Sustainable management of the water resource to protect the environment cannot disregard the knowledge of the interactions between the different components of the system and the involvement of stakeholders acting on the territory.

Environment, landscape, economy, culture and health are just some of the components that, in the Ticino hydrological basin, are closely connected with the water resource, by its nature a common good without borders, and therefore need to be considered appropriately in a transboundary context.

The interconnections between water, nature, climate, and agriculture describe the mutual relationships between these elements: for example, water is fundamental to nature and agriculture, climate affects water availability and agricultural production, and agricultural practices can in turn affect natural balances due to intensive activities and the use of potentially polluting substances.

Project objectives
The activities envisaged by the WINCA4TI (Water Interactions with Nature, Climate and Agriculture for Ticino), which started in January 2025 and will run until June 30, 2027, aim to analyze and describe the complex interactions between water, economy, environment and agriculture that exist in the Ticino basin in the context of significant climate change.

This will identify possible risks, opportunities and challenges for the transnational territory of the Ticino hydrological basin in terms of management policies and technological renewal.

The results of the project will be crucial to be able to create a participatory forum, where all stakeholders in the area will have the opportunity to stay informed and bring their input for a sustainable development of the transboundary territory towards the realization of a Water-Smart Society according to the directions of the EU Blue Deal, which places a paradigm shift at the center.

According to the latter, the role of water will have to be recognized and enhanced to ensure water availability, sustainability and resilience; all water sources will have to be managed to avoid water scarcity and pollution.

From a systems perspective, operationally there will be activities pertaining to:

• to carrying out analyses to identify the climatic, environmental and socioeconomic context of the Ticino River Basin area;
• to the efficiency of irrigation resource management systems to optimize their distribution and make the networks resilient to the effects arising from climate change in favor of agriculture and related eco-systems; 
• to the implementation of monitoring, studies and pilot projects, as well as participatory evaluation activities for the identification of shared actions among territorial stakeholders, such as: interventions in sample areas with NBS (Nature-based Solutions) for the restoration of water-related habitats, monitoring of key parameters of water quality and aquatic environments, automation of resource distribution systems and related monitoring;
• to define operational strategies to manage the water resource sustainably and to support biodiversity enhancement through nexus analysis.

The project partnership
The Swiss Lead Partner is represented by the Earth Sciences Institute of the Department of Environment Construction and Design of SUPSI, together with the Office of Water Protection and Water Supply of the Department of Spatial Planning of Canton Ticino.

The Italian Lead Partner is represented by Consorzio di bonifica Est Ticino Villoresi, which will work alongside the following Italian partners: the National Research Council - Water Research Institute - Verbania Branch and the University of Pavia - Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture. 
Associated partners are also the Fondazione Bolle di Magadino and the Fondazione Patrimonio Cà Granda.

The methodological and scientific approaches adopted within the project will also go through a participatory construction of the various work phases. This will allow the co-implementation and co-validation of the progressively achieved outcomes by a multidisciplinary community of practice, so as to find the real needs of the area, attempting to solve its critical issues.
The project will develop shared strategies, aimed at being able to be adopted throughout the territory at a transboundary scale, for governance and efficient management/use of the Ticino basin water resource, resilient to climate change and protection of natural capital and biodiversity.