Sustainability Indicators of Groundwater Withdrawal in a Heavily Stressed System: The Case of the Acque Albule Basin (Rome, Italy)
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Background Knowledge on Groundwater Flow and Anthropogenic Impacts in the Acque Albule Basin
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Investigations
3.2. Groundwater Flow Model
- -
- General Head Boundary (GHB): this condition, assigned to the northern limit of the model to Layers 1 and 3 and to a portion of the eastern border, was used to simulate head-dependent inflows into the system. Head values of GHB were derived from the potentiometric surface map available for the area under natural conditions [40], i.e., when withdrawals from the quarry area were limited;
- -
- No Flow boundary: this condition was assigned to the northwestern limit of the model, where null exchange between the plain and the surrounding reliefs has been recognized [33,34]; the same condition was also assigned to the southern sector of the model beyond the Aniene River, which does not affect the investigated system;
- -
- DRAIN: this head-dependent flux boundary allows the outflow from the system. This condition was applied to the stress periods SP1, SP2 and SP3 (see below) to the Regina, Colonnelle (Acque Albule springs) and S. Giovanni lakes and to the minor springs located in the southern sector of the study area; the drain condition was also applied to simulate the drainage from the quarries during the calibration process for stress period SP2;
- -
- RIVER: this condition simulates the water exchanges between river and groundwater. This condition was assigned to the southern boundary of the model where the Aniene River flows, taking into account the elevations of the river and distinguishing three different conductance zones during calibration process (named as Reach 1, Reach 2 and Reach 3).
4. Results
4.1. Variation of the Groundwater Flow and Level in the Plain
4.2. Results of Groundwater Modeling
- -
- Δhi is the drawdown in the i-th group of quarries,
- -
- Qi is the dewatering discharge from the i-th group of quarries,
- -
- a, b and c are coefficients depending on the location of the group in the groundwater flow pattern, the pumping rate from each group and the interference of pumping from the adjacent groups.
- -
- IQs is the increase in flow of the Acque Albule spring in response to the variation of pumping rate from the i-th group of quarries,
- -
- QsSP1 is the flow discharge of the Acque Albule springs under natural conditions,
- -
- QsSP3 is the flow discharge of the Acque Albule springs with maximum pumping from all groups of quarries,
- -
- Qi is the pumping flow from the i-th quarry
- -
- IQr is the increase in flow of the Aniene River in response to the variation of the pumping rate from the i-th group of quarries,
- -
- QrSP1 is the flow discharge towards the Aniene River under natural conditions,
- -
- QrSP3 is flow discharge toward the Aniene River with maximum pumping from all groups of quarries.
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Layer | Initial kh Values (m/s) |
---|---|
Layer 1: Travertine aquifer | 1 × 10−3 |
Layer 2: Aquitard | 1 × 10−6 |
Layer 2: Fault zone | 1 × 10−2 |
Layer 3: Carbonate aquifer | 1 × 10−3 |
Year | Acque Albule Springs | Bretella Spring | Barco Springs | Quarries | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
T (°C) | EC (µS/cm) | T (°C) | EC (µS/cm) | T (°C) | EC (µS/cm) | T (°C) | EC (µS/cm) | |
2005 a | 23.7 | 3610 | 21.1 | 2614 | 19.9–23.5 | 2640–3360 | ||
2008 b | 22.2 | 3460 | 21.0–22.0 | 2920–3260 | 17.6–23.3 | 1550–3400 | ||
2020 c | 23.5 | 3611 | 20.5 | 2759 | 20.9–22.1 | 3180–3360 | 19.0–21.4 | 3140–3230 |
Parameter | Calibrated Values |
---|---|
Acque Albule springs conductance | 2.94 × 10−2 (m2/s) |
Minor springs conductance | 5.43 × 10−1 (m2/s) |
River conductance—Reach 1 | 5.56 × 10−3 (m2/s) |
River conductance—Reach 2 | 1.05 × 10−1 (m2/s) |
River conductance—Reach 3 | 1.52 × 10−3 (m2/s) |
Northern GHB conductance | 2.60 × 10−3 (m2/s) |
Northern GHB elevation | 80.3 (m asl) |
Flow Rates (m3/s) | Observed Value | Simulated Value | Residual |
---|---|---|---|
Acque Albule springs SP1 | 2.50 | 1.88 | 0.62 |
Acque Albule springs SP2 | 0.01 | 0.17 | −0.16 |
Minor springs SP1 | 0.80 | 0.69 | 0.11 |
Minor springs SP2 | 0.20 | 0.12 | 0.08 |
Drainage from quarries SP2 | 4.67 | 6.03 | −1.36 |
Northern GHB SP1 | 4.00 | 3.96 | 0.04 |
Parameter | Composite Sensitivity |
---|---|
Acque Albule springs conductance | 0.30 |
Minor springs conductance | 3.07 × 10−2 |
River conductance—Reach 1 | 5.30 × 10−2 |
River conductance—Reach 2 | 2.55 × 10−3 |
River conductance—Reach 3 | 1.71 × 10−2 |
Northern GHB conductance | 0.75 |
Northern GHB level | 5.18 × 10−2 |
Average sensitivity of pilot points | 2.50 × 10−2 |
Term | SP1 | SP3 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Inflow | Outflow | Inflow | Outflow | |||||
m3/s | % | m3/s | % | m3/s | % | m3/s | % | |
Meteoric recharge | 0.32 | 7.4 | 0.24 | 3.5 | ||||
GHB North, Layer 1 | 1.04 | 24.1 | 2.01 | 29.1 | ||||
GHB North, Layer 3 | 2.92 | 67.8 | 3.99 | 57.7 | ||||
GHB Est | 0.05 | 1.1 | 0.06 | 0.9 | ||||
Aniene River | 0.03 | 0.7 | 1.70 | 39.4 | 0.61 | 8.8 | 0.50 | 7.4 |
Quarry dewatering | 5.98 | 88.3 | ||||||
Acque Albule springs | 1.88 | 43.5 | 0.18 | 2.7 | ||||
Minor springs | 0.69 | 16.0 | 0.11 | 1.6 | ||||
Total | 4.31 | 100 | 4.32 | 100 | 6.91 | 100 | 6.77 | 100 |
Scenarios | Qtq (m3/s) | % SP3 |
---|---|---|
SP1 | 0 | 0 |
SP3-30 | 1.80 | 30 |
SP3-50 | 2.99 | 50 |
SP3-70 | 4.18 | 70 |
SP3-80 | 4.78 | 80 |
SP3 | 5.97 | 100 |
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Piscopo, V.; Sbarbati, C.; Lotti, F.; Lana, L.; Petitta, M. Sustainability Indicators of Groundwater Withdrawal in a Heavily Stressed System: The Case of the Acque Albule Basin (Rome, Italy). Sustainability 2022, 14, 15248. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215248
Piscopo V, Sbarbati C, Lotti F, Lana L, Petitta M. Sustainability Indicators of Groundwater Withdrawal in a Heavily Stressed System: The Case of the Acque Albule Basin (Rome, Italy). Sustainability. 2022; 14(22):15248. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215248
Chicago/Turabian StylePiscopo, Vincenzo, Chiara Sbarbati, Francesca Lotti, Luigi Lana, and Marco Petitta. 2022. "Sustainability Indicators of Groundwater Withdrawal in a Heavily Stressed System: The Case of the Acque Albule Basin (Rome, Italy)" Sustainability 14, no. 22: 15248. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215248