Off-season irrigation as a climate adaptation strategy for future groundwater management in Northern Italy

Abstract

Northern Italy is a historically water abundant region. However, it was struck by a major meteorological drought recently, which caused many damages to agriculture and other sectors. Adaptation measures to a changing climate and to extreme events is thus a growing topic and measures have to be tested and planned to be able to avoid future water scarcity. Here, a possible adaptation measure is proposed and evaluated through field tests and numerical modelling: the flooding of fields during periods of water abundance as an additional aquifer recharge. Results show that the measure has a considerable potential in infiltrating high volumes of water. This work only shows the first achieved results, more data and improved numerical models are needed to sustain this consideration and assess the feasibility of the measure, both of which will be achieved in the next years.