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Ivana La Licata
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano

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Journal article
Published: 26 March 2019 in Acque Sotterranee - Italian Journal of Groundwater
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Nauru is a small limestone island in the Pacific region where, as in many small islands in the world, the population heavilyrely upon groundwater as primary freshwater resource, in conjunction with rainwater and desalinated water.The Nauru project started in 2010 and led by Politecnico di Milano (http://nauru.como.polimi.it/), consisted on the hydrogeological characterization of the northern part of the island and the implementation of 3 numerical models for: (1) understanding the mechanisms governing groundwater flow and accumulation, (2) assess the adequate sustainable fresh groundwater exploitation in order to prevent saltwater upconing occurrences in the area more suitable for groundwater extraction and (3) to simulate future scenarios based on climate changes and population growth.

ACS Style

Luca Alberti; Ivana La Licata; Louis Bouchet. Assessment of groundwater resources: Nauru project 2010 – 2019. Acque Sotterranee - Italian Journal of Groundwater 2019, 1 .

AMA Style

Luca Alberti, Ivana La Licata, Louis Bouchet. Assessment of groundwater resources: Nauru project 2010 – 2019. Acque Sotterranee - Italian Journal of Groundwater. 2019; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luca Alberti; Ivana La Licata; Louis Bouchet. 2019. "Assessment of groundwater resources: Nauru project 2010 – 2019." Acque Sotterranee - Italian Journal of Groundwater , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 24 August 2018 in Applied Sciences
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On November 2014, the Municipality of Grandate, near Lake Como, had to deal with a great emergency that was caused by the flooding of factory undergrounds. The authors realized a hydrogeological study to understand the causes of groundwater flooding and to prepare a pre-feasibility study concerning possible actions for groundwater control. The hydrogeological structure is rather complex and required time-consuming reconstruction of the conceptual site model. A transient numerical model was developed to analyse the system behaviour in different scenarios. The flow model was calibrated in a steady and unsteady-state using the automatic calibration code Model-Independent Parameter Estimation (PEST). The study demonstrated that the reason for floods was mainly due to the concurrence of three causes: (1) the hydrogeological structure of the area was recognized as a stagnation zone, (2) groundwater rising, and (3) extremely heavy rainfall in 2014. Through the PEST RandPar function, 100 random rainfall scenarios were generated starting from rainfall data for the last 20 years. The model was used to run 100 1-year long simulations considering the probability distribution of recharge related to the 100 randomly generated rainfall scenarios. Through collecting the piezometric heads that resulted from the simulations, monthly probability curves of groundwater exceeding a threshold level were obtained. The results provided an occurrence probability of groundwater level exceeding the underground structures level between 12% and 15%.

ACS Style

Ivana La Licata; Loris Colombo; Vincenzo Francani; Luca Alberti. Hydrogeological Study of the Glacial—Fluvioglacial Territory of Grandate (Como, Italy) and Stochastical Modeling of Groundwater Rising. Applied Sciences 2018, 8, 1456 .

AMA Style

Ivana La Licata, Loris Colombo, Vincenzo Francani, Luca Alberti. Hydrogeological Study of the Glacial—Fluvioglacial Territory of Grandate (Como, Italy) and Stochastical Modeling of Groundwater Rising. Applied Sciences. 2018; 8 (9):1456.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ivana La Licata; Loris Colombo; Vincenzo Francani; Luca Alberti. 2018. "Hydrogeological Study of the Glacial—Fluvioglacial Territory of Grandate (Como, Italy) and Stochastical Modeling of Groundwater Rising." Applied Sciences 8, no. 9: 1456.

Journal article
Published: 13 October 2017 in Water
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Water resources sustainable management is a vital issue for small islands where groundwater is often the only available water resource. Nauru is an isolated and uplifted limestone atoll island located in the Pacific Ocean. Politecnico di Milano performed a feasibility study for the development of sustainable use of groundwater on the island. This paper focuses on the first phase of the study that concerns the conceptual site model development, the hydrogeological characterization and the 2D model implementation. During the project, different activities were performed such as GNSS topographic survey of monitoring wells and groundwater level surveys taking into account tidal fluctuation. This data collection and the analysis of previous studies made it possible to identify the most suitable areas for groundwater sustainable extraction. The characterization findings suggested, unlike previous studies and surveys, the presence of only few drought resilient thin freshwater lenses, taking place in low conductivity sandy deposits, unexpectedly next to the seashore. Thanks to the 2D modeling results, it has been possible to clarify the mechanism that allows the storage of freshwater so close to the sea.

