The Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Piemonte (Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale del Piemonte - Arpa Piemonte) is a public body with independent status for administrative, technical-juridical, asset management and accounting purposes. It operates under the oversight of the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the regional government so as to ensure compliance with the policy guidelines issued by the Regione Piemonte in the fields of forecasting, preventive actions and preservation of the environment. Following the citizen referendum of 1993, environmental control tasks have been entrusted to a complex prevention and protection system, operated by Agencies established ad hoc at regional level: the Arpas. Arpa Piemonte was established by regional law no. 60 of 13 April 1995. Then, with regional law no. 28 of 20 November 2002, the Agency was assigned the task of monitoring and preventing natural hazards and acquired full responsibility for all environmental protection and control functions. Arpa Piemonte is a member of a network of Agencies that includes the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale - ISPRA), 19 regional Agencies, and the 2 agencies of the independent provinces (Trento and Bolzano).