Development of a TNO-REGIS geo-information system and regional groundwater model of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia coastal plain (NE Italy)

A geo-information system TNO-REGIS has been developed for the Friuli-Venezia Giulia (FVG) coastal plain in northern Italy together with a first tentative regional groundwater flow model. These activities are carried out in the framework of the EUfunded CAMI/Life project. The project should be seen as a demonstration project where the consortium partners from different disciplines (universities, scientific institutes, and private companies) provide data and information to achieve a coherent framework of the hydrogeological characteristics in the FVG coastal plain when data sets of deep boreholes are scarce. The TNO-REGIS geo-information system has been used to organise and visualise the data. Local authorities collect data on groundwater and maintain local databases, but without a geo-information system the data remain inaccessible to potential users. TNO-REGIS may fill this gap for the expert users and serves as a demonstration towards an Internet-based system, accessible to the public. A preliminary groundwater model has been constructed using the data from the consortium partners (CAMI/Life project issue) and TNO-REGIS. Again the aim is to demonstrate how groundwater models can be used to understand groundwater flow systems and as a tool for water resource management. The first model results show that groundwater quantity, even with the present rates of abstractions, should not pose immediate problems because of the high rainfall in the area. However, groundwater quality could be an issue as pollution may have infiltrated into the aquifer systems from the industrial centres located in the recharge areas.