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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Intervention of Hydrogeophysics in the Economics of Groundwater Exploitation and Management in Sicily

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Abstract The problem of the preservation of water resources in Sicily presents various aspects, some of which have been treated by a number of works. Among the different applied methodologies, the geophysical ones occupy an important place. Their contribution, directed to an economic and efficient exploitation and management of groundwaters, can be useful for selected “risk” areas as well as for more regional programmes. In fact, uncontrolled drillings on relatively rich aquifers occur in several zones of this island; the economically disadvantageous exploitation causes also heavy impoverishment and pollution phenomena. The fragmentation of charges and the lack of a planning Regional Body make more difficult any organic elaboration of all the existing field data and the collection of further information. Other social-economical elements, as the recent urbanization of large areas, have aggravated this situation, mostly for the drinkable water needs. Geoelectrical methodologies have been applied in coastal and inland areas of Sicily. Their elaboration, versus time too, can furnish the behaviour of groundwaters as quality and quantity. The author suggests the rational exploitation of certain Sicily aquifers, showing the different costs between a classic survey supported by geological models and the same research carried out with a preliminary geoelectrical prospecting.