ACS Style

Luca Alberti; Ivana La Licata; Martino Cantone. Saltwater Intrusion and Freshwater Storage in Sand Sediments along the Coastline: Hydrogeological Investigations and Groundwater Modeling of Nauru Island. Water 2017, 9, 788 .

AMA Style

Luca Alberti, Ivana La Licata, Martino Cantone. Saltwater Intrusion and Freshwater Storage in Sand Sediments along the Coastline: Hydrogeological Investigations and Groundwater Modeling of Nauru Island. Water. 2017; 9 (10):788.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luca Alberti; Ivana La Licata; Martino Cantone. 2017. "Saltwater Intrusion and Freshwater Storage in Sand Sediments along the Coastline: Hydrogeological Investigations and Groundwater Modeling of Nauru Island." Water 9, no. 10: 788.

Journal article
Published: 17 May 2017 in Energies
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U-pipes for ground source heat pump (GSHP) installations are generally inserted in vertical boreholes back-filled with pumpable grouts. Grout thermal conductivity is a crucial parameter, dominating the borehole thermal resistance and impacting the heat exchanger efficiency. In order to seal the borehole and prevent leakages of the heat carrier fluid, grouting materials are also hydraulically impermeable, so that groundwater flow inside the borehole is inhibited. The influence of groundwater flow on the borehole heat exchangers (BHE) performance has recently been highlighted by several authors. However groundwater impact and grouting materials influence are usually evaluated separately, disregarding any combined effect. Therefore simulation is used to investigate the role of the thermal and hydraulic conductivities of the grout when the BHE operates in an aquifer with a relevant groundwater flow. Here 3 main cases for a single U-pipe in a sandy aquifer are compared. In Case 1 the borehole is back-filled with the surrounding soil formation, while a thermally enhanced grout and a low thermal conductivity grout are considered in Case 2 and Case 3 respectively. Simulations are carried out maintaining the inlet temperature constant in order to reproduce the yearly operation of the GSHP system. For each of the 3 cases three different groundwater flow velocities are considered. The results show that a high thermal conductivity grout further enhances the effects of a significant groundwater flow. The conditions when neglecting the grout material in the numerical model does not lead to relevant errors are also identified.

ACS Style

Luca Alberti; Adriana Angelotti; Matteo Antelmi; Ivana La Licata. A Numerical Study on the Impact of Grouting Material on Borehole Heat Exchangers Performance in Aquifers. Energies 2017, 10, 703 .

AMA Style

Luca Alberti, Adriana Angelotti, Matteo Antelmi, Ivana La Licata. A Numerical Study on the Impact of Grouting Material on Borehole Heat Exchangers Performance in Aquifers. Energies. 2017; 10 (5):703.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luca Alberti; Adriana Angelotti; Matteo Antelmi; Ivana La Licata. 2017. "A Numerical Study on the Impact of Grouting Material on Borehole Heat Exchangers Performance in Aquifers." Energies 10, no. 5: 703.

Journal article
Published: 01 November 2016 in Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana
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In Ground Source Heat Pump installations the U-shaped pipes are located in boreholes filled with grouts that are enhanced from the thermal conductivity point of view and usually hydraulically impermeable. Here two cases are considered: (1) a numerical finite-difference model of a single U-pipe in a sandy aquifer, implemented using the MT3DMS code, where the grout material surrounding the Borehole Heat Exchanger is not simulated and (2) the same numerical model where, in turn, the presence of the grout is accounted for in a small volume around the Borehole Heat Exchanger, as in real in situ conditions. Simulations were carried out first keeping the heat rate constant, as when simulating a Thermal Response Test, and then maintaining the inlet temperature constant in order to reproduce the yearly operation of the Ground Source Heat Pump system.\ud Then, fitting the numerical ground response with analytical solutions and\ud comparing the two models, the effect of the grout material was assessed in\ud terms of exchanged energy and temperature distribution in the subsoil.\ud Results show that the presence of the grout around the Borehole Heat\ud Exchanger is negligible from the exchanged energy and temperature\ud distribution point of view. Whereas, looking at the Darcy velocities it was\ud noticed that the ones returned by the analytical solutions (that necessarily\ud neglects the presence of the grout) are at least 30% smaller than the\ud velocities implemented in the grouted model. So when comparing the\ud MT3D simulations, or using MT3D for TRT interpretation, the presence of\ud the grout around the BHE can at a first approximation be disregarded in\ud terms of both exchanged energies and temperature distribution in the\ud subsoil. In turn when Darcy velocity, obtained by Thermal Response Test\ud interpretation through analytical solutions (MLS), is used in a numerical\ud model it must be corrected specially for advection-dominated cases

ACS Style

Luca Alberti; Adriana Angelotti; Matteo Antelmi; Ivana La Licata. Borehole Heat Exchangers in aquifers: simulation of the grout material impact. Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana 2016, 41, 268 -271.

