The Syracuse area (Southeastern Sicily, Italy) is famous since ancient times for its natural springs, like Aretusa and Ciane, as well as for the hydraulic management handicraft know from 480 B.C. Unfortunately, the recent hyper-exploitation of the underground water resources and the concomitant decrease of the precipitations caused a general lowering of the piezometric level of the aquifers therefore enhancing the intrusion of marine salty waters. In the present work, numerous hydrochemical parameters have been investigated, among which the pH, the total dissolved solid, the electric conductivity, the temperature and the concentration of Ca, Mg, Na, K, HCO3, Cl and SO4. The data have been collected from five well fields located at different distances from the coast. Analyses have been performed in order to understand the relationships between the intense exploitation and the geochemical characteristics of the underground water resources. Our results obtained by applying classical geochemical methodologies integrated with techniques of multivariate statistics emphasise, firstly, the predominance of the Ca-HCO3 hydrochemical facies. Secondly, we could determine the evolution of mixing phenomena between salty and fresh waters approaching the coast line (San Nicola field). This behaviour is mainly associated to the pumping increase. Obviously, this intrusive process characterised by chlorides concentrations larger than 2000 mg/l affects all the coastal natural environment and generates severe problems to the entire aqueduct network.
Salinization processes in a coastal aquifer system (Siracusa, Italy)
RAPTI, Dimitra;VACCARO, Carmela
2003
Abstract
The Syracuse area (Southeastern Sicily, Italy) is famous since ancient times for its natural springs, like Aretusa and Ciane, as well as for the hydraulic management handicraft know from 480 B.C. Unfortunately, the recent hyper-exploitation of the underground water resources and the concomitant decrease of the precipitations caused a general lowering of the piezometric level of the aquifers therefore enhancing the intrusion of marine salty waters. In the present work, numerous hydrochemical parameters have been investigated, among which the pH, the total dissolved solid, the electric conductivity, the temperature and the concentration of Ca, Mg, Na, K, HCO3, Cl and SO4. The data have been collected from five well fields located at different distances from the coast. Analyses have been performed in order to understand the relationships between the intense exploitation and the geochemical characteristics of the underground water resources. Our results obtained by applying classical geochemical methodologies integrated with techniques of multivariate statistics emphasise, firstly, the predominance of the Ca-HCO3 hydrochemical facies. Secondly, we could determine the evolution of mixing phenomena between salty and fresh waters approaching the coast line (San Nicola field). This behaviour is mainly associated to the pumping increase. Obviously, this intrusive process characterised by chlorides concentrations larger than 2000 mg/l affects all the coastal natural environment and generates severe problems to the entire aqueduct network.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
