Integrated multidisciplinary approaches to investigate geochemical anomalies in waters.

Abstract

Water is a fundamental need for human and environmental benefits, and its inorganic quality is a mandatory standard. Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs), due to their high toxicity need to be evaluated. Consequently, in case of possibly alarming concentration, the causes (natural or anthropogenic) need to be clarified, to evaluate possible remediation techniques. Integrated multidisciplinary approaches are needed to clearly understand causes of anomalous PTEs concentrations in waters, coupling chemical, hydrogeological and statistical tools, especially in a dynamic comportment as water. In this dissertation integrated approaches will be applied to understand sources of anomalous concentrations of PTEs in waters. Firstly, PTEs sources in an alpine catchment are evaluated through the application multivariate statistics and the analysis of water and sediment to evaluate the natural load of PTEs. Also, hydrogeochemical anomalies caused by a seismic sequence in Central Italy are explained through the application of a temporal trend analysis of hydrogeochemical and seismic variables. In this way, a conceptual model of PTEs release after the shocks is proposed. The collection of these case studies highlights the need of a complete, integrated, and multidisciplinary approach to deal with geochemical data. These approaches still require a good knowledge of lithology and a big data set of chemical variables, but could fit as a first step to create leaching and transport models