The designation of NVZ has undergone several evolutions over the years, thanks to the new scientific tools available: let’s discover together the situation in Puglia today!

The first designation of the NVZ by the Puglia Region dates back to 2005: in response to Directive 91/676 / EEC, an inter-departmental working group was set up with the task of providing for the “perimeter and designation” of the Vulnerable Zones from Nitrates (NVZ) of agricultural origin and the preparation of the “Action Program”, which would become the current PAN (Nitrates Action Plan).

In the following years, the Puglia Region, in collaboration with the CNR-IRSA, started reviewing the Nitrate Vulnerable Areas and drafting the new Action Program, based on

“Of the cognitive investigations referring to the environmental and anthropic state of Puglia and the results of the monitoring and control programs of surface and underground waters”.

The latest re-perimetration of the ZVN brought the total area to 387,592 ha compared to the previous area of 104,055 ha, in detail:

perimetrazione ZVN

And it is in this context of continuous monitoring and revision of parameters and designations that the DEMETRA DSS project was born.

Thanks to the participation of farms (Sempreverde), cooperatives (APOFRUIT, Cantine di Lizzano e Torricella) and trade organizations (Confcooperative Puglia), representing the main regional production sectors, we want to promote the use of biomolecular methods (meta-genomics ) for the identification of sources of nitrate contamination in the main areas of the ZVN (and monitoring areas).

Furthermore, thanks to the introduction of digital solutions to manage the large amount of data collected (from field information to laboratory results), we want to support institutions future better designation of the NZV.

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