The Milano Metropolitan Area [named FUA (functional urban area)] has a history of heavy industrialization causing a large portion of area being affected by significant diffuse contaminations of soil and groundwater. Among the various contaminants, chlorinated solvents (e.g., tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene) are the most used in industrial processes and represent the major cause of groundwater pollution within the FUA. The background diffuse contamination generated by these pollutants is so persistent and widely spread that makes it extremely challenging to identify the sources responsible for their release. Such background contamination originates from the overlapping of both known sources (point sources), associated to specific high release of contamination, and unknown small sources (multiple point sources), clustered within a large area, whose release is low but persistent. The aim of this article is to present the methodology, developed within the framework of the AMIIGA Project (Interreg Central Europe Grant N • CE32), which combines multivariate statistical analysis and groundwater numerical modeling in order to separate the point sources contribution from the background diffuse contamination, and supporting public authorities in the management of groundwater remediation. A methodological workflow is proposed guiding local and regional institutions to use the methodology (i.e., exploratory analysis of big dataset, simulation of groundwater flow and transport, multivariate and geostatistical analysis) to assess diffuse pollution background levels in large urbanized areas.
A common challenge in many cities in Europe is endangerment of natural resources due to soil and water pollution. Despite extensive investigation and remediation measures over decades and current practices of environmental management, residues of pollutants persist in soil and groundwater, reducing the functionality of many urban areas. In complex hydrogeological systems, where contaminated plumes are overlapping and/or diffuse contamination is present, technical and administrative activities have to be thoroughly planned and executed in the long term to secure the recovery of groundwater quality. Communities need a management strategy (MS) to manage soil and groundwater contamination in urban areas, especially where contamination exceeds local scales but does not reach the national level. A MS drives administrations to understand hydrogeological system properties, define new, reachable target values and give practical guidance for the implementation of necessary measures. Implementation of a MS fosters the early involvement of key stakeholders and their contribution to the development of MS itself. The strategy has proven to be an appropriate and flexible tool for the transfer of scientific knowledge to the planning, coordination and implementation necessary for the remediation of large-scale groundwater contamination.
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