Potential groundwater and surface water contamination from nitrate in the Po River Delta (Northern Italy): results from an applied research within the Water Framework Directive

Nitrogen losses from agricultural sources have been recognised as one of the most serious threats in industrialised and emerging countries, determining ecosystem eutrophication and groundwater nitrate contamination. This issue has recently become a priority within the European Community Framework Directive for water protection (WFD), which has established a list of measures and limitations to be applied in areas declared “vulnerable to nitrate from agricultural sources”. An example is the Ferrara Province (Northern Italy), an intensively cultivated area, located in the Po Delta and affected by serious nitrate pollution since decades.