| Project Detail |
Italy is the 1st European country to export crops irrigated from depleted groundwater sources. JustWATER will uncover exactly where in Italy export-led irrigation agriculture is exploiting the most vulnerable groundwaters and water-scarce areas, identifying bad virtual water GIS hotspots. JustWATER is a research aimed at providing Italian water experts and water decision-makers with a set of tools for informed actions in the realm of the hydro politics of the country. JustWATER connects irrigation patterns to crop-exports trends in Italy, producing GIS maps, graphic charts and socio-economic data to enhance water-related decision-making through virtual water analysis. The novelty of this research is the connection among sub-national levels of analysis (regional and district level) to global virtual water flows, exploring their social and environmental effects and paying attention to gender issues. Exploring the connection between irrigation trends and patterns of agricultural exports will lead to better understanding national water politics in Italy and can be replicated in other drought-prone EU countries.The researcher will get training and knowledge transfer, enhancing her employability and career prospects; the project will enhance the visibility of University of Bergamo in the forefront institutions that are active in both virtual water issues and water & gender enquiry, thanks to the gender-transformative tools enacted by the project. Interdisciplinary in nature, JustWATER will draw upon insights from Human Geography, Political Economy and Political Ecology. Introducing the sub-national scale of analysis constitutes a substantial theoretical innovation in the virtual water literature, which has so far concentrated on the global and national scale. JustWATER will provide policy-oriented tools and end-users data to serve citizen science and open science practices, allowing not only interoperability of research outputs, but also replicability in other countries. |
