Sustainable management of water resources

IRIDRA is an engineering firm with twenty-year experience and interdisciplinary professionals, able to provide all the services in the field of planning, design and work supervision of works related to sustainable water management. 

Constructed wetlands:

• secondary treatment
• tertiary treatment of technological plants
• reuse of treated wastewater
• stormwater management and recovery
• treatment of runoff from industrial and agricultural sources
• improvement of watercourse quality with river restoration, naturalistic engineering and reconstruction of natural wetlands
• sewage treatment from mixed sewers

IRIDRA has designed what are currently among the largest constructed wetlands as secondary and tertiary treatment such as:

• Municipality of Dicomano, 3,500 p.e. in Italy (secondary)
• Municipality of Orhei, 20,000 p.e. in
• Moldova (secondary)
• Village of Sarra in Palestine, 4,500 p.e. (secondary)
• Municipality of Jesi, 60,000 p.e. (tertiary)

Thanks to the continuous technical and scientific updating of its staff on new frontiers in the field of constructed wetlands, IRIDRA has been able over the years to be the ideal bridge between scientific research discoveries and application, always proposing the most innovative and suitable solutions for wastewater treatment such as:

• the first plant in Italy to treat landfill leachate with natural treatment techniques (Taglietto Landfill, Rovigo)
• the treatment with constructed wetlands of highway runoff water in the Villesse-Gorizia junction managed by Autovie Venete and the drafting of the Intervention Guidelines on the same issue for SPEA - Autostrade S.p.A.
• the study and design of natural treatment systems for the treatment of mixed sewer overflows in the Lambro-Olona-Seveso basin on behalf of the Po River Basin Authority
  
• nutrient reduction interventions with natural systems as part of the depollution of the Venice lagoon for the Dese Sile Consortium
• the constructed wetlands for discharges from wine and agri-food companies (including the Cantine Cecchi in Castellina in Chianti (SI), the Azienda Vitivinicola Ornellaia in Bolgheri (LI) and the Fattoria della Piana dairy in Candidoni (RC)
• the high-altitude sewage treatment constructed wetland for effluent produced by the Garelli refuge
• the constructed wetlands for the treatment of mixed sewer overflows at the head of large centralized sewage treatment plants (Merone, Carimate) and along the sewer network (Capiago, Villaguardia) using some of the most innovative techniques (e.g., aerated constructed wetlands)

To date, IRIDRA is the only engineering firm in Italy to be able to propose the design of new generation constructed wetlands (the so-called constructed wetlands 2.0), which are able to provide considerable advantages over classical applications:

• aerated constructed wetlands (Forced Bed Aeration - FBA), which, thanks to an internal bed aeration system, are able to reduce the space required by up to 4-5 times compared to classical constructed wetlands, remaining in terms of operating costs competitive with conventional wastewater treatment solutions
• French-style constructed wetlands (French reed bed - FRB), which, thanks to a particular configuration and feeding, do not require primary wastewater treatment (e.g. Imhoff tanks or septic tanks), further reducing the operating and maintenance costs of the plant.

Finally, since 2013 IRIDRA has been a founding member of Global Wetland Technology, an international association of 10 of the world's largest companies operating in the field of constructed wetlands.

IRIDRA's technical staff has contributed greatly to the dissemination of these systems in Italy and abroad, examples of which include:

• the activities conducted for the International Water Association (IWA), including the organization of the "12th International Conference on Natural Treatment Systems for Pollution Control," held in Venice October 4-8, 2010
• through the numerous participations in national and international conferences, congresses and seminars (e.g. WetPol or ICWS)
• participation in EU projects (SWAMP, Zero-M, WATACLIC, SWMED, NaWaTech, OpenNESS) and international cooperation (Ideass Project with UNDP-UN, collaborations with many international NGOs such as OXFAM Italy, GVC, etc.)
• Scientific and popular publications including:
  • drafting of the " Guidelines for the Design and Management of Artificial Wetlands for the Treatment of Civil Wastewater," published by APAT - ARPAT, in 2005 and currently considered the Italian Guidelines for the design of constructed wetlands for civil wastewater
  • editing of the guidelines for the design of constructed wetlands in the alpine environment, financed by Interreg Alcotra project in collaboration with Marguareis Park
  • editing of the book "Practical manual of constructed wetlands" published by Terra Nuova in 2013
    

IRIDRA's technical director, Dr. Fabio Masi, a graduate in Chemistry, PhD in Environmental Sciences, has authored numerous studies and researches on phytodepuration since 1995; since 1999 he has been coordinator for Italy of the IWA specialist group on natural treatment by constructed wetlands, and from 2012 to 2016 he was president of the aforementioned IWA specialist group. He performs teaching, consulting and research contracts at various national and international universities and institutions.