The Development and Application of an Integrated Surface-Subsurface Modelling Tool to Evaluate Diffuse Pollution Loading into a Coastal Lagoon

摘要

Water pollution coming from agriculture is one of the major problems not only in European Union (EU) and North America but also in many developing countries. The intensification of agricultural practices and particularly the growing use of fertilizers and pesticides within the specialization and concentration of crop and livestock production have an increasing impact on water quality. Main agricultural water pollutants are nitrates, phosphorus, and pesticides, which affect surface and subsurface water. To this purpose a modeling procedure was developed to evaluate and predict the surface and subsurface water quality and quantity as affected by anthropogenic activities in the Burana Po di Volano (B-PV) watershed, Italy. The ISSM model (Integrated Surface and Subsurface model) is composed by the hydrological model (SWAT), the groundwater models (MODFLOW 2000 and MT3DMS) and the in-stream water quality model (QUAL2E). The model application gave good results in predicting, water and nutrients leaching from surface to the aquifer, groundwater dynamics, aquifer interactions with the stream system, and surface water and nutrient fluxes at the watershed outlet. It proved to be an adequate tool for scenario analysis in watershed with heavily regulated channel flow.