Sveučilište u Splitu - Fakultet građevinarstva, arhitekture i geodezije University of Split - Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy

AdSWiM - Managed use of treated urban wastewater for the quality of the Adriatic Sea

Summary and general objective

The project "Managed use of treated urban wastewater for the quality of the Adriatic Sea" - AdSWiM, began in January 2019. The overall objective of the project is to improve the quality of water bodies and the ecological status of the marine and coastal ecosystem.

Water quality in the Adriatic Sea is extremely heterogeneous. The ecological, health and hygienic characteristics of water vary from area to area in the Adriatic Sea. In some areas we measure the imbalance between nutrients (phosphorus compared to nitrogen). Moreover, the remineralization of organic matter that would normally fill any nutritional deficiencies, is highly dependent on the vitality and composition of the microbe community. Risk can occur that a condition "the abundance of species and the protection of their full reproductive capacity“ is not guaranteed overtime.

The project promotes transboundary integrated management of water resources to bring about a disrupted nutrient balance. AdSWiM project brings together research institutions, local authorities and managers of wastewater (WW) treatment plants to maintain and improve the quality of marine water.

Specific objectives

1. Improve the environmental quality condition of the Adriatic sea by managed use of treated waste water;
2. Biological parameters, analytical devices, innovative treatments to protect the bodies of water;
3. Settle and share models of DP management, present regulations efficiency assessment.

Main activities

1. Protecting and improving the quality of the bathing water through the managed use of urban treated wastewater;
2. Evaluation of the significance of new biological parameters in bathing water quality control;
3. Definition of crow-borders models to manage the wastewater treatment plants;
4. Proposal to custom check the effects of the monitoring plans to better respect the territorial features;
5. Optimization of innovative analytical tools for E.coli and Intestinal Enterococci determination;
6. Innovative processing of treated wastewater for the protection of marine and costal surface water bodies.

Expected results

The purpose of the project and cross-border cooperation is to propose new tools for acquiring better knowledge and control over the ecological state of the marine ecosystem, innovative and ecological acceptable technologies for waste water treatment and change existing regulations. Planned project results:

1. Use of innovative technologies in monitoring, treatment and management of waste water treatment processes;
2. Investigation of availability of organic and inorganic nutrients and trace microelements using new analytical techniques by testing correlation between them and hydrological variables for collecting data on bacterial vitality and their distribution of secondary research;
3. Settle and share cross-border actions to manage the depuration plants more effectively and obtain better monitored and more stable quantities nutrients, which means higher bathing water quality.
4. Improve the environmental quality condition of the Adriatic sea by managed use of treated waste water;
5. Biological parameters, analytical devices, innovative treatments to protect the bodies of water;
6. Settle and share models of DP management, present regulations efficiency assessment.

The project Lead Partner is the University of Udine. The Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy in Split is one of five project partners from Croatia and a total of 6 from Italy, in charge of implementing the Work Package 5 - Technologies and strategies for managing DPs guide lines definition and crossborders strategies.

The project Lead Partner is the University of Udine. The Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy in Split (UNIST-FGAG) is one of five project partners from Croatia (Zadar Public Health Institute, Izvor Ploče Ltd., Split Water and Sewerage Ltd., Metris Research Center of the Istrian County) and a total of 6 from Italy (Udine University, Municipality of Udine, CAFC Ltd., National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics, Polytechnic Institute of Marche, Institute of Crystallography - National Research Council, Municipality of Peschara). UNIST-FGAG is in charge of the implementation of Work Package 5 - Technologies and strategies for defining guidelines for the management of purifiers and cross-border strategies

The project is funded under the 2014 - 2020 Interreg V-A, Italy-Croatia CBC Program. The total value of the project is € 2,035,703.13 of which 85% is funded from the European Regional Development Fund. The estimated duration of the project is until the beginning of 2021.