Italy's mighty but ailing Po River will get a complete checkup over the coming month which will focus not only on the waterway's ills but also its cultural and scientific wealth.
In Search of the Great River is an initiative by Italy's University of Gastronomic Sciences and will see 153 students and their professors travel by bicycle and boat from the river's source near Monviso in northwest Italy to its delta on the Adriatic.
The 650km field trip through four regions and 13 provinces will run from September 26 to October 20 and be divided into 25 stages.
According to the university's chancellor, Alberto Capatti, the aim of the project is to "focus on how the Po was and how it is now. This to provide a comprehensive report not only on the river's weaknesses but also its strengths, which can serve as the basis for a new future".
The ambitious field trip, he added, "must help enrich our students' cultural background. It is our hope that these experts in food and wine will understand the complexity of the landscape, from an historic and geographical perspective. This will be a collective investigation into the gastronomic culture of the Great River".
The University of Gastronomic Sciences was founded in 2004 and is the brainchild of Carlo Petrini, the creator of the Slow Food movement which seeks to promote quality foods and wine.
During the Po River field trip, students will attend daily classes, seminars and conferences on subjects related to Italy's longest river. Members of the river's community - including fishermen, blue-collar workers and scholars - will help the students understand how the river works and to examine its health and potential resources.
Aside from exercising their abilities to organize, research and learn from the locals, students will also have an opportunity to discover the area's history, foods and culinary traditions.
POLLUTION PROBLEMS FOR PO RIVER.
A scientific study by experts from four universities made earlier this year found that on a scale of one to five the water of the Po River stood at two.
The study said that while the waters of the river were relatively clean, high pollution levels were found in the silt layers, especially in the delta area on the Adriatic.
Most of the river's pollution, 52%, came from industry, 33% from farming and livestock raising and 15% from domestic sources.
According to the experts who drew up the report, the greatest threat to the river came from farming and livestock raising because they were the most difficult to control.
While water discharged into the river from industry and urban areas can be treated, the experts explained, in agriculture farm lands are fertilised with pollutants which then wash off into the river or sink into water tables.
The Po River basin has a population of 16 million people and produces 40% of the nation's GDP and accounts for 46% of the labor force.
The basin also hosts 55% of Italy's livestock farms and 35% of the country's working farms.
PO RISKS RUNNING DRY BEFORE REACHING DELTA.
If current climate trends continue, Italy's Po River risks running dry some 100km before reaching its delta on the Adriatic Sea, experts warned in a recent report.
This will result in salt water rising up the river, upsetting the environmental balance and making traditional forms of agriculture impossible.
Drawn up in view of this past month's National Climate Conference 2007 in Rome, the report concluded that the Po is a "river in crisis".
This is because reduced rain and snowfall has lowered the amount of water feeding the river, while higher temperatures have increased evaporation and forced farmers to draw more water from the river to irrigate their crops.
According to Italy's Environment Protection Agency (APAT), the level of the Po has fallen 20-25% in the last 30 years.
APAT said that around 73% of the water drawn from the Po is for agriculture, while drinking water accounts for 11% of the extracted water, hydroelectric-energy plants 9% and industry 7%.
