Integrated Water Monitoring Assessment Across Time and Scale

Overview

The Integrated Water Monitoring Assessment Across Time and Scale Certificate from University of Pisa Summer School it will take place in Corsica, a unique place for testing integrated approaches, characterized by the presence of a multi-composite geological and hydroclimatic context, giving origin to different types of thermo-mineral waters.

Mineral water has an exclusive socio-economic value, deriving from industrialization and commercialization processes, but also a fundamental cultural value for local populations who are using spring waters for domestic consumption on a daily basis in a different way over timThe complexity of the water-rock interaction processes giving origin to unique water mineralization requires the adoption of multiple and integrated approaches to characterize their composition.

For this reason, the Summer School will cover different topics necessary for a comprehensive characterization of mineral and thermal waters, which include:

• hydrogeochemistry (gas and physicochemical parameters): to evaluate groundwater natural composition and assess deviations from natural baseline values;
• structural geology: to better assess the geometry of groundwater flow path;
• isotope hydrology: to trace groundwater recharge processes and age;
• hydrogeology: to identify groundwater flow paths and support geochemical pieces of evidence on water-rock interaction and mixing processes with surface water to complement vulnerability assessments;
• socio-hydrogeology: to assess the socio-economic impact of mineral and thermal waters, and to understand how to effectively translate scientific outcomes to the water users.

The school will take place in Corsica, a unique place for testing integrated approaches, characterized by the presence of a multi-composite geological and hydroclimatic context, giving origin to different types of thermo-mineral waters. Indeed, the Mediterranean mountainous Island of Corsica is well known as a geo-diversity hotspot. Mineral and thermal groundwater are very special water resources characterized by stable and specific geochemical characteristics in terms of dissolved ions and gaseous contents as well as stable, and most of the time, relatively high temperatures. Groundwater circulation in-depth increases the complexity and the multiplicity of groundwater pathways and provides a high diversity of water qualities with potential commercial and health benefits such as for mineral, thermal, alkaline, CO2-rich, brines, ferruginous or sulphurous waters. These processes can be even more complex in the case of long-residence-time groundwater.

Integrated geological and environmental tools are very interesting when used together because they can provide information on water origins and chemical properties, as well as an estimation of the timing of the processes.

The school will be held in collaboration with Dr. Sebastien Santoni, with the help of Dr. Emilie Garel, Dr. Thomas Leydier, and Prof. Frederic Huneau, and the support of the Université Pascal Paoli.