AMA Style

Luca Alberti, Adriana Angelotti, Matteo Antelmi, Ivana La Licata. Borehole Heat Exchangers in aquifers: simulation of the grout material impact. Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana. 2016; 41 ():268-271.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luca Alberti; Adriana Angelotti; Matteo Antelmi; Ivana La Licata. 2016. "Borehole Heat Exchangers in aquifers: simulation of the grout material impact." Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana 41, no. : 268-271.

Journal article
Published: 01 March 2016 in Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana
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In the coming decades, the effects of expected climate change will affect key aspects of our society including quantity and quality of available water resources. It is believed that water resources will play a growing important role in Europe and in particular in the countries south of the Alps, where climate change could hit harder (EEA, 2014). Without appropriate interventions, water will turn from a good hearty undervalued to a scarce and precious resource, whose distribution will be less and less equitable, resulting in growing conflicts for its use. As already recognized by the European directives (2000/60/EC and 2006/118/EC), the theme of quantitative management of water resources is therefore a strategic issue that can allow the reduction of the risks and costs associated with climate change. Integrated management of both surface and groundwater for sustainable use nowadays represents more and more a key concern in environmental policies and water management. The goal of this work is to assess the effects on groundwater storage of a new management of irrigation waters. The highly variable availability of water resources during the hydrological season could be particularly troublesome in the management of irrigation systems, since they need water in seasons (spring-summer) when usually its availability has a depletion. Storage of groundwater in aquifers in colder seasons could be used to soften irrigation systems water deficit in drier ones. Specifically, the practice of "winter irrigation", i.e. the use of the main irrigation channels to recharge aquifers during the colder seasons, could increase water resource availability for irrigation during the drier growing seasons. A pilot groundwater flow transient model (MODFLOW2000, Harbaugh et al., 2000) with a domain of about 255 km2 was implemented in the north zone of Lodi Province, including a large part of the Consorzio Muzza irrigation district. The model was then run to estimate change in groundwater resource availability in two main scenarios: in the first scenario the storage in the shallow aquifer was computed in the colder period (October–March), when irrigation is not occurring; for this case, it was used measured monthly rainfall, average temperature for the period 2004-2013 (representing actual climate conditions) and an estimations of water volume used for irrigation. In the second scenario, an integrated management approach of irrigation and groundwater was tested, adopting "winter irrigation". Both scenarios want to assess if water storage in aquifers in colder periods could represent an additional water volume useful to mitigate possible climate changes effects on crops

ACS Style

Luca Alberti; Martino Cantone; Loris Colombo; Gabriele Oberto; Ivana La Licata. Assessment of aquifers groundwater storage for the mitigation of climate change effects. Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana 2016, 39, 89 -92.

AMA Style

Luca Alberti, Martino Cantone, Loris Colombo, Gabriele Oberto, Ivana La Licata. Assessment of aquifers groundwater storage for the mitigation of climate change effects. Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana. 2016; 39 ():89-92.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luca Alberti; Martino Cantone; Loris Colombo; Gabriele Oberto; Ivana La Licata. 2016. "Assessment of aquifers groundwater storage for the mitigation of climate change effects." Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana 39, no. : 89-92.

Conference paper
Published: 10 April 2014 in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
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ACS Style

Adriana Angelotti; Luca Alberti; I La Licata; M Antelmi. Borehole Heat Exchangers: heat transfer simulation in the presence of a groundwater flow. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2014, 501, 012033 .

AMA Style

Adriana Angelotti, Luca Alberti, I La Licata, M Antelmi. Borehole Heat Exchangers: heat transfer simulation in the presence of a groundwater flow. Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 2014; 501 ():012033.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Adriana Angelotti; Luca Alberti; I La Licata; M Antelmi. 2014. "Borehole Heat Exchangers: heat transfer simulation in the presence of a groundwater flow." Journal of Physics: Conference Series 501, no. : 012033.

