Correlation between hydrochemical facies and depositional environments in a salinized lowland coastal aquifer (Ferrara, IT)

The increasing demand of freshwater in coastal areas has intensified the research on saltwater intrusion in coastal aquifers (Custodio, 2010; Post and Abarca, 2009). However, land-use activities can lead to a relevant deterioration of coastal water resources and ecosystems (Lambrakis and Kallergis, 2001; Antonellini et al., 2008). In addition, in lowland sedimentary areas the problem of saltwater intrusion is greatly enhanced by land reclamation which forces seawater to intrude the coastal aquifers (Gattacceca et al., 2009). In order to understand the hydrogeochemical processes occurring within a groundwater system is also necessary to define the contribution of water-sediment interaction (Gaofeng et al. 2010) and to relate the groundwater quality to the sediment through which it passes. Thus, in this study we compared the depositional environments and the groundwater hydrofacies to delineate possible water/sediments interaction mechanisms.