Sponsors of the event:

 

Dates to remember

!!! 12th of September 2010 !!! Deadline for Regular Registration

4-9 October 2010 Conference takes place

 

--> Afternoon

Experimental Farm of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Padua.

Visit at the following experimental facilities:

1) integrated system of controlled drainage and wetland to reduce agricultural water pollution. The facility, extended over a surface of about 6 hectares, reproduces, on scale, the feature of a typical agricultural basin of the Italian lowlands. The area is divided into 12 plots, where surface and pipe drainage are managed according to free (all the excess water is eliminated) or controlled (only the excess water that can cause problems to crops or soil is eliminated) drainage. The plots discharge the water into a surface flow wetland for further purification prior to be diverted into a stream. The experiment is running since 1996.

 

2) buffer strips (BS) to control agricultural water pollution, mainly acting for denitrification and phosphorus and pesticides trapping. The following four types of BS, interposed between field and ditch, are studied, in comparison with absence of BS (N): 3 m wide, with only grass cover (Festuca arundinacea L.) (3F); 3 m wide, composed of one row of regularly alternating trees (Platanus hybryda Brot.) and shrubs (Viburnum opulus L.) (31S); 6 m wide, composed of a 3 m strip of grass and a row of trees/shrubs (61S); 6 m wide, composed of two rows of trees/shrubs. The experiment, running since 1988, is the oldest monitored buffer strip system in Italy.

 

3) Multifunctional surface wetlands in an agricultural farm located nearby the Venice Lagoon

The system, realized in a farm of 110 hectares, is composed by 7 basins treating surface water before their discharge into the Dese river very close to the discharge in the Venice lagoon. The total wetland cells surface is around 12 hectares. The site is enormously rich in biodiversity and is an astonishing example of multi-functionality of wetland systems. It is located in a spectacular site in the Venice lagoon from where the skyline of Venice can be seen.

Surface flow wetland Cà di Mezzo

Treating water diverted from a reclamation channel before discharging into the Venice Lagoon.

--> Afternoon

Rovigo Province Landfill Site Leachates Treatment – Villadose , Rovigo

Ecogest Srl, the company which manage the waste cycle in the Rovigo province, has realised a natural treatment system for solving their high expenses in transporting the leachates produced in their landfill site to a delocalized WWTP; for the difficult nature of this kind of wastewater the adopted design is also quite complex. The CWs system is a multistage plant which will be able to treat from 10 to 40 m3/d and it’s composed by: a peat filter, a 2 stages vertical submerged flow CW, an horizontal submerged flow CW, a Free Water System and finally a storage pond. The final effluent can be pumped back to the landfill for capping irrigation or discharged in a small ditch. The total area of the treatment plant is about 5800 m2. The total cost for the CWT is about 1,7M $.

 

Municipality of Preganziol (Venice)

A new social housing settlement (240 pe) includes innovative water systems for buildings, like as water saving, grey water reuse, rain water harvesting. Rainwater is harvested from roofs and other surfaces (parking area, …) in a separate way and it’s differently treated before its use.

Grey water is treated by a HF CW (14,5 m3/d in 232 m2) and then stored for reuse (toilet flushing and landscaping), together with the harvested and treated rainwater. Rainwater is treated in a 50m2 VF CW. The water cycle optimisation is saving about 9000 m3 of potable water per year and a 30-35% reduction of the discharged wastewater in the municipal sewer.