Romanazzi A., Gentile F., Polemio M.,Trisorio Liuzzi G., 2013, The sustainability agriculture development under climate change in a karst coastal region_ the case of Salento (southern Italy), 1st CIGR Inter-Regional Conference on Land and Water Challenges, Bari, 10-14/09/2013,
URL: http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/272199

The coastal karst aquifers are known to be highly vulnerable to anthropogenic and natural changes, and in particular to the overexploitation of groundwater resources. They are of strategic relevance, especially for the coastal areas of Asia, USA and Mediterranean Countries, where the urbanization and human activities are highly developed. In these coastal zones, densely populated areas and intensive agricultural activities always demand greater quantities of water to support their economy. Climate change may particularly aggravate these requirements, especially in the Mediterranean areas, due to the combined effects of reduced recharge and consequent increase of discharge. In addition, the seawater intrusion processes involve a deterioration of the water resource quality. These problems highlight the importance of a serious reflection on water resources management to ensure agricultural sustainability and good fresh water supply of the coastal areas. In Italy, Apulia, with its coastline extending over 800 km, is the region with the largest coastal karst aquifer. The predominant karst Apulian features make the region extremely poor of surface water resources but, at the same time, rich of groundwater resources, which allow the improvement of agricultural activitiejknbews in the whole region. In particular we focus on a coastal groundwater system that is already threatened by a high seawater level_ Salento Peninsula. The aim of this paper is to simulate the effects of climate change on recharge, sea level rise and increase of crop water demand, using density-depending numerical codes MODFLOW and SEAWAT. A large-scale approach was chosen to assess the efficacy of modelling as a new management tool, and to develop predictive scenarios taking into account the irrigation needs.

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