Combining natural background levels (NBLs) assessment with indicator kriging analysis to improve groundwater quality data interpretation and management

Ducci, Daniela; Melo, Maria Teresa Condesso de; Preziosi, Elisabetta; Sellerino, Mariangela; Parrone, Daniele; Ribeiro, Luís

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.06.184

Cited by 68 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The natural occurrence of arsenic in these countries is often linked to the alluvial plain systems, but high arsenic concentrations can be found in volcanic environments or mining districts (e.g., Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Ethiopia, Greece and Italy) (Nordstrom, 2003;Rango et al, 2013). In Italy, high natural concentrations of arsenic in groundwater have been documented in volcanic aquifers of the central and southern Italy related to the uprising of geothermal fluids (Baiocchi et al, 2011;Ducci et al, 2016;Preziosi et al, 2010). Furthermore, in northern Italy, a high arsenic concentration can be found in the alluvial aquifers of the Po Plain (Molinari et al, 2013;Rotiroti and Fumagalli, 2013;Rotiroti et al, 2014;Zavatti et al, 1995) and the Venetian Plain (Carraro et al, 2013;Ungaro et al, 2008).…”

Section: Knowledge About Arsenic Contaminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By defining the NBL, it is necessary to know the extension and the hydro-geochemical characteristics of the examined groundwater body, paying attention to collect pristine water samples of the same aquifer body far from anthropogenic sources of contamination (Coetsiers et al, 2009;Hinsby et al, 2008;Wendland et al, 2008aWendland et al, , 2008b. Many studies treat the problem of the NBL definition testing different approaches for its estimation (Coetsiers et al, 2009;Ducci et al, 2016;Molinari et al, 2012;Preziosi et al, 2010;Fumagalli, 2013, Rotiroti et al, 2015), since the NBL assumes importance discriminating the anthropogenic contamination from the natural occurrence. A first approach to estimate the NBL value into European groundwater bodies was suggested by Edmunds and Shand (2008), and it was based on a geochemical prospective rather than a statistical one.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geostatistics as a tool to improve the natural background level definition: An application in groundwater

Libera

Fabbri

Mason³

et al. 2017

Science of The Total Environment

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The Natural Background Level (NBL), suggested by UE BRIDGE project, is suited for spatially distributed datasets providing a regional value that could be higher than the Threshold Value (TV) set by every country. In hydro-geochemically dis-homogeneous areas, the use of a unique regional NBL, higher than TV, could arise problems to distinguish between natural occurrences and anthropogenic contaminant sources. Hence, the goal of this study is to improve the NBL definition employing a geostatistical approach, which reconstructs the contaminant spatial structure accounting geochemical and hydrogeological relationships. This integrated mapping is fundamental to evaluate the contaminant's distribution impact on the NBL, giving indications to improve it. We decided to test this method on the Drainage Basin of Venice Lagoon (DBVL, NE Italy), where the existing NBL is seven times higher than the TV. This area is notoriously affected by naturally occurring arsenic contamination. An available geochemical dataset collected by 50 piezometers was used to reconstruct the spatial distribution of arsenic in the densely populated area of the DBVL. A cokriging approach was applied exploiting the geochemical relationships among As, Fe and NH4+. The obtained spatial predictions of arsenic concentrations were divided into three different zones: i) areas with an As concentration lower than the TV, ii) areas with an As concentration between the TV and the median of the values higher than the TV, and iii) areas with an As concentration higher than the median. Following the BRIDGE suggestions, where enough samples were available, the 90th percentile for each zone was calculated to obtain a local NBL (LNBL). Differently from the original NBL, this local value gives more detailed water quality information accounting the hydrogeological and geochemical setting, and contaminant spatial variation. Hence, the LNBL could give more indications about the distinction between natural occurrence and anthropogenic contamination.

