Abstract

We have been witness, during the second half of the 20th century, of an increase of groundwater discharge.Today a great number of aquifers are overexploited in the world. Problems ties to overexploitation, as piezometricdecline and increase of seawater intrusion, are so more amplify in the coastal aquifers, and in particular, in karstcoastal aquifers. Seawater intrusion, in fact, is a pervasive problem affecting coastal aquifer, where the concentrationof population and the increasing water demand creates risks of overexploitation, especially in those areaswhere is the only resource of drinking and irrigation water. The whole effect could be a groundwater quality andquantity degradation. This is very often the case of coastal karst aquifers of Mediterranean countries. The generalpurpose of this paper is to prove the capability of large-scale numerical models in management of groundwater, inparticular for achieve forecast scenarios to evaluate the impacts of climate change on groundwater resources. Studyarea is the karst coastal aquifer of Salento (Southern Italy), largely utilized to satisfy the agricultural demand anddrinking demand with huge effects in terms of reduced availability and increasing salinity. The computer codesselected for numerical groundwater modelling were MODFLOW and SEAWAT. Groundwater flow modelling isbased on the concept of a equivalent homogeneous porous medium. Three forecast transient scenarios, referred to2001-2020, 2021-2040 and 2041-2060, were implemented, on the basis of calibrated and validated model, withthe aim to predicting the evolution of piezometric level and seawater intrusion. The scenarios were discussedconsidering the effects of climate change, sea level rise and change of sea salinity. Some irrigation dischargescenarios were considered in the discussion . Results shows qualitative and quantitative groundwater trends from1930 to 2060 and emphasizes an essential decrease of piezometric level and a huge worsening of the groundwatersalinisation due seawater intrusion.More details on previous results of this research activity were recently published (Polemio and Romanazzi, 2012;Romanazzi and Polemio, 2013).

Autore Pugliese

• Polemio Maurizio

Tutti gli autori

• M. Polemio; A. Romanazzi

Titolo volume/Rivista

Geophysical research abstracts

Anno di pubblicazione

2014

ISSN

1607-7962

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Numero di citazioni Scopus

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Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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