Ricerc@Sapienza

Drinking water is scarce in Djibouti because of the hot desert climate. Moreover, seawater intrusion or fossil saltwater contamination of the limited number of freshwater aquifers due to groundwater overexploitation affect those who live close to the coastline (~ 80% of the population). Despite this, the geothermal potential of the country's plentiful hot springs could resolve the increasing electricity demand. Strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) are routinely used to determine sources and mixing relationships in geochemical studies.

Saline intrusion is one of the main problems in the drinking water quality management, especially for those coastal areas in which urbanization is seriously increasing. In fact, in some countries with an extensive coastline, such as Italy, the high drinking water demand can lead to an uncontrolled groundwater exploitation of coastal aquifers. During summer 2017, a severe drought event affected the entire Italian territory, including the study area located in the southern part of Latium Region.

This paper presents the results of a groundwater quality assessment carried out in the karst coastal region of the West Aurunci Mountains (Central Italy). 55 spring and 18 well water samples, collected from 2016 to 2018, were analysed to study the main processes controlling the hydrogeochemical evolution and groundwater quality properties. In the study area, groundwater samples are mostly characterized by a Ca-HCO3 facies, indicating that the groundwater hydrogeochemical evolution is mainly controlled by the carbonate mineral dissolution/precipitation.