Hydrogeological studies in high water demand areas. The case study of the perytirrhenian volcanic domain of Latium

Water supply in the third millennium is a major challenge. To respond to this challenge, policies of land and water (groundwater and surface water) resource planning and management should be far-sighted and comprehensive. Planning the utilisation of resources in sustainable ways for the local communities and the environment calls for an interdisciplinary approach. This approach has a twofold advantage: i) making a comprehensive assessment of natural system and of their dynamics; and ii) designing and implementing structural and regulatory projects tailored to natural system and thus maximising their cost/benefit ratio. These results may be achieved only after careful and detailed modelling of land and water resources, i.e. not only of natural system, but also an above all of phenomena and of their evolution over time, under both natural and disturbed (non negligible anthropogenic impact) conditions. More specifically, long-term land planning strategies should be underpinned by in-depth hydrogeological studies. Only in this way will it be possible to buid a set of structural and regulatory actions, whose implementation can no longer be deferred. Basin Authorities’ studies have so far been focused on sites whose hydrogeological equilibria between recharge and losses have been disturbed or impaired by water utilisation. Therefore, inside the various watersheds, areas with different levels of hydrogeological stress were identified, mapped and defined as “critical or attention areas”. Recently Basin Authorities have entrusted the Laboratorio di Idrogeologia, Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Università “Roma Tre”, with the performance of “Hydrogeological studies in view of the definition of tools for issuing transitional plans of management of the Lazio Region volcanic aquifers”.