture of environmental restoration has become more and more popular in the past few years, along with the reduction of the impact of anthropogenic activities, through techniques that are intended for the reinstatement of degraded or destroyed environments.
These actions can all fit in the same category of the acts of renaturization. They start from the analysis of damages and disturbances caused by human activities or natural events to the structure and functions of natural ecosystems and they tend to restore natural conditions as much as possible. Specifically, the techniques of naturalistic engineering deal with the conservation of the naturality of the shores and their stabilization, the recovery of the morphological diversity of the riverbed, the increase of fish refuges in beds and littoral zone. The presence of areas of varying current strength, the alternation of pools, riffles and runs, the abundance of refuges in beds made of rocks, trees in water, carved banks, roots and stumps, the presence of gravel and sands is a complex of micro and mesohabitat essential to the well-being of the fluvial and lacustrine ecosystem. The riparian strip of vegetation, other than stabilizing the shores, is, finally, an area of extraordinary naturalistic interest and vital importance, because it brings shadow, food for animal communities and continuity with the terrestrial ecosystem.

The main aim of these acts is to increase environmental diversity on a micro-macro scale and to reinstate longitudinal and lateral connections, in order to reconnect the fragmentations among systems and restore the functional interchanges. A more stable balance is achievable through these acts and, in some cases, it is also possible to accelerate natural recovery processes that otherwise would be too slow.

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Naturalistic engineering

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 14:13:25 +0000

Interventions aimed at the environmental requalification of lentic and lotic aquatic environments and wetlands are planned using the techniques and materials of naturalistic engineering.
Leggi tutto »

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Ecological network

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 14:33:25 +0000

The management of protected areas requires the preparation and the implementation of projects and direct interventions on species and natural habitats, as well as the drafting of regulatory instruments prepared ad hoc with the aim of guaranteeing the best possible conservation of the natural resources in question.

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Applied ecology and biomonitoring

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 14:39:30 +0000

All the activities carried out by our company could be part of this discipline, since applied ecology is, in summary, the application of ecological knowledge (in this case, the knowledge and experience acquired in the field of ichtyology, environmental engineering, natural sciences, forester sciences, geology, landscape ecology) aimed at the managing and conservation of the environment and its resources.

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Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

admin — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 10:36:30 +0000

The EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) is a technical-administrative procedure with the purpose of verifying the environmental compatibility of a project, it was introduced in Europe with the 337/85 CEE directive and it was integrated by the 11/97CE directive.
The procedure was created as an instrument to identify, describe and evaluate, through a transparent and popular evaluation project, the direct and indirect effects of a project about human health and some environmental elements such as fauna, flora, soil, waters, air, climate, landscape and cultural heritage and their interaction. The aim of EIA is to protect human health, contribute with a better environment to the quality of life, provide for the conservation of the species and preserve the ability of renovation of the ecosystem as essential life resource.

…each federal agency should include in every recommendation or report on proposals for legislation and other major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment a detailed statement by the responsible official covering, inter alia, the ENVIROMENTAL IMPACT of the proposed action and of alternatives to it.
(USA 1969, National Environment Policy Act)

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Ichthyology

admin — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 12:31:26 +0000

Ichthyology, the study of fish, has deep roots which go back to ancient Egypt, the Egyptians, in fact, categorised fishes drawing them on the pyramid walls. In ancient Greece, Aristotle shows a great knowledge of their anatomy in some of his works. As for the Latins, Ovid in his “Halieutica” goes through fishes and their routine,as well as fishing strategies and techniques.
Since the dawn of time, ichthyology sowed to be something more than a simple branch of natural sciences, as it is always described. It is, in fact, an interdisciplinary subject, since it involves the anatomical, physiological, ethological, geographical, historical and ecological study of fishes and their environment. Ichthyology, moreover, is strictly connected to the ecology of inland waters, hydrobiology, limnology and all the other disciplines that deal with the study of aquatic ecosystems.
Since its establishment, GRAIA srl has always dealt with ichthyology, researching and analysing the knowledge on fishes and allowing institutions, associations and privates to use its experience for the management of the fish stock and the conservation of endangered species.

