Since its foundation in 1981, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Florence carries out the academic and research activities in the field of civil and environmental engineering. The research programs extend to cover extensively the fields of Structural Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Building Design, Transportation Engineering and Topography, Geotechnics, Applied Geology and Geophysics. The research group that will be involved in the LIFE LESSWATT project belongs to the Department and it has a strong background on sanitary and environmental engineering. In the last ten years the research activity was mainly dedicated to biological processes for industrial and domestic wastewater treatment as well as to mechanical and biological processes for municipal solid wastes.

The research unit BIOMATH is embedded in the Dept. of mathematical modelling, statistics and bioinformatics. It has vast expertise in model-based bioprocess analysis and optimization. Great focus has been on modelling of wastewater treatment plants. BIOMATH has expertise particularly in modelling of aeration and greenhouse gas emissions, two vital aims in the current proposal. In terms of aeration models, several models have been developed in different types of systems (conventional activated sludge and membrane bioreactors). Current research to understand detailed mechanisms of oxygen transfer is ongoing. With regard to GHG emissions, in BIOMATH there is an important task group of the International Water Association dealing with modelling of GHGs from wastewater treatment plants.