Tools and models to support water management in agriculture under policy and climate change. The Trebbia irrigation district experience

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) should guarantee the "good status" of nearly all European waters by the year 2015, the achievement of this ambitious goal is made more difficult by climate change which is recognized to have a strong impact on freshwater resources. Agriculture has been identified as a strategic sector and environmental objectives are progressively integrated into the reformed agricultural policy. The use of models and tools is recommended in the WFD to support the implementation process of the Directive. This paper first briefly clarifies the policy context, then considers tools and models applied in Italy to water management and agriculture. Recommendations are then presented on how tools should be used, taking the Trebbia irrigation district experience in the Po valley as an example, where a participatory process supports the Irrigation Board in preparing the water conservation plan.