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Fishery management plans

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 15:38:59 +0000

The Fishery management plans are technical-scientifical documents which collect updated information on the present state of the fish fauna in the waters of competence. It is also a fundamental support for a proper management of fish and fishing population. First of all, it provides data on the composition and the abundance of fish communities in water bodies. Since fishes are profoundly influenced by the environmental characteristics of water bodies they populate, the study of fish fauna cannot overlook aquatic habitats. For this reason, for each of the water bodies in exam, along with a description of the fish communities, in the majority of Fishery management plan the most significant data on the quality of the habitat and the waters are described. Useful elements for the definition of an accurate picture of the state of fish fauna and its populations are also given.

The Fishery management plan is the instrument that works as a guide for the intervention of the Provincia (district) in the field of the management of the fish and fishing patrimony. Through an analysis of the current and potential characteristics of fluvial ecosystems and fish populations, made by the Carta Ittica Provinciale,must aim, first of all, at one of the following targets:

sustainment and increase of valuable fish populations subject to pressure due to fishing:

safeguard of fish species with apreservation interest;

development of recreational fishing activities;

promotion and rationalisation of professional fishing (where present);

planning of the management of waters, safeguarding the survival and the reproduction of fish fauna.

Managing, safeguarding and increasing fish patrimony and, at the same time, managing fish fruitionis a difficult job that cannot be fulfilled simply by regulating repopulation and fish sampling or by creating safe areas or fishing areas with a peculiar system. It is also necessary to focus on anthropogenic causes that are most dangerous to the survival of aquatic biocenosis and identify the most effective actions and interventions for the safeguarding of aquatic ecosystems of which fish fauna is integral part but also integrated. The modern management of fish fauna and fishing is really the management of the whole water resource. In fact, it is not possible for fish to live in water courses of terrible quality, as well as any activity connected to the use of this resource.

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Aquaculture – Fish hatchers and breeding

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 15:45:47 +0000

Fish hatchers have certainly been a key element in the field of management of autochtonous fish populations, capable of satisfy many wildlife necessities at the same time and optimize the repopulation of watercourses.

Moreover, along with the actions and measures that must be adopted in order to remove or mitigate the environmental threats that have caused the impoverishment of a population and/or prevent its recovery. It is also necessary to directly support the same population in decline: for this purpose, fish hatchers give a precious contribution. It is possible to carry out in them the artificial reproduction of wild fish. Adaptive hereditary characters for that specific environment are selected to be in their genetic makeup, it is furthermore possible to produce juvenile fish from repopulation of species not available in common commercial networks, it is also possible to select the breeders in order to avoid hybridisation – unfortunately more and more common in our rivers: for instance the sea trout x marble trout and the danube roach x common roach hybrids. The hatcher allows to pick the most convenient moment for the seeding, taking into consideration weather conditions, water flow,staff availability, the possibility of carrying out the repopulation in different moments, carrying small amounts of fishes and thus limiting mortality.

We must not forget the important function of fish hatchet from and educational and divulgative point of view. They are, in fact, structures that allow visits from school children, who love to watch myriads of small fishes. Scientific research can also find in these structures a great laboratory for ichtiology where there is a chance to study fishes that are still quite unknown but it is fundamental to know in order to manage them in the best way.

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Management of sport fishing or professional fishing

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 15:51:09 +0000

From the point of view of a sustainable use of natural resources, the management of fishing activities, both recreational and professional, must be regulated and controlled on strict scientific and technical basis. All the implied aspects – ecological, wildlife, naturalistic and also economical, cultural, social – and the potential consequences on natural ecosystems, the environment and society, must be taken into consideration, in order to support human activities in full compliance with the importance of biodiversity.

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Impact assessment

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 16:05:35 +0000

Impact assessment is compulsory for plans and projects that may have an effect on sites of community importance (SCI) and special protection areas (SPA), established in accordance with the european directives
“Habitats” (92/43EEC) and “Birds” (79/409/EEC). Impact assessment is regulated in Italy by Presidential Decree 357/97 (art. 5 and Annex G), transposal of Directive 92/43/EEC “Habitat”, modified and integrated from Presidential Decree 120/2003. Art. 6 from Presidential Decree no. 120 determines that the territorial planning and programming must take into account the naturalistic-environmental value of the proposed sites of community importance (pSCI), Sites of Community Importance (SIC) and special areas of conservation (SAC).
The main purpose of Impact Assessment is safeguarding the integrity of Rete Natura 2000 through the analysis of the interferences of plans and projects not directly connected to the conservation of habitats and species for which they had been created, but capable of influencing their environmental balance. This kind of procedure is a preventive instrument aimed at obtaining the perfect balance between a “satisfying/satisfactory” conservation of habitats and species and the sustainable use of the territory. The proponent of the plan or program must submit a Study of Incidence/Impact to the competent authority for the interested sites, for which minimal contents the addresses in attachment G to Presidential Decree 357/97 are given. This attachment, which has not been modified by the decree (DPR 120/2003), states that the study of the assessment of the impact must include:

