Search Results (4)

The combined effect of climate change and increased water demand has put significant strain on groundwater resources globally. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) has become an effective approach for addressing groundwater depletion problems and sustainable management of groundwater resources. This review article provides an extensive insight into the existing knowledge of MAR, including the main objectives and applications, implementation techniques (surface spreading, sub-surface, and induced recharge) being practiced over the years, risks and challenges associated with the MAR, and the developments in the field of MAR. This review also explores the potential of MAR in the Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) region, north-eastern Italy. An average increase in temperature and a decrease in precipitation and piezometric levels in the region suggest the development of a proper MAR plan to manage water resources in the decades to come. Additionally, a comparative analysis of studies published over the last 20 years, focusing on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of water resource management, is conducted to analyze the research trends in the field of MAR. The reviewed literature reveals a notable research trend towards the quantitative aspect compared to the qualitative one. This review also identifies a notable disparity in qualitative studies during the analysis of water quality parameters considered in different MAR studies. Based on this review, a prospective viewpoint to address the challenges and expand the scope of the field is presented. This calls for an optimized strategy that considers both water quality and quantity issues, along with incorporating environmental and socio-economic aspects within the framework of MAR. Full article

Recent regulatory developments (DM 14.06.2017) have introduced the concept of Water Safety Plans (WSP) into the Italian legislative framework, a new, challenging paradigm of risk assessment, prevention, and control covering the entire drinking water supply chain. When applied to the water abstraction step, it requires complex data collection and processing, field survey, monitoring, and research in order to develop a robust and scientifically sound hydrogeological conceptual model, being the core of groundwater flow models and vulnerability assessments. A successful experience in identifying and characterizing the wellhead protection areas, as well as the vulnerability pattern, has been achieved for the wide and complex hydrogeological system belonging to the Vicenza water production area. Full article

The hilly landscape of the Periadric area in Central Italy is characterized by mainly marly–clayey foredeep basin deposits (Plio–Pleistocene age). These lithotypes are generally considered aquicludes, if compared with the regional limestone aquifers of Apennines. However, a coarsening upward trend characterizes the upper portion of this stratigraphic sequence, with arenaceous deposits and even conglomerates on the top. From a geomorphological viewpoint, the areas with coarser outcrops show a flat shape and sub-vertical slopes, like boundaries. At the base of these scarps, springs can be found at the interface between coarse and fine deposits, whereas these arenaceous bodies are actual aquifers. Until now, the hydrodynamics and hydrochemical features of this kind of aquifer have not been investigated deeply, because they have always been considered a worthy water resource. However, they could play a crucial role in integrated water management, especially to cope with climate changes and drought periods. Considering these, the main purpose of this study was to investigate from a hydrogeological point of view and to assess the groundwater quantity and quality. Five examples throughout the Abruzzo region were considered. For evaluation and comparisons between water resources, the water volume that infiltrates yearly at each squared kilometer of an aquifer (Mm³/y/km²) was applied. This value was calculated through three different approaches to provide a recharge estimation for this kind of aquifer that is as exhaustive and representative as possible. The results allowed us to characterize the hydrogeological model and to quantify the resources between 0.1 and 0.16 Mm³/y/km², to be suitable for multi–purpose utilization. Full article

Groundwater is a valuable resource because it is widely used for drinking, and for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes. Globally, Saudi Arabia is known to be one of the driest regions with scarce water resources. The shallow groundwater near the major cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is becoming polluted because of industrial effluent discharge, use of fertilizers in agriculture and domestic sewerage in the region. This review tries to focus on groundwater quality problems due to anthropogenic or geogenic sources in the region of Saudi Arabia. In this paper, we focus on different water-quality variables, for groundwater quality evaluation and aquifer vulnerability assessment due to pollutants/contaminants present in groundwater. The current study gives a holistic understanding of different groundwater quality problems and therefore identifies the gaps of the previous studies and identifies the viewpoints of the future research dimensions. We describe the different groundwater quality problems related to toxicities of the fluoride, nitrate, and heavy metals and radionuclides in Saudi Arabia. A majority of the groundwater pollutants are of natural origin, but there is significant wastewater effluent discharge in the region that is also responsible for contamination of aquifers with heavy metals. Full article