Future scenarios
in coastal karst,
saltwater intrusion,
loss of water resources
and sinkhole development
as effects of climate
changes
Abstract
Seawater intrusion phenomena affect intensively many coastlines in karst areas, producing severe impacts on society, since the delicate balance between freshwater and brackish water strongly influences a variety of human activities along the coasts. At the same time, it enhances the dissolution capability of mixing waters, resulting in greater aggressiveness toward the soluble carbonates, thus creating diffuse underground voids and controlling their evolution, eventually leading to occurrence of sinkholes at the surface. Stability of underground voids is based on the initial conditions and the changes in the environment over time. In most rocks the stability of subterranean voids can be undermined by catastrophic events, but is mostly influenced by slow processes as weathering, water infiltration and modality of flow, etc. Natural caves are generally stable environments, with dissolution processes acting on long time scales.
This project aims at studying coastal karst areas in Apulia, in relation to the effects deriving from the dissolution processes acting at the interface between freshwater and saltwater. Apulia is among the most remarkable karst regions in the Mediterranean Basin, with over 80% of its territory with soluble carbonate rocks at the outcrop, and about 900 km of coastlines. It represents therefore an ideal place where to study the climate change impacts on coastal karst, and which outcomes might be useful for other coastal areas, in the Mediterranean as well as in other parts of the world (i.e., Florida, SE Asia, etc.). Importance of the Apulian karst has been already pointed out by North et al. (2009) through a comparison of the karst of the Italian region with that of the state of Florida.
Investigations during the project include classical geology (field mapping), geophysical measurements, geo-structural analyses, geomorphological mapping of coastal areas (including karst surface and subterranean landforms), hydrological analyses, hydrogeological monitoring, stability analysis, and modeling. Geological-structural analyses will be carried out both at the surface and within the subterranean environment, thus providing a full dataset to characterize from the structural viewpoint the examined rock masses. We will develop a new system by adding karst features, typically neglected in the most widespread classification systems.
Karst landforms of the study sites will be mapped through an integration of field surveys and digital semi-automated techniques, to detect, classify and analyze them, with particular regard to sinkholes, aimed at evaluating the related susceptibility and hazard. Geophysical analyses will be carried out to characterize the present situation of saltwater intrusion, and extract the data useful to build future scenarios of sea level rise to evaluate the effects on the environment in terms of loss of water resources and of sinkhole development at the surface.
Line of intervention
South line/Linea Sud
Duration of the project
24 months
Strategic emerging topic
Sustainability and protection of natural resources
Cluster
Climate, Energy and Mobility
Sub Cluster
Transition to a climate-neutral society enabled through advanced climate science and responses for climate mitigation and adaptation
Mean ERC Field
PE-Physical Science and Engineering
ERC Sub fields
1) PE10_17 Hydrology, hydrogeology, engineering and environmental geology, water and soil pollution
2) PE10_13 Physical geography, geomorphology
3) PE10_20 Geohazards
Keywords
saltwater intrusion, sinkholes, climate change, hydrogeology, karst, coast
