Hydrophilia. Il futuro del paesaggio agrario per la gestione delle risorse idriche e la salvaguardia ambientale delle Valli di Comacchio e le Terre del Mezzano

This contribution investigates the interactions between the rural landscape and the brackish lagoons ecosystem, as well as the fragile water balance that characterises the Comacchio Valleys in relation to the agricultural system of the Mezzano lands, in the Po river Delta. The environmental potential of the area is currently compromised by anthropic activities linked to aggressive land reclamation and intensive agricultural practices, aggravated by the threat of salt wedge intrusion. The proposed approach aims at overcoming the current management model by reducing the cultivated areas in favour to the insertion of constructed wetlands. The strategy is not just aimed to provide ecosystem services to the entire lagoon habitat, but, by means of phyto-purification and aquifer recharging devices, it elaborates a transition landscape that works as a freshwater barrier safeguarding cultivated land from the interaction with the brackish interface and counteracting the eutrophication processes of the Comacchio Valleys.