Kouli_etal_2008_Groundwater modelling_BOOK.pdf - Pantelis ...

Groundwater Management in the Northern Adriatic Coast (Ravenna, Italy)… 219
evapotranspiration is bigger than the precipitations and only in a few cases small quantity of
freshwater (1-3 cm/year) is available for the infiltration and aquifer recharge. Over-pumping
from this infrastructure could be avoided by storing the water in surface basin currently
abandoned and releasing it on-demand for irrigation. The drainage has a positive effect on
keeping the farmland and the forests along the coast dry but it has a negative feedback effect
on aquifer salinization reducing the hydraulic head necessary to contrast saltwater intrusion.
Freshwater Storage at the Surface
In the San Vitale pine forest, an attempt at freshwater storage in basins along the coast was
adopted in 1996, in order to create a buffer zone between the brackish-salty lagoon and the
forest. We have evaluated this artificial intervention to see its effect on the depth of the
brackish-freshwater interface. Figure 8a shows the location of two adjacent profiles in the San
Vitale pine forest; the first profile (1) starts at the shore of the water body that in 1996 was
filled with freshwater, the second profile (2) starts at the dike separating the freshwater body
Figure 8. a) Location of the profiles (1 and 2) used to evaluate the effects of the freshwater surface
bodies along the eastern side of the San Vitale pine forest. The pine forest is in black, the saltwater
lagoon in grey and the freshwater ponds are in white; b) profile 1 in which the brackish-freshwater
interface is calculated assuming there is no freshwater pond. The calculated interface is shallower than
the measured interface; c) profile 2 is longer than profile 1 and includes the part across the freshwater
pond until the edge with the rest of the saltwater lagoon. The calculated depth of interface matches the
measured interface suggesting the freshwater pond was effective.