Drought and water stress: Sardinia among Italy's "deserts"

Drought, water stress, and sea warming make the coastal areas of Sardinia one of the "deserts of Italy," along with the coastal areas of Sicily and the territories of Abruzzo, Northern Puglia, and Basilicata (as well as Western Piedmont and Southern Lombardy).

This is what ANBI (National Association of Consortia for the Management and Protection of Land and Irrigation Waters) found by analyzing the SPEI (Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index: rainfall anomalies + evapotranspiration rate) index for the recent summer months and highlighting how the coasts of the island and those of the other regions cited are experiencing "extreme drought".

"Overall," Anbi explains, "weather data clearly shows how the regions of Southern Italy are more exposed than others to the effects of warming in the Mediterranean basin, experiencing greater water stress due to the combination of low rainfall and extreme temperatures, which accelerate the process of water evapotranspiration. While the southern regions of the peninsula were able to weather this summer with record-breaking water reserves, thanks to infrastructure for rainwater storage, in the North, water shortages have severely impacted its use, especially agriculture."

"The South, historically penalized by low rainfall and drought, has developed infrastructure over the years to store water for use in lean times," recalls Massimo Gargano, Director General of ANBI. "In the North, where reservoirs were built almost exclusively for hydroelectric production, agriculture suffers whenever the autumn-winter season lacks snow, which will melt and become a water resource with the onset of the warmer months."

(Unioneonline)