Dissolved Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) in Relation to Depuration Plant Outflows in Adriatic Coastal Waters: A Two Year Monitoring Survey

With the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization, human activities have caused marine pollution in three ways: land source, air source, and sea source, leading to the problem of marine environments. Remote sensing, with its wide coverage and fast and accurate monitoring capability, continues to be an important tool for marine environment monitoring and evaluation research. This paper focuses on the three types of marine pollution, namely marine seawater pollution, marine debris and microplastic pollution, and marine air pollution. We review the application of remote sensing technology methods for monitoring marine pollution and identify the limitations of existing methods. Marine seawater pollution can be effectively monitored by remote sensing technology, especially where traditional monitoring methods are inadequate. For marine debris and microplastic pollution, the monitoring methods are still in the early stages of development and require further research. For marine air pollution, more air pollution parameters are required for accurate monitoring. Future research should focus on developing marine remote sensing with data, technology, and standard sharing for three-dimensional monitoring, combining optical and physical sensors with biosensors, and using multi-source and multi-temporal monitoring data. A marine multi-source monitoring database is necessary to provide an immediately available basis for coastal and marine governance, improve marine spatial planning, and help coastal and marine protection.

Section: Seawater Quality Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Global Review of Progress in Remote Sensing and Monitoring of Marine Pollution

Ma,

Pan

et al. 2023

“…Two sites with associated DP-Sea stations were selected: Lignano (Lignano DP: 13.107832 • E, 45.684943 • N; Lignano Sea: 13.170800 • E, 45.643050 • N) and San Giorgio (San Giorgio DP: 13.232233 • E, 45.761890 • N; San Giorgio Sea: 13.242983 • E, 45.655317 • N) (Figure 1). Samples were collected monthly during two bathing seasons (2019 and 2020) from April to October (no samples were collected during September) [29].…”

Section: Sampling Stationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following this evidence, in the framework of the Interreg Italy-Croatia AdSWiM project "Managed use of treated urban wastewater for the quality of the Adriatic Sea" (sampling campaigns held in 2019-2020) we evaluated the influence of two DP outflows on the nutrient levels in the seawater of the Gulf of Trieste. During the project, for the same sites, other studies evaluated the impact of the DPs' outflows on the seawater quality concerning microbiological parameters and antibiotic-resistance genes [28] and potentially toxic elements [29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Depuration Plants on Nutrient Levels in the North Adriatic Sea

Fanelli

Girolametti

Truzzi

et al. 2022

Self Cite

Macronutrients (nitrogen—N; phosphorus—P; silicon—Si) play a crucial role in ocean surface waters stimulating the planktonic primary production; in fact, their concentrations are fundamental for the evaluation of the trophic status of the water body and eutrophication phenomena. Loads of nutrients into the sea are mainly represented by river runoff and depuration plant outflows. For this purpose, in the framework of the AdSWiM project, “Managed use of treated urban wastewater for the quality of the Adriatic Sea” levels of N-NO3, N-NO2, N-NH4, Si-Si(OH)4, P-PO4 (dissolved inorganic phosphorus—DIP) and total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) were determined colorimetrically at two sites in the Gulf of Trieste: Lignano Sabbiadoro and San Giorgio di Nogaro. For each site, during the bathing seasons of 2019 and 2020, a sample from the depuration plant (DP) outflow and another one in the bottom seawater near the discharging pipelines were collected. Results showed a strong dilution effect on nutrient levels passing from DPs to the sea, from one to three orders of magnitude and a low and not harmful concentration in seawater. The outflow composition of the two DPs showed that the main fraction of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) was represented by N-NO3 for Lignano, while in San Giorgio the major contribution came from N-NH4. Concerning phosphorus, Lignano showed a higher content (about 3 times) of P levels than San Giorgio, but a similar percentage composition, DIP:DOP (77:23), compared to the seawater site one DIP:DOP (2:98). Despite the difference between the DPs, no substantial differences were found in the sea sites, demonstrating the negligible effect of the DP outflows in the nutrient levels in the study area.

“…PTE concentration did not significantly differ between wastewater and seawater samples, although other parameters (e.g., nutrient concentration and microbial indicators) need to be investigated to identify possible synergistic effects. Some differences were observed in the composition of the WWTP effluents between Italian and Croatian plants because of the different source of waters converging to the depuration plants [41][42][43].…”

Section: Wp 42: Characterization Of Treated Ww and Of The Seawater In...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, a plastic electrode based on graphite, a PVC binder [49,50], and an in-house synthesized organic derivative of molybdate anion (MOP) [51] was prepared as the first approach to develop an electrochemical DIP sensor (Figure 4A). Prior to electrode preparation, surface waters of the northern Adriatic Sea were characterized, and nutrient concentrations were measured during a whole season using classical analytical techniques [41,42]. After determination of the baseline nutrient content, the electrode was prepared and optimized for its use as a phosphate sensor.…”

Section: Wp 43: An Electrochemical Sensor (E-sensor) For Phosphate De...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Interreg Project AdSWiM: Managed Use of Treated Wastewater for the Quality of the Adriatic Sea

Susmel

Girolametti²,

Fonti³

et al. 2022

Self Cite

The Italy-Croatia Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) Programme is the financial instrument supporting the cooperation between the two European Member States overlooking the Adriatic Sea. The first call for proposals was launched in 2017, identifying four priority axes of intervention. Subsequently, in 2019, the kick-off of the AdSWiM project “Managed use of treated urban wastewater for the quality of the Adriatic Sea” took place in Udine (IT). Adriatic marine waters are generally classified as good to excellent based on the Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC). Nevertheless, issues of low productivity or the lack of nutrients have been often suggested, especially on the Italian side. The project addresses the question of whether wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) discharging to the sea, after applying appropriate pollution control and management technologies, can modulate the nutrient content of their effluents to support localized depleted areas. This idea is borrowed from one of the motivations that support the reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation, thus leading to the return of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, etc.) to natural biogeochemical cycles. However, the hypothesis of modulating the nutrient composition of wastewater opens up to several critical aspects, including legislative and technological ones. Being aware of the delicate environmental implications, we have undertaken the project involving WWTPs, research centers, municipalities, and legal experts with the aim of investigating in detail the problems related to wastewater reuse, especially with regard to the content of nutrients. Our experimental approach aimed to evaluate appropriate and possibly new treatment technologies to reduce the microbial load and to implement chemical and microbiological tests on the treated wastewater. Results have shown that it can be tricky to draw decisive conclusions because (i) the wastewater management systems differ between the two sides of the Adriatic sea due to the different levels of technological development of WWTPs; (ii) the Italian and Croatian coasts deeply differ in geographic characteristics (i.e., topography, orography, current circuits, presence of rivers) and anthropogenic pressure (i.e., exploitation levels, population density); (iii) the new treatment technologies to lower bacterial contamination need further efforts to raise their technological level of readiness (TRL) and make them implementable in the existing WWTPs. However, in terms of chemical control methodologies, the proposed sensors and biosensors gave positive results, managing to decrease the detection limits for the measured parameters, and the tested technologies for microbiological monitoring were also effective. In particular, the latter was carried out by using recent molecular biology techniques, capable of resolving the microbiota in treated wastewater, which emerged to be strictly related to the features of the WWTPs.