IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i24p16353-d996165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Anthropic Pressure on the Grey Water Footprint: The Case of the Vulnerable Areas of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Diego Voccia

    (Department of Sustainable Food Process, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 29122 Piacenza, Italy)

  • Giacomo Mortella

    (Department of Sustainable Food Process, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 29122 Piacenza, Italy)

  • Federico Ferrari

    (Aeiforia S.r.l, 29027 Piacenza, Italy)

  • Maria Chiara Fontanella

    (Department of Sustainable Food Process, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 29122 Piacenza, Italy)

  • Marco Trevisan

    (Department of Sustainable Food Process, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 29122 Piacenza, Italy)

  • Lucrezia Lamastra

    (Department of Sustainable Food Process, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 29122 Piacenza, Italy)

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is an important component of plant development, yet its application and contamination are a global issue. Diffuse source pollution and its effects on ecosystem health are notoriously difficult to track and control. This paper answers the Sustainable development Goal 6 goal focused on reducing water pollution by improving the understanding of nitrate emissions to groundwater and their resulting water pollution level in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. The Grey water footprint (GWF) and water pollution level (WPL) were used as indicators and geospatial maps were constructed in order to determine if N levels exceeded groundwater quality demand from 2014 to 2020. Moreover, a selection of specific agricultural sites in the Piacenza district has been performed to better understand the potential anthropogenic nitrate pollution due to the agricultural sector. In the selected sites, the predicted nitrate pollution due to agricultural practice has been compared with the nitrate concentration measured in samples collected across the period 2015–2018. The regional results show that approximately 70% of the analysed sites resulted in a total N load exceeding the estimated agricultural load to groundwater. The analysis conducted in three selected wells in the Piacenza district shows the sporadic exceedances of the legal limit and demonstrates the presence of anthropogenic pressures of various natures insisting on the surrounding area and confirms a potential non-agricultural point or diffuse pollution source.

Suggested Citation

  • Diego Voccia & Giacomo Mortella & Federico Ferrari & Maria Chiara Fontanella & Marco Trevisan & Lucrezia Lamastra, 2022. "The Anthropic Pressure on the Grey Water Footprint: The Case of the Vulnerable Areas of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:24:p:16353-:d:996165
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16353/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/24/16353/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pier Paolo Miglietta & Pierluigi Toma & Francesco Paolo Fanizzi & Antonella De Donno & Benedetta Coluccia & Danilo Migoni & Francesco Bagordo & Francesca Serio, 2017. "A Grey Water Footprint Assessment of Groundwater Chemical Pollution: Case Study in Salento (Southern Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-10, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen Yue & Yong Qian & Feng Liu & Xiangxiang Cui & Suhua Meng, 2023. "Analysis of Ningxia Hui Autonomous District’s Gray Water Footprint from the Perspective of Water Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-18, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen Yue & Yong Qian & Feng Liu & Xiangxiang Cui & Suhua Meng, 2023. "Analysis of Ningxia Hui Autonomous District’s Gray Water Footprint from the Perspective of Water Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-18, August.
    2. Kai Zhang & Shunjie Wang & Shuyu Liu & Kunlun Liu & Jiayu Yan & Xuejia Li, 2022. "Water Environment Quality Evaluation and Pollutant Source Analysis in Tuojiang River Basin, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Giovanni De Filippis & Prisco Piscitelli & Idelberto Francesco Castorini & Anna Maria Raho & Adele Idolo & Nicola Ungaro & Filomena Lacarbonara & Erminia Sgaramella & Vito Laghezza & Donatella Chionna, 2020. "Water Quality Assessment: A Quali-Quantitative Method for Evaluation of Environmental Pressures Potentially Impacting on Groundwater, Developed under the M.I.N.O.Re. Project," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-14, March.
    4. Isabella Gambino & Francesco Bagordo & Benedetta Coluccia & Tiziana Grassi & Giovanni De Filippis & Prisco Piscitelli & Biagio Galante & Federica De Leo, 2020. "PET-Bottled Water Consumption in View of a Circular Economy: The Case Study of Salento (South Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-13, September.
    5. Naoum Tsolakis & Jagjit Singh Srai & Eirini Aivazidou, 2018. "Blue Water Footprint Management in a UK Poultry Supply Chain under Environmental Regulatory Constraints," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-13, February.
    6. Francesca Serio & Lucia Martella & Giovanni Imbriani & Adele Idolo & Francesco Bagordo & Antonella De Donno, 2021. "The Water Safety Plan Approach: Application to Small Drinking-Water Systems—Case Studies in Salento (South Italy)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-21, April.
    7. Gang Liu & Weiqian Wang & Kevin W. Li, 2019. "Water Footprint Allocation under Equity and Efficiency Considerations: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-24, March.
    8. Adam Khalifa Mohamed & Dan Liu & Kai Song & Mohamed A. A. Mohamed & Elsiddig Aldaw & Basheer A. Elubid, 2019. "Hydrochemical Analysis and Fuzzy Logic Method for Evaluation of Groundwater Quality in the North Chengdu Plain, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-21, January.
    9. Songbiao Li & Lina Shangguan, 2024. "Has the Policy of National Agricultural Green Development Pilot Zones Enhanced the Agricultural Eco-Efficiency? Observation Based on the County-Level Data from Hubei Province of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-19, October.
    10. Adele Idolo & Tiziana Grassi & Francesco Bagordo & Alessandra Panico & Mattia De Giorgi & Francesca Serio & Marcello Guido & Prisco Piscitelli & Giovanni De Filippis & Annamaria Raho & Antonella De Do, 2018. "Micronuclei in Exfoliated Buccal Cells of Children Living in a Cluster Area of Salento (Southern Italy) with a High Incidence of Lung Cancer: The IMP.AIR Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-15, August.
    11. Pier Paolo Miglietta & Domenico Morrone & Federica De Leo, 2018. "The Water Footprint Assessment of Electricity Production: An Overview of the Economic-Water-Energy Nexus in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, January.
    12. Pier Paolo Miglietta & Domenico Morrone, 2018. "Managing Water Sustainability: Virtual Water Flows and Economic Water Productivity Assessment of the Wine Trade between Italy and the Balkans," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-19, February.
    13. Yanna Yang & Wenlai Xu & Jinyao Chen & Qiang Chen & Zhicheng Pan, 2018. "Hydrochemical Characteristics and Groundwater Quality Assessment in the Diluvial Fan of Gaoqiao, Emei Mountain, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-14, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:24:p:16353-:d:996165. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.