Degradation risk owing to contamination and overdraft for Apulian groundwater resources (southern Italy)

Abstract

The remarkable and rapid socio-economic development over the past few decades has further stressed the Apulian hydrogeological system. The whole Apulian groundwater has undergone a twofold pollution, all originated by human action: saline pollution evolves progressively as it affects increasingly large portions of land, biological and chemico-physical pollution is gaining importance and is mainly concentrated around urbanised areas. The latter is due to the circumstance that the aquifers are increasingly bound to become a kind of ultimate “receptacle” for domestic and industrial waste waters. In order to characterise the features of human-related pollution, data was gathered by a monitoring network-encompassing 157 wells, some of which hundred meters deep, and 19 coastal springs. Periodical water samples were taken from the network to be submitted to chemical, physical and bacteriological analyses. The effects of human activity on groundwater pollution and depletion are so characterised.