The EGU23 General Assembly was held from 23 till 28 of April 2023 in Vienna, Austria and online. It welcomed more than 18 000 attendees with 16,357 presentations given in 938 sessions.
Session HS8.2.6 “Integrating understanding across the land-ocean continuum: multidisciplinary approaches to studying saltwater intrusion and submarine groundwater discharge” covered 35 oral presentations, 23 posters on site and 3 virtual posters.
This session aimed to bring together multiple disciplines and perspectives on coastal aquifers. Studies involving SWI, SGD, or both, were solicited, in order to advance a broad conceptual framework of groundwater in the land-ocean continuum, quantify the dynamic biogeochemical processes and model mechanisms and factors driving freshwater-saltwater dynamics that occur across local to regional scales; from the vadose zone to aquifer systems and submarine groundwater discharge. A better understanding of SWI and SGD from hydrogeologic and oceanographic perspective could help improve management of coastal groundwater and ecosystems and assess its current and future global importance.
Session also welcomed three solicited speakers, Jiu Jimmy Jiao (Professor of Hydrogeology, The University of Hong Kong), Gualbert Oude Essink (senior hydrogeologist at Deltares and associate professor at the Utrecht University) and Alicia Wilson (Professor of Hydrogeology, University of South Carolina).
Two poster presentations were presented by SeCure partners.
“Approaches and methodologies to monitor and mitigate saltwater intrusion in the Adriatic coastal plains” showed results of the research activities including the development of specific tools for the management of agriculture-related activities and freshwater resources in coastal areas including vulnerability assessment, mitigation plans, and countermeasures against salt contamination. These results were obtained by integrating the findings gained on both sites, considering differences and peculiarities of the specific areas that are representative of many low-lying plains located on both sides of the Adriatic coast.
“Evaluation of surface and groundwater quality and identification of saltwater sources by hydrogeochemical analysis in river Neretva coastal aquifer system” showed results of hydrogeochemical analysis surface and groundwater samples taken in River Neretva Valley during dry and rainy period of year 2021.
Both poster presentations highlighted contribution from the EU cofinancing and the Interreg Italy–Croatia Cross Border Collaboration (CBC) Programme 2014–2020 (Priority Axes: Safety and Resilience) through the European Regional Development Fund as a part of the projects MoST (AID: 10047742) and SeCure (AID: 10419304).