The "Climate change" priority area  is focused at adjusting natural resources in the EU to a potential temperature increase of 2°C from enlarged greenhouse gas emissions.

In particular the first objective of TRUST is to adapt the groundwater of the Veneto and Friuli Plain to the adverse impacts of climate change.

The water table in the Veneto and Friuli Plain has increasingly decreased in the last 30-40 years and the project aims at demonstrating innovative actions to halt and reverse this slow but progressive decline. The lower water table in the Upper Plain has led to desiccation of numerous wetlands and depressurisation of aquifers in the Medium Plain. This negative trend of the groundwater is bound to worsen with climate change, as droughts will increase in intensity and frequency. Still, groundwater can remain the primary water source for the Italian Northern Adriatic basins if managed in a sustainable manner and, even better, if recharge is increased.

The TRUST project intends to incorporate climate change in river basin management and identify adaptation measures based on artificial aquifer recharge to mitigate the impacts of drought and water scarcity.

Secondly, TRUST intends to build the capacity of the coordinating beneficiary, the Authority of the Northern Adriatic River Basins (Isonzo, Tagliamento, Piave, Brenta-Bacchiglione and Livenza rivers) to define the objectives and measures for the aquifer recharge in the Veneto and Friuli Upper Plain using excessive surface waters (e.g. from floods).

TRUST will help them in coordinating the macro-actions for artificial aquifer recharge at river basin level and involving the various stakeholders. With this scope, TRUST links with European water policy, namely the Water Framework Directive, Floods Directive and the European Policy on Water Scarcity and Droughts.

The project will examine the aspects connected to the development of the "river basin governance" and will focus on the set-up of a group of stakeholders concerned with the management and use of the groundwater resources in the project area.

The establishment of this co-operative stakeholders’ framework will be the foundation for the coordination of actions to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on groundwater resources. A network of national and European stakeholders will be created to disseminate the lessons learned outside of the project area.

TRUST also aims at increasing the knowledge base of groundwater quantitative processes in the study area through the implementation of innovative tools such as remote sensing, hydrological & groundwater models, climate change models, and Web-GIS.

Along with the technical and hydro-geological dimension, the project will also conduct a cost-benefit analysis to compare the situation where no action is taken against aquifer recharge solutions. This economic analysis is in line with the cost recovery principles requested by the WFD and TRUST intends to provide insight into the costs of using and sustaining groundwater.