**4. The adaptability of the groundwater monitoring system in Apulia Region: Main drawbacks and potential improvements**

The aim of this work is to criticize the current approaches to monitoring design, highlighting the main drawbacks which hamper the adaptability of monitoring system. Moreover, potential improvements are discussed. To this aim a framework to assess the adaptability degree of monitoring design approach has been developed. The framework is structured as shown in the following table.


Another aspect of being flexible and extendable is to provide the possibility to add new modules easily, for instance hydrological or economical models, methods to analyse map layers etc. This kind of flexibility is of interest for developers or advanced users with programming skills. A modular or object oriented software structure is necessary to permit

Taking the above mentioned arguments into consideration the information system is quiet flexible and open to include new information. But it is impossible to foresee what kind of requirements will be demanded from the information system in a few years. Thus, it should be possible to improve, maintain, and extend the software for everybody with programming knowledge. To be "technically sustainable" open source software should be used and local IT experts involved in the development process, particularly, if the software prototype will be produced within a project over a certain period and not by a company. One should emphasise the problem here that after a project has finished, often the developers are not available or not in charge for the product anymore. To facilitate future improvements the

**4. The adaptability of the groundwater monitoring system in Apulia Region:** 

The aim of this work is to criticize the current approaches to monitoring design, highlighting the main drawbacks which hamper the adaptability of monitoring system. Moreover, potential improvements are discussed. To this aim a framework to assess the adaptability degree of monitoring design approach has been developed. The framework is


which phase? - Multi-scale monitoring - Is the monitoring system able to collect information




Table 2. Comparison among current, IWRM and AM monitoring

improvements?

time series of data?


of monitoring system design? At which level? In



evaluation of the policy impacts and suggest

evaluation and adaptation of the monitoring strategy?

at different spatial and temporal scale?

AMIS must be equipped with a sound documentation of the source code.

**Main drawbacks and potential improvements** 

structured as shown in the following table.

**Criteria Meaning** 

producer/information users




sources

interaction

interaction

this task.

This criteria have been used to evaluate the adaptability of the groundwater monitoring system of the Apulia region (Southern Italy).

The groundwater monitoring network of the Apulia Region was established in 2006 to meet the wide range of standards set by the water related national legislation adopted in 1999 (Italian Legislative Decree n. 152/1999). Consequently, the monitoring network was designed, realized and finally used in order to produce water quality and quantity information useful to characterize the environmental status of the main regional groundwater bodies.

The monitoring network has been promoted and financed by the regional offices in charge of the collection, storage and processing of data collected in accordance with relevant regulations. The network design and implementation and the enforcement of the monitoring practices fall within the scope of the project called TIZIANO whose completion is scheduled for the end of 2011.

Fig. 3. TIZIANO monitoring design and number of monitoring stations. The process was composed by two main phases to identify the monitoring stations.

The TIZIANO monitoring network is made of more than 600 wells mostly spread within the boundaries of the four main aquifers of the region even if some tens of them have been located within some minor groundwater bodies. About 130 wells have been equipped with automatic probes for continuous measuring of groundwater level. During the last five years hundreds of quality and quantity measures have been made on site and thousands of samples, collected in the wells of the network, have been analyzed in laboratory in order to

Monitoring Information Systems to Support Adaptive Water Management 439

management and protection, arose the need of recovering and, possibly, potentiate the

In the meantime several important water related, European directives (e.g.: the Nitrate Directive, 1991/676/EEC) and national decrees had been promulgated, which forced regional water offices to move toward a detailed knowledge of the qualitative and quantitative state of water resources in order to protect such resources and restore their

The evaluation of the institutional, legislative, technical and scientific needs and expectations led to the design of the regional groundwater monitoring network by a small team of super-experts which were careful to meet the requirements coming from various and different parts. Measures of water level and physical-chemical parameters were carried out following rules and times required by national environmental legislation implementing EU rules and a number of scientific measures and controls were preformed in order to give

The information provided by the new monitoring system was essential, among other, in order to assess the environmental state of the Apulian groundwater bodies or delimit Nitrate Vulnerable Areas, and design and plan specific actions of different complexity and

Summarizing, measures of water level and physical-chemical parameters were carried out following rules and times required by national environmental legislation implementing EU rules and a number of scientific measures and controls were preformed in order to give

network.

original natural status.

responses to the scientific community.

responses to the scientific community.

