Dragone, V.

Lo studio interessa la Piana di Metaponto, territorio posto nella regione Basilicata, lungo la costa ionica, costituito dalla porzione terminale dei bacini imbriferi dei fiumi Sinni, Agri, Cavone, Basento e Bradano. L’area è soggetta ad un intenso sviluppo economico connesso alle attività agricole, zootecniche e turistiche, per le quali si richiede una continua ed ingente disponibilità di acqua. Le risorse idriche sotterranee dell’area in esame sono particolarmente esposte al degrado quantitativo per la riduzione della ricarica e il sovrasfruttamento delle falde idriche sotterranee, fenomeni entrambi da ricondursi, come emerge da questo studio, alle recenti siccità. Lo studio si basa sulla caratterizzazione del complesso di relazioni esistenti tra i corpi idrici superficiali e sotterranei, in funzione delle modificazioni climatiche e antropiche del ciclo idrologico, con particolare attenzione alla disponibilità di acque sotterranee. Le più importanti modificazioni antropiche si sono succedute nel corso della seconda metà del secolo scorso. I primi decenni del ‘900 sono stati caratterizzati dallo sfruttamento moderatamente crescente delle acque sotterranee, principalmente nella parte alta della piana di Metaponto, l’unica salubre. Negli anni ’50 numerosi pozzi sono stati realizzati per soddisfare la domanda domestica ed irrigua, comparsa per l’insediamento nella piana di migliaia di coloni, reso possibile dalla bonifica e dalla riforma fondiaria. Durante gli anni ’60-’80, in seguito alla realizzazione di dighe e traverse, i pozzi precedentemente realizzati sono stati quasi del tutto sostituiti dalle reti irrigue. Infine, dagli anni ’80 ad oggi le perduranti e frequenti siccità da una parte hanno ridotto la ricarica degli acquiferi, dall’altra hanno frequentemente svuotato gli invasi e, di conseguenza, reso inefficaci gli acquedotti. Si è fatto ricorso così, sempre più spesso ed intensamente, ad integrazioni con nuovi e vecchi pozzi. La gravità del calo piezometrico non è data solo dalla riduzione della quantità di risorse idriche disponibili ma anche dal degrado qualitativo delle acque sotterranee per inquinamento salino, causato dall’intrusione marina.

Water is a vital and precious resource for people and for ecosystems. We should make each possible effort to protect water resources and increase people’s access to clean and sufficient water. To pursue these purposes many efforts have been realised in terms of technical rules and national laws. This contribution describes the approach of the European Union, Italy and Albania, considering also some local government initiatives concerning the protection of water resources, in terms of availability and quality, and of ecosystems. Attention is given also to the effect of the whole water cycle management in terms of environmental protection and reduction of water-related natural disaster.

The paper deals with the groundwater availability along the lonian coastal plain (Southern Italy), between the mouths of Sinni and Bradano Rivers. Subjected to intense agricultural and tourism activities, the availability of the tapped groundwater is seriously important for the economic growth ofthis coastal area, especially due to the increasing frequency of droughts. The stratigraphical and hydrogeological set-up of the area as the geochemical features of the groundwater arise from the data analysis of 1130 boreholes, widespread over the whole area and from 1.3 up to 423 meters deep. The aquifers of the area could be distinguished in two types. The former encloses aquifers constituted by marine terraced deposits and alluvial river valleys deposits. The latter includes that one of the coastal plain deposits. It is the most interesting for practical utilisation and it is considered in the paper. The analysis of long time series is based on piezometric data (1927 to 1984), monitored by 60 wells, temperature, rainfall and river discharge data. The piezometric regimen and the maximum piezometric variation are characterised. The trend analysis, the autocorrelation and the crosscorrelation were applied to all variables. As a result, the modification of groundwater availability was characterised considering the spatial variation of the hydrogeological conditions. The relationships existing between rainfall, temperature, river discharge variations and piezometric surface height.

Mediante l'utilizzo di metodi di statistica delle serie storiche è stato possibile evidenziare alcuni caratteri degli acquiferi pugliesi, quali il regime piezometrico, i rapporti intercorrenti tra precipitazioni meteoriche, temperatura atmosferica e variazioni piezometriche. La ricostruzione degli aspetti tendenziali, negli ultimi 30 anni, delle variazioni piezometriche ha mostrato un abbassamento considerevole della quota piezometrica in tutte le unità idrogeologiche, con valori più accentuati per le aree interne della Murgia e del Tavoliere. Gli elementi raccolti segnalano un progressivo depauperamento delle falde idriche proprio dove si concentrano le acque sotterranee di migliore qualità. Si rende necessaria, quindi, una politica gestionale delle risorse idrica sotterranee che consenta agli acquiferi di accumulare acque sotterranee nei periodi umidi, in cui abbondano le acque di superficie, per restituirle nei periodi aridi, svolgendo una funzione di compenso pluriennale.

Si studia il contributo alla Laguna di Lesina proveniente da tre principali sorgenti alimentate dal vasto acquifero carsico del Gargano. Con un approccio idrologico-statistico si determina l'estensione dell'area di alimentazione delle sorgenti.

