Numerical modeling of the groundwater flow in the fractured and karst aquifer of the Salento peninsula (Southern Italy)
Articolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2013
Citazione:
Numerical modeling of the groundwater flow in the fractured and karst aquifer of the Salento peninsula (Southern Italy) / G. De Filippis, M. Giudici, S. Margiotta, F. Mazzone, S. Negri, C. Vassena. - In: ACQUE SOTTERRANEE. - ISSN 1828-454X. - 2:1/131(2013), pp. 17-28. [10.7343/AS-016-013-0040]
Abstract:
Water resources represented by coastal aquifers are very
important for regions characterized by a relevant request of freshwater,
but limited rainfall, lack of surface water bodies and intrusion of
the seawater through the sediments which host groundwater. Therefore
some coastal areas, like the Salento peninsula (southern Italy), are
subjected to the risk of desertification and a proper management of
groundwater resources requires tools to analyze and predict the water
balance and the evolution of the physical system in response to human
activities (e.g., ground water withdrawals) and climatic factors.
The Salento peninsula is a typical Mediterranean basin, where the
main water resource is the aquifer hosted in Cretaceous carbonatic
rocks (Calcare di Altamura, Altamura limestone): this is a fractured
and karst aquifer, with a poor recharge and complex relationships
with the sea.
In order to develop a tool to assess the water balance at regional scale
for the considered aquifer system, a groundwater flow model was developed
by Giudici et al. (2012a); it is based on a conceptual model
obtained from a reconstruction of the hydrostratigraphic architecture of
the region, which includes the main aquifer and the overlaying rocks
characterized by low permeability which can host local and relatively
thin aquifers.
In this paper that work is updated, by improving the reconstruction
of the hydraulic head and of the conceptual model, above all in those
areas that the previous model evidenced as critical for the absence of
fresh water along the whole aquifer thickness. Moreover, since the
estimate of some model’s input parameters is affected by high uncertainty,
a sensitivity analysis is performed to evaluate the effects of this
uncertainty on the model’s results.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Keywords:
coastal aquifers ; water budget ; numerical modeling ; conceptual model ; Salento
Elenco autori:
G. De Filippis, M. Giudici, S. Margiotta, F. Mazzone, S. Negri, C. Vassena
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