**4.2 Degree of participation** 

socio-economical cost, able to recover and protect groundwater.

Fig. 5. Information accessibility according to TIZIANO monitoring program.

From what said above derives that the position of the decision-makers in the design of the monitoring system was rather weak, i.e. the Apulian Region's role was limited to promote and fund the design. The role of decision-makers in the functioning of the TIZIANO monitoring network is strong and constant. Regional offices are in charge of producing,

determine the concentration of the main chemicals, metals, organic compounds, pesticides and level of harmful microorganisms. The huge amount of information, collected during the last five years, was stored in a Geographic Information System (GIS) specifically designed for the project. It allowed regional decision-makers to assess the environmental state of the aquifers and plan and carry out specific actions to improve it, when not good, or reverse worsening trends, when they were to lead to adverse conditions of groundwater quality and quantity.

Fig. 4. Distribution of the monitoring station.

As reported above, the TIZIANO monitoring network started late in 2006, but the administrative process which led to its design and funding started several years early, at the turn of the century. In the meantime the European Union issued the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/CE), which was implemented in Italy exactly in 2006 (Italian L.D. n. 152/2006), and the, so called daughter Groundwater Directive in 2006 (2006/118/CE), recently implemented in Italy with the L.D. n. 30/2009. Although the Italian L.D. 152/1999 would herald a number of rules, then enshrined in European directives, it is evident that the future implementation of the decrees of 2006 and 2009 have clarified and modified, sometimes substantially, type, detail and timing of information to be acquired by monitoring and all management activities resulting from its processing.

#### **4.1 Information producer/information users interaction**

The Region already had a modest, monitoring network made of about 100 piezometers equipped with water level gauges, where some sporadic sampling was collected during the early 90s. Nevertheless, because of various causes, this network was abandoned after some years of functioning. At this point, within the regional offices in charge of water resources

determine the concentration of the main chemicals, metals, organic compounds, pesticides and level of harmful microorganisms. The huge amount of information, collected during the last five years, was stored in a Geographic Information System (GIS) specifically designed for the project. It allowed regional decision-makers to assess the environmental state of the aquifers and plan and carry out specific actions to improve it, when not good, or reverse worsening trends, when they were to lead to adverse conditions of groundwater quality and

As reported above, the TIZIANO monitoring network started late in 2006, but the administrative process which led to its design and funding started several years early, at the turn of the century. In the meantime the European Union issued the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/CE), which was implemented in Italy exactly in 2006 (Italian L.D. n. 152/2006), and the, so called daughter Groundwater Directive in 2006 (2006/118/CE), recently implemented in Italy with the L.D. n. 30/2009. Although the Italian L.D. 152/1999 would herald a number of rules, then enshrined in European directives, it is evident that the future implementation of the decrees of 2006 and 2009 have clarified and modified, sometimes substantially, type, detail and timing of information to be acquired by

The Region already had a modest, monitoring network made of about 100 piezometers equipped with water level gauges, where some sporadic sampling was collected during the early 90s. Nevertheless, because of various causes, this network was abandoned after some years of functioning. At this point, within the regional offices in charge of water resources

monitoring and all management activities resulting from its processing.

**4.1 Information producer/information users interaction** 

quantity.

Fig. 4. Distribution of the monitoring station.

management and protection, arose the need of recovering and, possibly, potentiate the network.

In the meantime several important water related, European directives (e.g.: the Nitrate Directive, 1991/676/EEC) and national decrees had been promulgated, which forced regional water offices to move toward a detailed knowledge of the qualitative and quantitative state of water resources in order to protect such resources and restore their original natural status.

The evaluation of the institutional, legislative, technical and scientific needs and expectations led to the design of the regional groundwater monitoring network by a small team of super-experts which were careful to meet the requirements coming from various and different parts. Measures of water level and physical-chemical parameters were carried out following rules and times required by national environmental legislation implementing EU rules and a number of scientific measures and controls were preformed in order to give responses to the scientific community.

