Database geografico delle Acque Sotterranee della Provincia di Pesaro e Urbino (ASPU)

Groundwater contained in acquifers is one of the most important water resource on Earth. Recently studies have evaluated that 30% of freshwater is undergound. The rest is found on the earth’s surface in form of lakes, rivers and wetlands. Most of the world’s freshwater (about 69%) is locked away to glaciers. Since most of the world’s population depends on groundwater source for drinking water supply other uses, degradation of its quality due to contamination is of serious concern both developed and underdeveloped countries. The European community’s WaterFramework Directive (WFD) 2006/118/EC was drafted with the aim to prevent and control European groundwater pollution. In Italy, the transposition of WFD is represent by D.Lgs. 152/2006 well konw Testo Unico Ambientale (TUA). In the Province of Pesaro and Urbino, until the beginning of the 1980’s, the first source of fresh water was represented by groundwater, through wells or springs. Due to the widespread pollution from nitrates in the valleys and the phenomena of salt ingression in coastal areas, the water distributed in the aqueduct is the result of the mixing of potable surface water and the water present in the carbonate ridge aquifers. In this contex, the management of groundwater resource has become a matter of pubblic interest during recent years. It is a sensitive topic for all involved subjects, scientists, state agency, public and private water supply companies and citiziens. Therefore, tools for collection, storage, public visualization of grounwater have to be constructed and implemented. An example is presented by geographical database ASPU (Acque sotterranee Pesaro Urbino). A network of information based and supported by the Geographic Information System (GIS) has been developed that allows easy access to chemical data for aquifers, as well as the integration of geochemical data with geological, hydrogeological, terrain etc. In fact, existing databases often have categorized and fragmented information from different source (public and private) that are obtained for various purposes and make global data management difficult. The geodatabase aspu present a series of features, characteristics of the architecture chosen such as homogeneity of information, data security, multi-user, interoperability and scalability of the platform The created infrastructure allows to further develop the database, either inserting new information as new samples or modifying the data structure or integrating with new types of information. The future introduction of other environmental matrices (earth and air) is an indispensable tool for specific knowledge about the specific environmental issues of the Province. Organizing and processing a large amount of data in provincial scale, such as hydrochemical and hydrogelogic information, in aspu, require studies conducted in a multidisciplinary field (geological, hydrogeological, geochemical, statistical, computer).