This work is based on data acquisition and analysis of chronology sequences of piezometric, rainfall and thermometric data of Apulian aquifers. Methods of time series analysis are used. This approach has allowed characterising the piezometric regime and trend related to the natural recharge variation.

The study area is located in Southern Italy, southeast of Naples (Figure 1). The phenomena of slope instability and floods have long been a constant feature in this portion of the Apennines, with earthquakes and meteoric events accounting for the main triggering factors. Landslides have often resulted in dreadful economic and human losses. A magnitude-6.8 earthquake that triggered many large landslides hit the study area on November 23, 1980. A number of geological, geomorphological, hydrological and geotechnical features of the study area are examined in detail in the final technical report of an EEC research project (EEC 1996). This paper examines the space distribution of rainfall and temperature accounting for the distribution of landslides before the earthquake on 23 November 1980 and the changes occurred afterwards. The major climatic elements, namely monthly precipitation and temperature, are analysed with geostatistic methods and discussed. The space variability is compared to the landslide proneness distribution within the area.

The Mar Piccolo (literally “narrow sea”), a sea internal basin which is part of the Taranto Gulf, located along the Ionian coast in southern Italy (Apulia region), represents both a peculiar and sensitive environmental area and a national environmental and social emergency due to the level of sea water pollution due to the pollutants coming from the close industrial area of Taranto. The area, located between the southern part of the Murgia plateau and the Ionian sea, is geologically characterized by a sequence of Mesozoic limestone (the Apulian carbonate platform) constituting the foreland of the southern Apennines chain. The Mesozoic sequence is intensely fissured and karstified, and forms an important groundwater reservoir. The aquifer occurring in the carbonate sequence of the Murgia plateau feeds numerous coastal springs and constitute the main local source of pure fresh groundwater. Galeso, Battentieri and Riso are the main subaerial springs located along the coast of Mar Piccolo, not far from the town of Taranto. This area is also characterized by several submarine springs, locally called “Citri”. Submarine freshwater discharge plays an important, though not well quantified, role in the hydrogeological equilibrium of the system, but also the source of the spreading of many pollutants in the Mar Piccolo area due to the close presence of one of the largest European steel mill together a number of hazardous industrial activities of other types. The paper describes the efforts and the preliminary results to define a detailed conceptualisation of the aquifer as main support to characterise the hydrological balance of the internal sea and the quality of sea water and the effect on of the ecological equilibrium of the coastal environment.

The Mar Piccolo basin is an internal sea basin located along the Ionian coast (Southern Italy), and it is surrounded primarily by fractured carbonate karstic environment. Because of the karstic features, the main continental water inflow is from groundwater discharge. The Mar Piccolo basin represents a peculiar and sensitive environment and a social emergency because of sea water and sediments pollution. This pollution appears to be caused by the overlapping effects of dangerous anthropogenic activities, including heavy industries and commercial and navy dockyards. The paper aims to define the contribution of subaerial and submarine coastal springs to the hydrological dynamic equilibrium of this internal sea basin. A general approach was defined, including a hydrogeological basin border assessment to detect inflowing springs, detailed geological and hydrogeological conceptualisation, in situ submarine and subaerial spring measurements, and flow numerical modelling. Multiple sources of data were obtained to define a relevant geodatabase, and it contained information on approximately 2,000 wells, located in the study area (1,600 km2). The conceptualisation of the hydrogeological basin, which is 978 km2 wide, was supported by a 3D geological model that interpolated 716 stratigraphic logs. The variability in hydraulic conductivity was determined using hundreds of pumping tests. Five surveys were performed to acquire hydro-geochemical data and spring flow-yield measurements; the isotope groundwater age was assessed and used for model validation. The mean annual volume exchanged by the hydrogeological basin was assessed equal to 106.93 106 m3. The numerical modelling permitted an assessment of the mean monthly yield of each spring outflow (surveyed or not), travel time, and main path flow.

A multi-methodological approach based on monitoring and spatio-temporal analysis of groundwater quality changes is proposed. The presented tools are simple, quick and cost-effective to give service to all sorts of users. The chief purpose of the monitoring network is the detection of the piezometric or potenziometric level in the aquifer. The spatial and multi-temporal analysis of usual chemical and physical data provides both an assessment of the spatial vulnerability of the aquifer to seawater intrusion, defining a salinity threshold between fresh groundwater and brackish groundwater and of the water quality trend in terms of salinity. The evaluation of the salinity trend or of salinity-correlated parameters highlights the effects of groundwater mismanagement. The multiparameter logging provides a rapid groundwater quality classification for each well. The whole approach allows evaluating the effects of current management criteria and designing more appropriate management targets. The Apulian karstic coastal aquifers have been selected as a case study (Southern Italy). Three types of aquifer zones can be distinguished: (1) areas with low vulnerability to seawater intrusion, (2) areas with high vulnerability and (3) areas with variable vulnerability in which the salt degradation largely depends on the ability to manage the well discharge. The water quality degradation caused by seawater intrusion appears to be a combined effect of an anomalous succession of drought periods observed from about 1980 onwards and increased groundwater pumping, particularly during drought periods. A management criterion based on aquifer zones is proposed.