Multi-aquifer susceptibility analyses for supporting groundwater management in urban areas

In the densely urbanised Milan Metropolitan area (northern Italy), the long history of anthropogenic activities still exerts a significant pressure on groundwater resource. One of the most serious threats to the water quality of urban aquifers is attributed to diffuse contamination, which is caused by a series of unknown small sources (i.e., multiple point sources) distributed over large areas. In the study area and in many industrialised regions of the world, tetrachloroethylene [PCE], trichloroethylene [TCE] and hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] represent the common example of long-standing and persistent pollution in groundwater. In the Milan Metropolitan area, high levels of PCE + TCE and Cr(VI) were detected in the shallow aquifer as well as in the deep aquifer. To assess and map the shallow and deep aquifers susceptibility to PCE + TCE and Cr(VI) contamination at a regional scale, the Weights of Evidence modelling technique has been applied. This method has been used to objectively evaluate the spatial correlation between the high presence of these pollutants in each aquifer and hydrogeological and land use factors that can potentially influence the contamination. Moreover, the results allowed us to quantify on a large scale the effect that preferential flowpaths, due to both thickness variation in the aquitard and the areal density of multi aquifer wells, have in reducing the protection of the underlying deep aquifer. The end-products of the study constitute a key tool to be used by water-resource managers and decision-makers for the improvement of groundwater management and protection strategies.