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Section: Knowledge About Arsenic Contaminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geostatistics as a tool to improve the natural background level definition: An application in groundwater

Libera

Fabbri

Mason³

et al. 2017

Science of The Total Environment

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“…There are also mineralized areas along the borders of the the Garigliano plain and the plain of the Volturno river -Regi Lagni (with CO2) and in the Phleagrean Fields GWB, due to the complex interaction between deep volcanic fluids, fresh groundwater and seawater [38]. In previous studies [39,40], for distinguishing anthropogenic and geogenic contamination in groundwater, natural background levels (NBLs) were assessed in part of the area. NBLs indicated that the contamination for As, F, Fe and Mn is often of geogenic origin.…”

Section: Aquifer Vulnerability To Contaminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Integrated Approach for the Environmental Characterization of a Wide Area Potentially Contaminated (Southern Italy)

Ducci¹,

Albanese²,

Boccia³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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This paper deals with the environmental characterization of a large and densely populated area, with a poor reputation for contamination, considering the contribution of environmental features (air, soil, soil hydraulic and groundwater) and the potential effects on human health. The use of Geographic Information System (GIS) has made possible a georeferenced inventory and, by overlaying environmental information, an operational synthesis of comprehensive environmental conditions. The cumulative effects on environmental features were evaluated, taking into account superposition effects, by means of the spatial multicriteria decision analysis (S-MCDA). The application of the S-MCDA for converging the combination of heterogeneous factors, related to soil, land and water, deeply studied by heterogeneous groups of experts, constitutes the novelty of the paper. The results confirmed an overall higher potential of exposure to contaminants in the environment and higher mortality rates in the study area for some tumours, but hospital admissions for tumours were generally similar to the regional trend. Besides, mortality data may be strictly dependent on the poor socioeconomic conditions, quality of therapy and a lack of welfare in the area relative to the rest of Italy. Finally, as regards the possible relationship between presence of contaminants in the environment and health conditions of the population no definite conclusions can be drawn, although the present study encourages the use of the new proposed methods, that increase the possibilities for studying the combined effect of more environmental factors.

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“…C is the structural variance and a is the spatial range across which the data exhibit spatial correlation. For Gaussian model, the practical range is defined as H3a (Dayani and Mohammadi 2010;Ducci et al 2016). From analysis of the experimental variogram, a suitable model (e.g.…”

Section: Ordinary Kriging (Ok)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial variation modelling of groundwater electrical conductivity using geostatistics and GIS

Seyedmohammadi

Esmaeelnejad

Shabanpour

2016

Model. Earth Syst. Environ.

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Optimized management of water resources, conservation and their quality increase is needful with data existence in basis of situation, amount and distribution of water chemical factors for example; electrical conductivity (EC) in determined geographical region. Accuracy of interpolation appropriate methods and variation map preparation of groundwater quality variables is independent to region conditions and existence of enough data. That is true selection of interpolation methods is basic and important step in management of groundwater resources. EC is one of the important indicators for groundwater quality evaluation. The objective of this research was to determine the most suitable interpolation method and their accuracy for analysis and checking spatial variation of groundwater EC amount in central regions of Guilan province, northern Iran. This investigation evaluated the inverse distance weighting (IDW), global polynomial interpolation (GPI), local polynomial interpolation (LPI), radial basis function (RBF) and ordinary kriging (OK) methods for estimation of groundwater EC in paddy fields. In IDW method, for variable estimation used power value 1-5 that power value equal 1 was exact. Gaussian model was the best one fitted on empirical semivariogram of variable data in OK method. Standard statistical performance evaluation criteria include root mean square error (RMSE), correlation coefficient (R) and mean absolute error (MAE) were used to control the accuracy of the prediction capability of the developed methods. Results showed that the best estimator was OK method which was the most exact with regard to other methods for estimation groundwater electrical conductivity.

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Combining natural background levels (NBLs) assessment with indicator kriging analysis to improve groundwater quality data interpretation and management

Cited by 68 publications

References 28 publications

Geostatistics as a tool to improve the natural background level definition: An application in groundwater

Geostatistics as a tool to improve the natural background level definition: An application in groundwater

An Integrated Approach for the Environmental Characterization of a Wide Area Potentially Contaminated (Southern Italy)

Spatial variation modelling of groundwater electrical conductivity using geostatistics and GIS

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