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To cope with the general reduction of water availability and increase the subsurface storage of high-quality surficial waters, an artificial recharge project is ongoing in northern Italy within the WARBO LIFE+ Project funded by EU. WARBO is aimed at implementing large-scale use of artificial recharge in Italy where water directives still strongly limit its application. In this context, the Mereto recharge site was selected in the upper Fruili plain where the water availability is guaranteed during winter period by the Tagliamento and Ledra Rivers. An infiltration basin, about 5.5 m deep and 45 × 7 m wide, was built at Mereto in the early 2000s but the possibility of implementing the recharge has been allowed only very recently. The site is characterized by an elevation of 105 m asl and the depth to the groundwater table averages 50 m. Below a few meter-thick organic soil, the aquifer is composed by coarse deposits with an estimated thickness of 100 m and an average vertical hydraulic conductivity on the order of 10 m/s. A ~0.1 m/s infiltration flow has been preliminary estimated (corresponding to an infiltration rate of 60 cm/h). Geophysical investigations (electrical resistivity tomography, high-resolution seismic surveys) together with infiltration and pumping tests have been carried out to characterize the vadose zone and the unconfined aquifer in the study area. Functional approaches and three-dimensional (3D) Finite Element numerical computations have been used to predict the effect of the artificial recharge. The results of these investigations will greatly reduce the hydrogeological knowledge gaps and will be used to fine tune the recharge program and to define the monitoring concept. This contribution aims to provide a methodology for the implementation of managed aquifer recharge programs using existing structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we discuss results of analyses made on two near-regional scale seismic profiles acquired in the area of Krško Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), in SE Slovenia. Geophysical and geological data were collected to improve the seismotectonic model that is aimed at the assessment of earthquake hazards. Accordingly, the identification of active faults was the main objective of seismic profiling. The program was completed in 2000 within the project "Geophysical Research in the surroundings of the Krško NPP", supported by the EU under the PHARE Program, which finalized a grid of seismic prospecting completed by locally focalized high resolution profiling to define the position of faults extending very near the surface as accurately as possible. Two near regional lines, KK-02 and KK-03 are here analysed and discussed. Furthermore, the profile KK-02 was processed with a pre-stack depth migration after an accurate tomographic velocity inversion. The interpretation of the seismic sections so obtained points out two thrust faults developed during the Late Pontian-Pliocene, revealing the N-S tectonic compression. Continuity of these faults was studied from their nucleation inside the pre-Neogene basement to the near surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WARBO project will facilitate the regulation of water artificial recharge (AR) and determine how to respond to the need to safeguard, protect and enhance water and land ecosystems. The project will focus on sites with AR problems hosting ecosystems of community interest where urgent measures are needed to fight against water scarcity and to develop protocols able to specify how to manage recharge activities. The protocols concerning direct (hydrogeological, geochemical and isotopic) and indirect (geophysical and remote sensing) surveys will be finalized and applied to two main macro-areas. The first is the Friuli plain (NE Italy), with the aim of identifying the short- and long-term effects of the recharge of highly permeable aquifers in order to mitigate the lowering of piezometric levels and the degradation of the forested areas impacted by a gradual shift of the springs towards lower altitudes and to estimate the water savings that could be achieved through the reclamation and use of grey water in the ZIPR test site (San Vito al Tagliamento, Pordenone). The second is the southern Po Plain in the Copparo area (Ferrara, northern Italy) in order to assess the effectiveness and the issues connected with recharge activities in salinised aquifer inland characterized by medium-low permeability and to estimate the effectiveness of phytopurification systems and the improvement of biodiversity. The aims of the WARBO project are: the integration and updating of the CAMI-LIFE database to improve existing knowledge and to better evaluate the hydrogeological and geochemical evolution of aquifers; the updating of the conceptual model and identification of test areas; the application of innovative hydrological 3D models implementing state-ofthe- art numerical procedures to solve partial differential equations (as finite elements, mixed finite elements, finite volumes). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of swath bathymetric data and high-resolution seismic profiles (CHIRP), combined with information from the literature, allowed the creation of an updated map of the topography of the seabed in the western part of the Sicilian Channel. This area includes the entire Adventure Plateau, the Pantelleria Graben, and the Capo Granitola- Sciacca offshore sector between the Sicilian coast, the Graham and the Terrible banks. Positive and negative bedforms (sedimentary banks, volcanoes and mud volcanoes, pockmarks) and some erosional features were recognised and analysed in the study area. The Capo Granitola-Sciacca offshore sector is a continental shelf characterised by the presence of various sand bodies that are locally cemented and interpreted as sand ridges, dunes and remnants of dune strands or barrier lagoon systems eroded by the action of bottom currents. These bodies were probably deposited during the post-LGM sea level rise, occurred from ca. 18 kyr B.P. and 6 kyr B.P. (transgressive deposits) and during the glacial phase (lowstand deposits) occurred about 20 kyr B.P., when sea level was ca. 120-130 m lower than today. In this area there are also several volcanic edifices, mud volcanoes and numerous pockmarks due to the presence of gas. The distribution of these bodies is controlled by the faults associated with the NNE-oriented active lithospheric structure called Capo Granitola-Sciacca Fault Zone, which crosses the entire western part of the Sicilian Channel. The northern margin of the rift-related Pantelleria Graben is punctuated by NW-oriented pockmarks, probably controlled by the faults bounding tectonic depression, where several scars and a broad landslide have been this also mapped. In addition, canyons were noted along the southern margin of the Adventure Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismic hazard maps that account for site amplification (soil seismic hazard maps) are very useful because they represent the expected ground motion at the Earth's surface, but need much more information and elaboration than the usual rock hazard maps. The regional soil hazard map has been developed for the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, in northeastern Italy, by considering the most updated approach. In fact, the structure of the seismic hazard analysis presented here is based on the logic tree approach to achieve a robust statistical computation taking into account, in addition to the aleatory variability, also the epistemic uncertainties. The logic tree adopted for rock and soft soil conditions consists of 54 branches: three seismogenic zonations, representing various levels of our seismotectonic knowledge, three methods for the seismicity rate computation, three statistical approaches for the maximum magnitude estimation, and two PGA attenuation models of different spatial relevance (European and Italian). An additional regional attenuation model was considered only for stiff soil conditions, increasing the number of branches of the logic tree to 81. A consolidated expeditive procedure, widely adopted in the United States, has been used to compute the soil ground motion, properly modified on the basis of specific calibrations based on the local geological conditions and the results of geotechnical soundings. The final result of this study is represented by the map of the expected ground motion in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, computed considering the different litho-stratigraphic and morphological conditions existing in the area. This map clearly shows the contribution given by the soft sediments along the Alpine valleys and by the steep formation of the moraine amphitheatre in central Friuli. A comparison of these new results with those obtained by applying the amplification factors provided by the most popular seismic codes points out that the actual ground shaking could be notably larger than that obtained by the application of the seismic codes, suggesting a possible future implementation in the regional building code, so far not taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale submarine gravitational land movements involving even more than 1,000 m thick sedimentary successions are known as megalandslides. We prove the existence of large-scale gravitational phenomena off the Crotone Basin, a forearc basin located on the Ionian side of Calabria (southern Italy), by seismic, morpho-bathymetric and well data. Our study reveals that the Crotone Megalandslide started moving between Late Zanclean and Early Piacenzian and was triggered by a contractional tectonic event leading to the basin inversion. Seaward gliding of the megalandslide continued until roughly Late Gelasian, and then resumed since Middle Pleistocene with a modest rate. Interestingly, the onshore part of the basin does not show a gravity-driven deformation comparable to that observed in the marine area, and this peculiar evidence allows some speculations on the origin of the megalandslide.