METROpolitan WAter Communities. A circular economy model for integrated water resource management

Abstract

The METRO-WAC research project aims to find guidelines and indicators for the implementation of WAter Communities capable of catalysing territorial regeneration of implicit or compromised landscapes and generating synergistic opportunities for adaptation to climate change. The thesis is that using runoff for urban and agricultural water needs is an effective adaptation strategy, but also an efficient one if water reserves and drainage networks are multi-scale and multifunctional infrastructures that can be financed with resources allocated also for other purposes. Just as for energy communities, it is necessary to think about circularity, about community exchanges, within the territory and between territories, in order to get to relate to water as it has always been done in the past: in terms of a cycle. The scientific literature highlights the achievement of a high maturity in the offer of products for the sustainable and integrated management of water in urban and territorial metabolisms. In Mediterranean areas, however, it is essential to study the procedural aspects and implement planning processes in which the actors, participating in the project concept and subsequent management, support the decision makers in the effective implementation. The test of the urban meta-project developed for the Fosso Reale basin in Naples recorded the desired results but also highlighted some limitations in the available technologies and in the governance of the process.