The main scope was to provide technological and methodological innovation to the Consorzio di Bonifica Montana del Gargano (CBMG), the land reclamation authority of the Gargano Promontory, to support their responsibilities that ranges from mitigation of hydrogeological risk to water supply, mainly for agricultural purposes. It was pursued by a group of private enterprises, with the CNR-IRPI's Hydrology laboratory support, through the GarganoLab project "Integrated information system for land management, environmental monitoring and emergency alert", funded by the Apulia Region as part of "Living Labs" measures.

The Mar Piccolo basin is an internal sea basin located along the Ionian coast (Southern Italy), and it is surrounded primarily by fractured carbonate karstic environment. Because of the karstic features, the main continental water inflow is from groundwater discharge. The Mar Piccolo basin represents a peculiar and sensitive environment and a social emergency because of sea water and sediments pollution. This pollution appears to be caused by the overlapping effects of dangerous anthropogenic activities, including heavy industries and commercial and navy dockyards. The paper aims to define the contribution of subaerial and submarine coastal springs to the hydrological dynamic equilibrium of this internal sea basin. A general approach was defined, including a hydrogeological basin border assessment to detect inflowing springs, detailed geological and hydrogeological conceptualisation, in situ submarine and subaerial spring measurements, and flow numerical modelling. Multiple sources of data were obtained to define a relevant geodatabase, and it contained information on approximately 2,000 wells, located in the study area (1,600 km2). The conceptualisation of the hydrogeological basin, which is 978 km2 wide, was supported by a 3D geological model that interpolated 716 stratigraphic logs. The variability in hydraulic conductivity was determined using hundreds of pumping tests. Five surveys were performed to acquire hydro-geochemical data and spring flow-yield measurements; the isotope groundwater age was assessed and used for model validation. The mean annual volume exchanged by the hydrogeological basin was assessed equal to 106.93 106 m3. The numerical modelling permitted an assessment of the mean monthly yield of each spring outflow (surveyed or not), travel time, and main path flow.

The Mar Piccolo (literally "small sea"), a sea internal basin which is part of the Taranto Gulf, located along theIonian coast in Southern Italy (Apulia region), represents a peculiar and sensitive environmental area and a social emergency due to the pollution of sea water and sediments due to the effect of the neat industrial area of Taranto. Thepaper describes the methodological approach to define the conceptualisation of the hydrogeological basin of main subaerial and submarine coastal springs of the Mar Piccolo. The geochemical discussion concerning spring groundwater was finalised to define the effect of seawater intrusion. These waters are characterised by high values of electrical conductivity and high concentrations of alkaline ions (Na+ and K+) and chloride ion and show typical chemical characteristics of fresh groundwater contaminated by seawater intrusion. The groundwater composition of the subaerial springs of Mar Piccolo is controlled by the combined effects of calcite dissolution and ion exchange. A basicmodel of the coastal aquifer was realised with the purpose to assess the mean annual and monthly value of spring outflows in Mar Piccolo. The computer codes selected for numerical groundwater modelling were MODFLOW and SEAWAT. The active domain of the model was about 978 km2 with a total number of 391200 cells. The researchpursues the knowledge of the hydrological balance of the internal sea, the geochemistry of groundwater, and the groundwater discharge effect on the ecological equilibrium of the coastal environment in the framework of a wide Italian research program called RITMARE.

The progressive population growth in coastal areas and the increasing groundwater discharge, together withpeculiarities of karst coastal aquifers constitute a huge worldwide problem, particularly relevant for coastal aquifers ofthe Mediterranean basin (Tulipano et al., 2005).Karst aquifers in coastal regions are well known to be highly vulnerable to the overexploitation of groundwaterresources, both from water increasing demand than from decreasing aquifer recharge due to climate changes. The coastalcarbonate aquifers of the Mediterranean Sea, in particular the Adriatic and Ionian coast that extend between westernGreece and Italy up to the eastern coast of Sicily not only ensure the socio-economic development of the populations butfeeds with spring waters valuable wetland environments with negative effects on ecosystems (Barrocu, 2003; Bonacci,2014; Eftimi & Zojer, 2015; Polemio, 2016).The aim of this study is to develop management and forecast tools to identify the best way to assure enduringavailability of high quality groundwater, and conciliate irrigation and drinking water demands. A geodatabase, collectinginformation for all carbonate aquifers present along the Adriatic and Ionian coast, will be first created. At the core thereis a Geographic Information System, in which are placed the spatial information regarding the geology of aquifers,hydrogeological and geochemical features, together with climatic conditions and specific information concerning past,present and future groundwater usage.The availability of tools that allow the integrated analysis of local hydrogeological situations, in reference to the widerareas where they are located, allows numerous applications. The system, in fact, is not only aimed to archiving, queryingand mapping, but also to operate spatial analysis and the implementation of calculation systems, to return thehydrogeological conceptual models, supporting both the management of groundwater resources and the knowledge forthe protection of coastal environments, and groundwater in general.

