You are about to become aware of all our activities and our learnings: enjoy them!
INTRODUCTORY LESSONS
Before joining the project we attended a few introductory lessons in Milan and in Brescia. Several associations (FAI, Cariplo Foundation, the University of Milan and Spedali Civili in Brescia) gave us some information about the water and the environment to prepare us for our research campaigns.
WHERE HAVE WE BEEN?
Here is a map of the North of Italy, with all our survey areas
SOLDA (BOLZANO, ITALY) _ 10-11-12 OCTOBER, 2014
Our first survey: a three-day-campaign in Südtirol.
During these days we were divided into three small groups and each of them worked on the same things, but in different moments.
We worked on lots of different aspects: for example we carried on several water samplings or we controlled the ph in the water of the streams near Solda (also at night, in order to notice the differences in the water in different parts of the day). We used analogical and digital equipment for water, air conditions, surrounding light and wind analysis. We were also equipped with rucksacks, with a digital instrument
inside, which collected data for the whole day and
registered all the locations we took, during the surveys
(they had a GPS inside).
We measured the depth of the water, with a landing net,
inorder to rebuild the river area.
On the other days, we reached different lodges (on mount
Ortles and mount Zebrù): during these excursions, we
studied the rocks and the glaciers which we came across.
For example, while we were reaching the lodge
“Tabaretta,Hütte” (on mount Ortles), we walked on a path
which ranover tons of debris which cover a black glacier,
called likethis because of the debris over it.
We also notice human intervention on the environment:
parts of larch forest damaged by ski lifts or other
enormous buildings.
DISCOVER OUR PATHS
Click on the pictures to relive our paths on Mount Ortles and Mount Zebrù
EDOLO (BRESCIA, ITALY)_ 29-30 APRIL, 2015
In April, 2015, we went to Edolo, Val Camonica, to carry out water-samplings in Oglio river and his tributaries (Ogliolo and Narcanello) and to study the water impact on the environment. That was our second survey campaign about the water path from upstream to downstream and we worked on a different environment compared to the first one: we weren’t on high mountains anymore and we didn’t work on glaciers neither we reached lodges but, during our two-day-survey, we were divided into three groups and we worked on different aspects and stretches of the rivers.
-Bio-indicators
This group, led by the professor
Massimo Patelli, worked on the E.B.I
(Extended Biotic Index) and
macro-invertebrates, which are a kind
of functional bio-indicators, present in
most of the rivers, streams and canals
and sensitive to pollution. In
particular, we studied caddisflies
(Trichoptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera)
andmayflies (Ephemeroptera);
-Geomorphology
Led by the professors Mauro Bozzoni
and AlessandroPirrello, these students
worked on the geomorphological
aspect of the river Oglio and his
tributaries and of the environment
around them: they used tables and maps
in order to get to know about the surrounding territory;
-Water analysis
Thanks to the professors Raffaele Ciavarella and Fulvio Schiavone, these students carried out water analysis, by surveying the Ph, the electrical conductivity , the temperature and the dissolved oxygen in the water. They also measured the depth of the river bed, in order to rebuild the river area and studied air conditions and radioactivity of the territory.
SELLERO, DARFO BOARIO TERME AND PISOGNE (BRESCIA)_26 OCTOBER 2015
The 27th of October, we went to Sellero, Darfo Boario Terme and Pisogne (Brescia), in order to follow the river Oglio path up to the lake Iseo. As always, we were divided into three groups and we carried on water analysis from a chemical-physical point of view, from a geomorphological one and from a biological one. Unfortunately, we found such a very polluted water, a lot of pollution on the river banks and on the trees around the river bed. We even found rubbish in the water in the river estuary. There was a low amount of bio-indicators and we found only a few different families of them: this is because of the bad condition of the water, got worse during its path from the glacier up to the lake.
PONTE DI LEGNO, VEZZA D'OGLIO AND DARFO BOARIO TERME (BRESCIA)_30 APRIL 2016
The 30th of October, 2016, we went to Ponte di Legno, Vezza d'Oglio and Darfo Boario Terme (Brescia), to carry on further analysis in the same places where we had been in the past.
For the first time we weren't divided into smaller groups of students but we worked all together, analyzing different aspects of the river Oglio. We studied the physical-chemical aspect, by checking the Ph and the electric conducibility and we also analized the river flow, by putting a little milk in the water (in this way we were able to see the direction of the water). We filmed and documented all our activities and we're going to show them in our blog.