Factor analysis to assess pollutant source apportionment and to investigate the relationship between catchment attributes and instream water quality

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD EC60/2000) requires that quality-flow compliance at a particular surface-water reach entail consideration of all upstream inputs, including contaminated land and groundwater contributions. Multivariate statistical techniques may improve our understanding of the pollutant sources affecting river quality. Aim of this study is to analyze the source apportionment and the groundwater contribution to the total pollutant load of Mella river. Factor Analysis (FA) was applied to a series of water quality measurements at seven monitoring sites, located upstream, in the middle and downstream the groundwater recharge area of the Mella river watershed. FA results in the upstream sites were completely different from the lowland stations that were strongly influenced by the groundwater contribution. In the upstream sites, in fact, the major pollutant source resulted to be the contribution of the Gobbia tributary which collects the industrial loads of the Val Trompia metallurgic consortium. On the other hand the groundwater was found to be the most significant pollutant source in the lowland sites. FA proved also useful to distinguish between sources of metals and chlorinated solvents

Decommissioning of Offshore Platforms in Adriatic Sea: The Total Removal Option from a Life Cycle Assessment Perspective

The international energy scenario to date is heavily based on fossil energy sources such as coal, oil or natural gas. According to the international ecological goals of the UNFCCC formalized in the legally binding treaty called the Paris Agreement, the next global challenges will be the decommissioning, dismantling or reconversion of the current fossil energy system into a new, more sustainable system that makes more efficient use of renewable energy technologies. Worldwide, there are about 6500 offshore oil and gas facilities and about 130 of them are located in the Mediterranean basin, mainly in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas: more than 110 offshore gas platforms have been installed in these areas since 1960. In this paper, using Life Cycle Assessment, the environmental and economic impacts of the total removal operations of an existing offshore platform in the context of the Adriatic Sea are assessed based on existing and registered decommissioning projects. In addition, the avoided impacts of primary steel production due to its recovery and recycling from the removed platform are assessed using the system boundary expansion method

Combined Exploitation of Offshore Wind and Wave Energy in the Italian Seas: A Spatial Planning Approach

The opportunity to co-locate wind and wave energy exploitation is analyzed in the Italian seas grounding on the rationale that benefits are greater when un-correlated resources are combined. The study shows that, although waves and winds are generally strongly correlated, in some conditions their correlation is lower and the combined energy harvesting more interesting. As spatial conflicts of sea use and demand for maritime space are increasing, the development of the marine renewable energy sector needs to be evaluated in the perspective of the cumulative pressures deriving from present activities or expected from future developments. The evaluation of areas of potential conflicts among human activities, environmental vulnerabilities and marine renewable developments may facilitate the early development of mitigation actions and negotiations between stakeholders. In this study the opportunity of co-locating offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters is analyzed through a spatial planning approach. Both the potential for combining different renewable technologies, and the impact associated to such development was considered in the context of the existing pressures (e.g., naval traffic; mariculture activities; submarine cables routes; dredge spoils dumping; offshore activities; windfarms and ocean energy projects) and vulnerabilities (Marine Protected Areas, Key habitat presence) through quantitative indicators. The portion of Tyrrhenian coast south of Elba island, the northern-western Sardinian coast, and the southern Adriatic and Ionian coastal waters appear to be the most suitable sites. Moreover, the study presents a spatial quantitative methodology to identify sites of potential interest for the development of the marine renewable energy sector in the perspective of cost-effectiveness and environmental impact minimization

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis for a Heavily Modified Water Body (HMWB): The Lambro-Seveso-Olona System Case Study

The Lambro-Seveso-Olona system (L-S-O) is a effluent dominated watershed which derives from a strong urbanization process of natural river basins. The average population density in the L-S-O area is among the highest in Italy and Europe. Industry is also highly developed. Although at present the L-S-O system does not receive untreated wastewaters, depurated effluents constitute about half of its streamflow. This river has a long history of poor quality status, due to the high concentration of pollutant loads and the poor dilution. Recently new chemical quality standards have been set by the Italian legislation as support for the WFD Good Ecological Status. These standards are very restrictive, and make extremely challenging the achievement of the good ecological status. Aim of this study is to analyse the restoration possibilities of the L-S-O system. Elements are provided for a Cost-Effectiveness analysis

Grouping of soils according to their soil water retention characteristics

Soil water retention capacity is usually estimated by pedotransfer functions which, in turn, are very problematic to apply for soil maps containing only categorical-type soil properties. Most of the soil information in Hungary is available in the format of soil maps reporting categorical-type information and often lacking data about measured hydrophysical properties. Here we are mainly concerned with the possibility of providing predictions of soil water retention categories starting from continuous- and/or categorical- type information. First we used Factor Analysis (FA) to synthesize the information contained in the soil variables. We then employed the factors extracted in the context of cluster analysis (CA) to differentiate soil groups that can be characterized by means of typical soil water retention values. Finally, we used multinomial logistic regression to address the relationship between the soil water content and the other soil properties used in FA