The information provided by the new monitoring system was essential, among other, in order to assess the environmental state of the Apulian groundwater bodies or delimit Nitrate Vulnerable Areas, and design and plan specific actions of different complexity and socio-economical cost, able to recover and protect groundwater.

Summarizing, measures of water level and physical-chemical parameters were carried out following rules and times required by national environmental legislation implementing EU rules and a number of scientific measures and controls were preformed in order to give responses to the scientific community.

Fig. 5. Information accessibility according to TIZIANO monitoring program.

#### **4.2 Degree of participation**

From what said above derives that the position of the decision-makers in the design of the monitoring system was rather weak, i.e. the Apulian Region's role was limited to promote and fund the design. The role of decision-makers in the functioning of the TIZIANO monitoring network is strong and constant. Regional offices are in charge of producing,

Monitoring Information Systems to Support Adaptive Water Management 441

is, monitoring provides data to models, but the models are used to support the evaluation

Theoretically speaking, the TIZIANO groundwater monitoring system should be capable of supporting regional decision-makers at each step of the decisional path. In few words, the network should support: 1) Assessing the initial state of the natural system and reporting negative trends; 2) Controlling the effects of environmental actions and politics; 3) Alerting

The spatial extension of the monitoring network and the number of monitoring wells should be revised at each step. Step one should be performed extensively over the monitoring area and step two should focus around risk area. Step three should be suitably designed in order to be capable of capturing any warning signal, at this step the position of the monitoring points, the parameters to be measured and the frequency of measurement need to be carefully evaluated. The TIZIANO monitoring network performed very well the first step (Assess). Unlikely, we have less evaluation elements concerning the monitoring network suitability during the second phase (Control). Finally, concerning the third step (Alert), the monitoring activity have been moved and increased around area considered mostly at risk

The monitoring program does not contain an evaluation phase. This means that the second

The critical analysis of the TIZIANO groundwater monitoring system can be summarized as





Starting from the results of the critical analysis, some drawbacks and potential improvements for the TIZIANO monitoring program have been identified and discussed in



and legislation

monitored

the implementation

between different scales

and, eventually, the re-design of the monitoring network.

learning process described in figure 1 cannot be supported.

**Criteria Evaluation** 

**4.7 Policy evaluation** 

for undesired evolutions.

and reduced in the rest of the region.


**4.8 Monitoring evaluation** 

users interaction

Table 3. Results of the evaluation

**5. Conclusion** 

the following sections.

shown in table 3.

controlling and processing monitoring information in order to assess environmental indices and plan and execute actions for recovering deteriorated resources.

#### **4.3 Multi-scale monitoring**

Given the multi-objective frame of the monitoring each class of data has been collected with different spatial and temporal resolution. Let's have a short description of classes of data and related time-space scale starting from groundwater level.

In order to capture the cyclic behaviour of groundwater levels in the wells, measures are taken on site almost every three months. About 130 wells have been equipped with automatic water level gauges capable of acquiring and transmitting a measurement every 15 minutes. These equipped wells have been located at strategic sites, in order to use them as controlling stations. So, the project database stores groundwater levels measured at different temporal scales at different locations all over the aquifers extension. Nevertheless, there is no analysis of the inter-linkages among the process at different scales.

#### **4.4 Integration of information sources**

Given the complexity of the monitoring network, the data collection system is extremely various and includes manual and automatic measures, on site and laboratory analysis, coastal and inland exploration, airborne remote sensing. The whole amount of collected data is stored in GIS after a validation phase. Nevertheless, data coming from different platforms are sporadically integrated. The different measures follow a separated path, which passes through a separated validation step. In conclusion, the monitoring system is not based on a strong integration between sources of data.

#### **4.5 Long time sustainability**

The whole monitoring system, as currently conceived, is particularly expensive. Let's report some of the main weakness of the project concerning its own costs.

The monitoring area is objectively wide and the number of monitoring points huge, while the location of the monitoring teams is centralized and, consequently, they need to travel hundreds of kilometres during the monitoring surveys or for maintenance. Instrumentation need to be constantly maintained and often replaced due to theft.

Moreover the costs of the system are rather high due to the frequent outsourcing of monitoring activities. Costs could be reduced dramatically, if most of the monitoring practices were carried out by Regional Agencies and Offices and only very specialized activities were outsourced. In conclusion, only if an intelligent redistribution of activities within public institutions will be put in place, with a consequent cost reduction, the network is likely to become a long-term system.

