SISSA and the independent media outlet FACTA have been awarded funding from the Journalism Science Alliance for their joint project The Unwetlands. A Satellite-Based Investigation into Italy’s Lost Wetlands. The initiative is one of 24 projects selected from 15 countries to receive support in the Alliance’s first call, which distributed nearly one million euros to journalist–scientist teams across Europe.
Co-led by Elisabetta Tola, president and editor-in-chief of FACTA, and Roberto Trotta, professor of theoretical physics and coordinator of the Theoretical and Scientific Data Science Group at SISSA, The Unwetlands will explore how and why Italy is losing some of its most precious ecosystems. Wetlands play a vital role in maintaining biodiversity, preventing floods and enhancing climate resilience, and are central to the EU’s Nature Restoration Law. Yet across Italy, they continue to degrade or disappear, often due to weak enforcement, conflicting interests and political inertia.