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Strengthening the resilience of irrigated agriculture in the Italian Alps: MountResilience’s approach in Piedmont

Climate-adaptive water management through digital tools, stakeholder collaboration, and regional policy reform 

  • +2 degrees Celsius

    temperature increase registered over 60 years

  • 1600-1700m

    Snow registered negative anomaly at altitudes of 1600-1700m

  • 6-8 days

    Decrease of 6-8 annual rainy days in 10 years

  • 2023-2028

    Implementation timeline

Replicability

Replicating water management solutions in mountainous agricultural regions

Best suited for

Regions best suited to replicate the Piedmont solutions are those where agricultural areas in plains or lowlands depend on water originating from surrounding mountainous regions.Similarly situated regions experiencing altered hydrological regimes due to changes in snowfall, snowmelt, and precipitation patterns would find the MountResilience approach applicable, particularly where competing water demands create scarcity and necessitate coordinated management between upstream mountain sources and downstream users.  

Stakeholders' role

Replication of the Piedmont solutions requires engagement from multiple stakeholders working in coordination. Regional authorities play a central role in developing decision-support tools and driving legal and policy reforms. Farmers are essential as end-users who apply irrigation evaluation tools at the farm level and provide practical input. Water and land reclamation consortia manage the irrigation networks and use tools such as the digital twin for daily operations and planning. Researchers and academic institutions contribute technical expertise and lead the revision of regulatory frameworks. Public authorities monitor water availability and guide future investments. Continuous dialogue with local stakeholders ensures that reforms respond to practical needs and strengthen institutional capacity, while citizens are also engaged to foster behavioural change in addressing climate impacts in mountainous regions.  

Built-in scalable solutions

The replicable elements of this project include the digital decision-support tools, Beyond technology, the governance model serves as a replicable component, involving the revision of regional legal frameworks through structured working groups that maintain a bottom-up, partnership-oriented approach with continuous dialogue among authorities, researchers, water consortia, and farmers.  

Funding pathways

The MountResilience project is funded through Horizon EU under grant agreement number 101112876.