Department of Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy.
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Geology, Lab. of Engineering Geology & Hydrogeology, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
Sci Total Environ. 2017 Dec 31;609:1512-1523. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.07.257. Epub 2017 Aug 8.
Groundwater vulnerability and risk assessment are worldwide tools in supporting groundwater protection and land planning. In this study, we used three of these different methodologies applied to the Campanian Plain located in southern Italy: SINTACS, AVI and LOS. However, their capability to describe the observed chemical pollution of the area has resulted quite poor. For such a reason, a modified SINTACS method has been then implemented in the area in order to get a more reliable view of groundwater vulnerability. NO and SO from more than 400 monitoring wells were used for specific vulnerability assessment. Land use was chosen as key parameter to infer the risk of groundwater pollution in our area. The new methodology seems to show a higher correlation with observed NO concentrations and a more reliable identification of aquifer's pollution hot spots. The main sources of NO were found in sub-urban areas, where vulnerability and risk are higher than in other areas. Otherwise due to reducing conditions triggered by the presence of elevated sedimentary organic matter and peat, concentrations below agricultural areas were lower than in sub-urban areas. The SO specific vulnerability map showed a positive correlation with observed concentrations, due to geogenic and anthropogenic SO sources present in the area. The combination of both NO and SO derived risk maps becomes essential to improve the conceptual model of aquifer pollution in this severely anthropized area. The application of this new and original approach shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of each of the described previous methods and clearly showed how anthropogenic activities have to be taken into account in the assessment process.
地下水脆弱性和风险评估是支持地下水保护和土地规划的全球工具。在本研究中，我们使用了三种不同的方法来评估位于意大利南部的坎帕尼亚平原，分别是 SINTACS、AVI 和 LOS。然而，这些方法在描述该地区的化学污染方面的能力却相当差。出于这个原因，我们在该地区实施了一种经过改进的 SINTACS 方法，以更可靠地评估地下水的脆弱性。我们使用了来自 400 多个监测井的 NO 和 SO 来进行特定的脆弱性评估。土地利用被选为推断该地区地下水污染风险的关键参数。新方法似乎与观察到的 NO 浓度有更高的相关性，并能更可靠地识别含水层的污染热点。NO 的主要来源被发现于郊区，那里的脆弱性和风险比其他地区更高。然而，由于存在较高的沉积有机质和泥炭，还原条件被触发，导致 NO 浓度在农业区以下地区低于郊区。由于该地区存在地质和人为 SO 源，因此 SO 特定脆弱性图与观察到的浓度呈正相关。结合 NO 和 SO 衍生的风险图对于改进这个严重人为化地区的含水层污染概念模型至关重要。这种新的和原始方法的应用揭示了每个先前描述的方法的优缺点，并清楚地表明了在评估过程中如何考虑人为活动。