a detailed description of the plan or project that refers particularly to the type of actions and/or works, the dimension, the complementarity with other plans and/or projects, the use of natural resources, the production of waste, the pollution and environmental disturbance, the risk of accidents concerning the substance and technologies used;

an analysis of the interferences of the plan or project with the reference environmental system, taking into consideration the biotic and abiotic components and environmental connections.

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Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 16:15:51 +0000

Strategic Environmental Assessment is a procedure that aims at the evaluation of consequences and environmental effects produced by Plans and Programs. This assessment started from the necessity that, both at a community level and a national level, in the preparation, elaboration and carrying out of plans and programs, aspects dealing with environmental impact are taken into consideration, along with social end economical, so that, where applicable, alternatives to planning can be found, with the purpose of limiting the negative effects on the environment.
The main normative sentence regulating the entire Strategic Environmental Assessment procedure is the 2001/42/EEC directive of the European Parliament and the European Council, of 27 June 2001 concerning the “assessment of the effects of specific plans and programs on the environment”. This sentence was acknowledged nationally in 2006 with the Legislative Decree no. 152 of 3 April 2006: “Norme in materia ambientale PARTE SECONDA: Procedure per la valutazione ambientale strategica (VAS), per la valutazione d’impatto ambientale (VIA) e per l’autorizzazione ambientale integrata (IPPC)” (Environmental regulations PART TWO: Procedures for Strategic Environmental Assessment, Environmental Impact Assessment and Integrated Pollution prevention and control).
The directive defines as main purpose of an environmental assessment the safeguard of the environment and the contribution to the integration of environmental considerations in the elaboration and adoption of plans and programs in order to promote a sustainable development”.
The interesting innovation introduced by this directive is, in fact, the moment of its application: the period of preparation of the plan or program, before its adoption or at the beginning of the relative legislative procedure. The directive also guarantees the participation of the “public” in the process of evaluation and includes the ad hoc elaboration and the development of a monitoring program, in the moment ofrealization of the plan, in order to verify and eventually correct actions or measures adopted by the plan or program.

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Integrated Environmental Authorization (IEA)

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 16:20:08 +0000

The legislative decree of 4 august 1999, no. 372 “The enforcement of the 96/61/EEC pertaining to integrated prevention and reduction of pollution” regulates the issue, the renovation and the review of the Integrated Environmental Authorisation of existing plants, as well as the modalities of exercise of the same plants, excluding new plants from the application field. The decree establishes measures aimed at avoiding or, if not possible, reduce the emissions of such activities in the air, water and soil, including the measures concerning waste and the ones aimed at obtaining a high level of environment protection overall.
“Integrated Environmental Authorisation” is the measure that allows the management of a plant or part of it at certain conditions guaranteeing compliance to the requisites established by the decree.

Integrated Environmental Authorisation can be requested for one or more plants or part of them, both on the same site or managed by the same supervisor.

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Urban Runoff Management

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 16:28:13 +0000

Control of water pollution deriving from the outflow of waters in urban environments

The phenomenon of outflow of waters in urban areas is one of the main reasons for the decay of watercourses and lake basins. While, in fact, in natural environments such as woods, prairies and wetlands, meteoric waters are slowly washed out and filtered from and through the soil and therefore are naturally purified, in urban environments, the non-filtering surfaces of buildings andpaved roads allows for a rapid washing out towards receptor bodies or mixed and separated drainage systems. Waters mostly full of more or less polluting sediments and solid materials therefore reach drainage systems. Finally, the waterproofing of soil in urban areas brings damage to the environment with chemical-physical consequences but also hydrological. The inflow of great volumes of water that happens at the same time as prolonged or intense meteoric events causes significative morphological and hydrological consequences on receptive bodies, connected to the sudden increase in rate and velocity of the flow and to erosive phenomena causing damages to the fish fauna and other aquatic life forms or even make the watercourse useless for its purpose (drinking water or bathing waters). Given the current pace of urbanization, it is clear that an intervention in order to limit and manage the outflow of waters from urbanized areas, also subject to a rapid increase, is needed. In order to protect the quality of surface waters and groundwaters it is clearly necessary to limit the outflow and decrease the pollution load deriving from urban runoff. Particularly, it is necessary to focus on the first 5 mm of water from each rainfall event that wash out the urban surface bringing with them a higher concentration of polluting agents and sediments.

