Geomorphological,pedological, and hydrological characteristics of karst lakes at Conversano (Apulia,southern Italy) as a basis for environmental protection |
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Authors: | N Lopez V Spizzico M Parise |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Polytechnic of Bari, Bari, Italy;(2) IRPI, National Research Council of Italy, Bari, Italy |
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Abstract: | The land around Conversano (Apulia, southern Italy) is part of the Murge karst, interesting limestones and dolomitic limestones
of Upper Cretaceous age, in a flat environment with sub-horizontal setting. Dolines and karst depressions are the most typical
landforms in the area. Filling of these landforms with eluvial deposits locally created the possibility of water stagnancy
at the surface. The Conversano territory presents ten karst lakes that represented, until some decades ago, the only water
resource available for the local people, who built the typical bell-shaped wells to collect water volumes satisfying local
needs during the dry season. Currently, these lakes have no great importance as water supplies, but represent habitats of
great naturalistic value that are still able to support the ecological functionality and the wet environments with self-vegetation.
Hydrological and hydrogeological studies have been carried out with the aim to fully estimate the related environmental problems.
For this purpose, the hydrogeologic data of historical time series have been collected and compared to those of the last 5 years;
successively, according to the Thornthwaite method, a hydrological monthly balance has been evaluated to quantify the distribution
of water volumes interacting annually between the surface water bodies and the underlying carbonate groundwater. This evaluation
has highlighted the need to carefully consider all the parameters concurring to a right definition of water balance for a
karst environment, where pedological features, climatic conditions and anthropogenic modifications to the environment represent
the elements of a very delicate system. Particularly, on the basis of recent soil map and field surveys, a re-evaluation of
the available water capacity, estimated in some 40 mm, has been carried out. The studies have highlighted the need to extend
the environmental protection rules to larger areas around the lakes, e.g. at the catchment scale, with definition of buffer
zones; in this manner, it will be possible to constantly monitor the protected land and the local anthropogenic activities,
that represent real polluting sources for both the surface water resources and the underlying carbonate groundwaters. |
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Keywords: | Karst lake Groundwater protection Water resource |
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