Historical data about floods represent an important tool for the comprehension of the hydrological processes,the estimation of hazard scenarios as a basis for Civil Protection purposes, as a basis of the rational land usemanagement, especially in karstic areas, where time series of river flows are not available and the river drainage israre.The research shows the importance of the improvement of existing flood database with an historical approach,finalized to collect past or historical floods event, in order to better assess the occurrence trend of floods, in thecase for the Apulian region (south Italy).The main source of records of flood events for Apulia was the AVI (the acronym means Italian damaged areas)database, an existing Italian database that collects data concerning damaging floods from 1918 to 1996.The database was expanded consulting newspapers, publications, and technical reports from 1996 to 2006.In order to expand the temporal range further data were collected searching in the archives of regional libraries.About 700 useful news from 17 different local newspapers were found from 1876 to 1951. From a critical analysisof the 700 news collected since 1876 to 1952 only 437 were useful for the implementation of the Apulia database.The screening of these news showed the occurrence of about 122 flood events in the entire region.The district of Bari, the regional main town, represents the area in which the great number of events occurred; thehistorical analysis confirms this area as flood-prone.There is an overlapping period (from 1918 to 1952) between old AVI database and new historical dataset obtainedby newspapers. With regard to this period, the historical research has highlighted new flood events not reported inthe existing AVI database and it also allowed to add more details to the events already recorded.This study shows that the database is a dynamic instrument, which allows a continuous implementation of data,even in real time.More details on previous results of this research activity were recently published (Polemio, 2010; Basso et al.,2012; Lonigro et al., 2013)

The Mar Piccolo (literally "narrow sea"), a sea internal basin which is part of the Taranto Gulf, located along the Ionian coast in southern Italy (Apulia region), represents both a peculiar and sensitive environmental area and a national environmental and social emergency due to the level of sea water pollution due to the pollutants coming from the close industrial area of Taranto.The area, located between the southern part of the Murgia plateau and the Ionian sea, is geologically characterized by a sequence of Mesozoic limestone (the Apulian carbonate platform) constituting the foreland of the southern Apennines chain. The Mesozoic sequence is intensely fissured and karstified, and forms an important groundwater reservoir.The aquifer occurring in the carbonate sequence of the Murgia plateau feeds numerous coastal springs and constitute the main local source of pure fresh groundwater. Galeso, Battentieri and Riso are the main subaerial springs located along the coast of Mar Piccolo, not far from the town of Taranto. This area is also characterized by several submarine springs, locally called "Citri".Submarine freshwater discharge plays an important, though not well quantified, role in the hydrogeological equilibrium of the system, but also the source of the spreading of many pollutants in the Mar Piccolo area due to the close presence of one of the largest European steel mill together a number of hazardous industrial activities of other types.The paper describes the efforts and the preliminary results to define a detailed conceptualisation of the aquifer as main support to characterise the hydrological balance of the internal sea and the quality of sea water and the effect on of the ecological equilibrium of the coastal environment.

Il Progetto GarganoLab ovvero "Sistema informativo integrato per la gestione del territorio, il monitoraggio ambientale ed allerta di emergenza", finanziato dalla Regione Puglia grazie alle misure "Living Labs", è stato concepito dal consorzio tra le imprese Staer Sistemi, W-Enterprise e Gemict a supporto della domanda di innovazione tecnologica del Consorzio di Bonifica Montana del Gargano (CBMG), al fine di perseguire la riduzione dei rischi idrogeologici e l'ottimale gestione delle opere di mitigazione. La nota descrive il contributo offerto in particolare dal partner di progetto, il Laboratorio di Idrologia del CNR-IRPI. Il progetto ha perseguito la mitigazione dei rischi naturali, dovuti a frane e, soprattutto, piene, e gli effetti della siccità nel territorio del Consorzio di Bonifica Montana del Gargano, con maggiore dettaglio nelle zone più esposte, come il bacino idrografico Molinella di Vieste, drammaticamente interessato anche dal più recente evento alluvionale, occorso nel Gargano dall'1 al 6/9/2014. Il Gargano è un territorio peculiare, spiccatamente montano e carsico; per la forte vicinanza al mare è colpito da fenomeni meteorici particolarmente violenti e repentini; con tali peculiarità il deflusso fluviale è di per se raro, breve e quasi sempre fulmineamente catastrofico. Il contributo del CNR-IRPI è consistito in diverse attività nel seguito brevemente descritte. 1)Analisi statistica delle serie idrologiche e individuazione dei trend: è stato condotto lo studio statistico di tutte le serie storiche climatiche disponibili (dal 1918) per caratterizzare la siccità e l'eccezionalità degli eventi meteorici accaduti o attesi. Ricorrendo ai più opportuni indici statistici, ed in particolare all'indice SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index) maggiormente utilizzato a livello internazionale per descrivere gli eventi estremi della siccità mediante la quantificazione del deficit di precipitazione per diverse scale di tempi o durate, generalmente espressi in mesi, si è così dotato il progetto di uno strumento utile a individuare i trend statistici della siccità per diverse durate temporali, di interesse per gli aspetti meteorologici, idrologici e agricoli. Lo strumento è attivo a ritroso, per molte decine di anni, e si aggiorna in tempo reale, man mano che le misure climatiche si rendono disponibili. 2)Stima delle funzioni di distribuzione della probabilità: le serie dei massimi delle piogge cumulate da un'ora a 5 giorni sono state utilizzate per definire le funzioni di distribuzione della probabilità dei valori estremi a doppia componente (TCEV) a tutti di livelli di regionalizzazione. Tale approccio permette di compensare la limitata estensione del campionamento, ovvero della durata delle misure, limitata rispetto all'obiettivo di stimare tempi di ritorno molto più lunghi delle suddette durate, con le informazioni statisticamente rilevanti presenti nelle serie storiche della medesima regione, attualizzando e affinando i risultati del Proget