The pollution of body of surface water is another phenomenon connected to intense rain events, deriving from the overflowing floodways and flood water spillways in purification plants.

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Environmental modelling

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 16:33:41 +0000

The use of models in the field of environmental management is now fundamental and of primary importance, especially concerning environmental impact assessment. Through these systems is, in fact, possible to make forecasts on the effects that some works can have on the environment and on biocenosis, sometimes the result is precise quantifications, for instance, in terms of loss of aquatic habitat caused by a water derivation or increase of concentration of polluting agents introduced in the atmosphere by a waste gas. The usefulness of these instruments in planning effective strategies for the limiting of the impacts taken under examination and in obtaining a fair cost-benefit ratio is clear.

The application of these models asks for a preliminary study of the working modalities of the works of which it is asked to forecast the effects (i.e. entity, duration in time and composition of a drain, or entity and time modality of water sampling), flanked by a detailed definition of the environmental reference framework (particularly the component that needs to be assessed, i.e. aquatic ecosystems in case of a study on the effects of a water derivation). The results of the preliminary study will produce the necessary data for the implementation of the environmental models and their proper application. An experimental validation of the results of the modelling can also be carried out, if the characteristics of the project or work in exam and the ones of the environment in which they are inserted allow it, in order to have a better calibration of the model and therefore obtain a higher degree of reliability of the forecasts it supplies.

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Landscaping and planning of green areas

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 16:40:40 +0000

In the last century, starting from the United States and from the great industrialized and urban areas of the european countries, there has been a general awareness of the damage and decline of the territory caused by extended building areas and industrial activities managed without any organization. The lack of territorial resources and the urgent necessity of planning and organizing works on the territory was, therefore, understood.
New disciplines planning green areas and landscapes wereborn, both at a punctual scale (the planning of parks and gardens) and a territorial level (the planning of greenways, bicycle and pedestrian paths, woodlands buffer areas).
The activity deals mainly with the planning of green areas (parks and gardens) and the planning of landscape. Particular attention is given to the choice of the species and the vegetation to be introduced, they have to be suitable to the characteristics of the area (microclimate, soil, exposure, etc.) in order to guarantee, in the best way possible, a successful intervention and also a successful future evolution, along with accomplishing the purpose and desired effects of the project.

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Impact studies on vegetation

Stefania Trasforini — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 16:43:43 +0000

The assessing of the effects on vegetation, derived from construction site activities, is an important aspect in the field of studies concerning the assessing of the impact of works in areas with woods.

Following the assessing of the consistency and importance of the typologies of woods in the area, impact categories on woods are underlined, with reference to the characteristics of the project. According to the kind of alterations and the woods involved in the construction phase and/or practise of the works in project, measures of environmental limitation and/or compensation are established, with respect to the existing forester law.

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Requalification and reforestation

Stefania Trasforini — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 13:33:53 +0000

The projects of forest requalification were aimed at the promotion and increase of the potential typologies of forests in relation to the field of intervention, in light of a sustainable forest managing. Working mostly in territorial fields in need of a specific safeguard (i.e. regional parks), forest planning kept in mind not only the promotion of the wood as a resource but the whole forest ecosystem, therefore taking in consideration the local fauna necessities.

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Managing of forest resources

Stefania Trasforini — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 13:50:20 +0000

The numerous functions of protection, social welfare and production that the wood has to carry out must be kept through a cautious managing of the forest resource. The managing has to be sustainable, that is to say, the availability of the forest resource must be guaranteed for future generations too, without giving up aims of socio-economical promotion. For this reason, it is necessary to establish what kind of works have to be carried out in our woods, in order to adapt the use and the interventions to the vital natural processes, to favour the stability and quality of stands in time and space.

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Educational and environmental divulgation

Stefania Trasforini — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 13:53:28 +0000

We put a constant effort even in the divulgation and environmental education field. We recognize the key role of the awareness of the public opinion in the conservation and cautious management of natural resources. In most of our works we dedicate a lot of time to divulgation and environmental education, using the most different forms of communication and divulgation.

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