The problems concerning the development of show caves are here considered by taking into account different aspects of the problem. A procedure to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been established in the last decade and it is now currently applied. Such an assessment starts with a pre-operational phase to obtain sufficient information on the undisturbed status of a cave to be developed into a show cave. Successively a programme for its development is established with the scope to optimise the intervention on the cave at the condition that its basic environmental parameters are not irreversibly modified. The last phase of the assessment is focussed to assure a feedback through a monitoring network in order to detect any unforeseen difference or anomaly between the project and the effective situation achieved after the cave development. Some data on some of the most important show caves in the world are reported and a tentative evaluation of the economy in connection with the show caves business is eventually made.
The study reported in this paper analysed the significant agricultural changes that the Fucino Plain (central Italy) has experienced in the past few years and their impact on water availability. In the past, the Fucino Plain (surface area: over 200 km 2 ) hosted the largest lake of central Italy. In the late 1800s, the lake was drained to be used as farmland. Recently, however, the fast change in agricultural activities (with the expansion of water-intensive horticultural crops) and climate (decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature) has broken the environmental equilibrium of the plain, causing groundwater lowering, spring exhaustion, decreased canal discharge in summer and groundwater pollution risks connected with fertiliser and pesticide use.New data on water usage and farming made it possible to develop a new ''integrated'' water budget of the plain, taking into account the impact of human activities on the water cycle. Monitoring of the main well fields, of crop distribution and of natural discharge in canals and springs, will enable better management of local water resources, reducing their exploitation during the irrigation season. Copyright # 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.key words: agriculture; hydrogeology; water management; monitoring; reclamation; Italy RÉ SUMÉ Le Lac Fucino, qui s'étend sur 200 km 2 en Italie centrale, a été asséché au cours du 19 ème siècle, pour fournir des terrains utilisables pour l'agriculture. L'activité agricole comportait, avant la réforme agricole de 1951, une grande proportion de blé, de pomme de terre et de betterave sucrière, en rotation triennale. A partir de 1962, cette situation va se modifier pour arriver dans les dernières années à une concentration importante de produits maraîchers, qui demandent une grande quantité d'eau d'irrigation. L'exploitation des eaux souterraines des aquifères karstiques et de la plaine de Fucino qui en a résulté, particulièrement concentrée en été en absence, de recharge des aquifères, entraine un risque élevé de pollution des aquifères et d'abaissement de la nappe. Ainsi observe-t-on de nouveaux problèmes environnementaux. Aujourd'hui, les eaux du Fucino proviennent seulement de l'exploitation des eaux souterraines, qui alimentent le débit des eaux de surface. Cette situation a été induite également par la baisse naturelle des précipitations et l'augmentation des besoins en eau d'irrigation. L'étude du problème a permis de bâtir un bilan hydrique 'complet' de la plaine, qui considère non seulement les eaux naturelles, mais également les influences des activités humaines sur la disponibilité en eau.
In the present work are reported the results of a monitoring on a vast scale, carried out through evaluation of opportune chemical parameters, of the pollution state of the agricultural-industrial settlement of the Fucino Plain. The parameters took into consideration have been the presence of wide consumption pesticides and of ionic species as Cl-, NO2-, NO3-, NH4+, the quantification of the dissolved oxygen, of the temperature, of the conductivity, of pH and eH. Collected data are used for chemometric elaboration. The water systems examined, by means of drawing campaigns carried out at regular intervals in winter, spring, summer, and autumnal seasons, are represented by superficial waters constituting a network of irrigation canals fed by stratum and meteoric waters. In this work are reported the results relative to the drawing campaigns.
This paper analyses flow and transport of pesticides from the unsaturated zone to groundwater so as to predict concentration of those contaminants in the Fucino Plain's groundwater, by site investigations and numerical simulations. Pesticides were detected in surface water (peaks of 13 mu g L(-1)) and groundwater (peaks of 0.37 mu g L(-1)). Modelling tools made it possible to identify that pattern of precipitation, organic matter content, and root thickness are the key factors involved in vertical seepage of pesticides. Numerical simulations indicated that a significant fraction of contaminants is leached from the most surficial soil layers through runoff, while only a secondary fraction is mobilised towards groundwater. Likelihood of contaminating deep groundwater is fairly low, whereas surface waters show higher susceptibility. Results of the proposed conceptual hydrogeological model show that pesticides are more likely to be entrained by mixing of stream water with shallow groundwater in periods of high water exploitation from shallow wells
Nel 1875, con il drenaggio totale delle acque del lago Fucino e l’inizio delle attività di bonifica idraulica, l’ampia superficie derivata dall’originario alveo lacustre viene destinata, come da progetto, ad una intensiva attività agricola. La riforma, attuata nel 1951 dopo l’esproprio dell’intero possedimento Torlonia, comporterà la ricomposizione fondiaria delle originarie 29.000 particelle esistenti, su una superficie di 11.050 ha. Vennero così create più 9.000 particelle ed assegnate, nella maggior parte dei casi, ad ex-affittuari che già coltivano quelle terre. Se gli effetti positivi della riforma non hanno tardato a manifestarsi, con un notevole aumento del reddito netto, ad esempio, bisogna comunque rilevare che, secondo le più recenti tendenze, l’interesse dei coltivatori si è sempre più spostato, verso colture orticole più redditizie quali la carota, le insalate, il radicchio, il finocchio, il sedano ed altre. A questa soluzione concorrono circostanze favorevoli quali la resa unitaria molto elevata, l’abbondanza di mano d’opera a basso costo e di provenienza extra-comunitaria, la meccanizzazione delle pratiche colturali, l’aumentata capacità imprenditoriale degli agricoltori e la possibilità di ripetere due/tre cicli colturali sullo stesso terreno. Questa tendenza ha comportato due grossi problemi di natura ambientale con l’impiego massivo di pesticidi e fertilizzanti e una richiesta idrica che supera di gran lunga la disponibilità naturale. Le ultime indagini, rapportando il ciclo colturale degli ortaggi con l’utilizzo di alcuni pozzi hanno infatti evidenziato il preoccupante impatto dei prelievi irrigui sulle falde regionali, in termini di abbassamenti piezometrici.
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