Po river district Authority

Po river basin Authority (AdbPo) is a public body formerly established in 1989 as a planning authority entrusted with the drawing up of the “Basin plan”, a single regulatory instrument ensuring coordinated actions at watershed scale for hydrogeological risk mitigation, environmental protection and sustainable development of water depending sectors.

The Po river is the longest in Italy and its watershed represented the first territorial jurisdiction of Po river basin Authority, to which other minor watersheds have been added in 2015, changing the Authority to the actual Po river district Authority, fully responding to provisions of European Water Framework Directive and Flood Directive, and having jurisdiction over an international territory of 86.859 km² (82.788 km² in Italy), and 9 Regions (Valle d’Aosta, Piemonte, Liguria, Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Provincia Autonoma di Trento, Veneto, Marche – see map at https://adbpo.gov.it/territorio-di-competenza/).

AdbPo responds to the Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea Protection, but it’s organized as a governance body between national and regional levels.

Its functions relate to the implementation of River Basin Management Plan (Dir 2000/60/EU), of Flood Risk Management Plan, (Dir 2007/60/EU), and for the implementation of EU Water Scarcity and Drought Policy (Blueprint to Safe Europe’s Water, 2012) (Po Water Balance Plan), including issue of adaptation to climate change.

AdbPo operates as a promoter of governance across the whole river basin district, enabling debate about unitary planning strategies and choices among all institutional and private bodies representatives of environmental and economic sectors, cooperating for the sake of safeguarde and sustainable use of water resources.

In the TEACHER-CE project AdbPo is responsible for testing and implementation of the CC-ARP-CE integrated toolbox in the pilot area of the Enza basin-Emilia Romagna Region, through stakeholders involvement.

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