#### **4.6 Monitoring/modelling interaction**

Various statistical, geostatistical, hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical, deterministic and stochastic, simple and complex models have been applied to process data collected and stored into the GIS. Nevertheless, it was not specifically designed to be compliant to any particular model. In fact, given the wide range of expected uses of the different dataset stored the design choice was to keep the organization of data extremely simple, and then easily adaptable to different kinds of models just through a simple pre-processor. In the TIZIANO monitoring project, the monitoring/modeling interaction is one-directional. That is, monitoring provides data to models, but the models are used to support the evaluation and, eventually, the re-design of the monitoring network.

### **4.7 Policy evaluation**

440 Environmental Monitoring

controlling and processing monitoring information in order to assess environmental indices

Given the multi-objective frame of the monitoring each class of data has been collected with different spatial and temporal resolution. Let's have a short description of classes of data

In order to capture the cyclic behaviour of groundwater levels in the wells, measures are taken on site almost every three months. About 130 wells have been equipped with automatic water level gauges capable of acquiring and transmitting a measurement every 15 minutes. These equipped wells have been located at strategic sites, in order to use them as controlling stations. So, the project database stores groundwater levels measured at different temporal scales at different locations all over the aquifers extension. Nevertheless, there is

Given the complexity of the monitoring network, the data collection system is extremely various and includes manual and automatic measures, on site and laboratory analysis, coastal and inland exploration, airborne remote sensing. The whole amount of collected data is stored in GIS after a validation phase. Nevertheless, data coming from different platforms are sporadically integrated. The different measures follow a separated path, which passes through a separated validation step. In conclusion, the monitoring system is not based on a

The whole monitoring system, as currently conceived, is particularly expensive. Let's report

The monitoring area is objectively wide and the number of monitoring points huge, while the location of the monitoring teams is centralized and, consequently, they need to travel hundreds of kilometres during the monitoring surveys or for maintenance. Instrumentation

Moreover the costs of the system are rather high due to the frequent outsourcing of monitoring activities. Costs could be reduced dramatically, if most of the monitoring practices were carried out by Regional Agencies and Offices and only very specialized activities were outsourced. In conclusion, only if an intelligent redistribution of activities within public institutions will be put in place, with a consequent cost reduction, the network

Various statistical, geostatistical, hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical, deterministic and stochastic, simple and complex models have been applied to process data collected and stored into the GIS. Nevertheless, it was not specifically designed to be compliant to any particular model. In fact, given the wide range of expected uses of the different dataset stored the design choice was to keep the organization of data extremely simple, and then easily adaptable to different kinds of models just through a simple pre-processor. In the TIZIANO monitoring project, the monitoring/modeling interaction is one-directional. That

and plan and execute actions for recovering deteriorated resources.

and related time-space scale starting from groundwater level.

no analysis of the inter-linkages among the process at different scales.

some of the main weakness of the project concerning its own costs.

need to be constantly maintained and often replaced due to theft.

**4.3 Multi-scale monitoring** 

**4.4 Integration of information sources** 

strong integration between sources of data.

is likely to become a long-term system.

**4.6 Monitoring/modelling interaction** 

**4.5 Long time sustainability** 

Theoretically speaking, the TIZIANO groundwater monitoring system should be capable of supporting regional decision-makers at each step of the decisional path. In few words, the network should support: 1) Assessing the initial state of the natural system and reporting negative trends; 2) Controlling the effects of environmental actions and politics; 3) Alerting for undesired evolutions.

The spatial extension of the monitoring network and the number of monitoring wells should be revised at each step. Step one should be performed extensively over the monitoring area and step two should focus around risk area. Step three should be suitably designed in order to be capable of capturing any warning signal, at this step the position of the monitoring points, the parameters to be measured and the frequency of measurement need to be carefully evaluated. The TIZIANO monitoring network performed very well the first step (Assess). Unlikely, we have less evaluation elements concerning the monitoring network suitability during the second phase (Control). Finally, concerning the third step (Alert), the monitoring activity have been moved and increased around area considered mostly at risk and reduced in the rest of the region.
