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.
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