Journal article
Published: 06 November 2013 in Energy Conversion and Management
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In a saturated soil, the groundwater flow affects both the energy performance and the thermal impact on the surrounding soil of Borehole Heat Exchangers linked to Ground-Source Heat Pumps. In this paper a numerical model in MODFLOW/MT3DMS of a single U-pipe in a sandy aquifer is proposed in order to investigate the two issues in a coupled approach. After validating the model, the typical yearly operation of a Borehole Heat Exchanger extracting and injecting heat into the ground is simulated. For 0.1 ⩽ Pe ⩽ 1 cold and warm plumes develop and the heat rate increases non linearly from 11% to 105%.

ACS Style

A. Angelotti; Luca Alberti; Ivana La Licata; M. Antelmi. Energy performance and thermal impact of a Borehole Heat Exchanger in a sandy aquifer: Influence of the groundwater velocity. Energy Conversion and Management 2013, 77, 700 -708.

AMA Style

A. Angelotti, Luca Alberti, Ivana La Licata, M. Antelmi. Energy performance and thermal impact of a Borehole Heat Exchanger in a sandy aquifer: Influence of the groundwater velocity. Energy Conversion and Management. 2013; 77 ():700-708.

Chicago/Turabian Style

A. Angelotti; Luca Alberti; Ivana La Licata; M. Antelmi. 2013. "Energy performance and thermal impact of a Borehole Heat Exchanger in a sandy aquifer: Influence of the groundwater velocity." Energy Conversion and Management 77, no. : 700-708.

Journal article
Published: 21 July 2011 in Hydrogeology Journal
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Variable-density groundwater models require extensive computational resources, particularly for simulations representing short-term hydrologic variability such as tidal fluctuations. Saltwater-intrusion models usually neglect tidal fluctuations and this may introduce errors in simulated concentrations. The effects of tides on simulated concentrations in a coastal aquifer were assessed. Three analyses are reported: in the first, simulations with and without tides were compared for three different dispersivity values. Tides do not significantly affect the transfer of a hypothetical contaminant into the ocean; however, the concentration difference between tidal and non-tidal simulations could be as much as 15%. In the second analysis, the dispersivity value for the model without tides was increased in a zone near the ocean boundary. By slightly increasing dispersivity in this zone, the maximum concentration difference between the simulations with and without tides was reduced to as low as 7%. In the last analysis, an apparent dispersivity value was calculated for each model cell using the simulated velocity variations from the model with tides. Use of apparent dispersivity values in models with a constant ocean boundary seems to provide a reasonable approach for approximating tidal effects in simulations where explicit representation of tidal fluctuations is not feasible. Les modèles de nappe à maille variable requièrent des moyens de calcul importants, en particulier pour les simulations représentant une variabilité hydrologique de court terme, telles que les fluctuations de la marée. Les modèles d’intrusion d’eau salée négligent habituellement les fluctuations de la marée et ceci peut introduire des erreurs dans les concentrations simulées. Les effets des marées sur les concentrations simulées dans un aquifère côtier ont été évalués. Trois analyses sont présentées : dans la première, des simulations avec et sans marées ont été comparées pour trois valeurs différentes de la dispersivité. Les marées n’affectent pas significativement le transfert d’un contaminant supposé vers l’océan ; cependant, la différence de concentration entre les simulations avec et sans marées pourrait atteindre 15 %. Dans la seconde analyse, la valeur de la dispersivité pour le modèle sans marées a été augmentée dans une zone limitrophe de l’océan. En accroissant légèrement la dispersivité dans cette zone, la différence de concentration maximale entre les simulations avec et sans marées a été réduite jusqu’à 7 %. Dans la dernière analyse, une valeur de dispersivité apparente a été calculée pour chaque maille du modèle, en utilisant les variations simulées de la vitesse du modèle avec marées. L’utilisation des valeurs de dispersivité apparente dans les modèles à limite océanique fixe semble fournir une approche acceptable pour évaluer les effets de la marée dans les simulations où une représentation formelle de ses fluctuations n’est pas possible. Los modelos de aguas subterráneas de densidad variable requieren amplios recursos computacionales, particularmente para simulaciones que representan variabilidad hidrológica en cortos tiempos tales como las fluctuaciones de las mareas. Los modelos de intrusión de agua salada usualmente desprecian las fluctuaciones de las mareas y estas pueden introducir errores en las concentraciones simuladas. Se evaluaron los efectos de las mareas sobre concentraciones simuladas en acuíferos costeros. Se han reportado tres análisis: en el primero, se compararon las simulaciones con y sin mareas para tres valores de dispersividad diferentes. Las mareas no afectan significativamente la transferencia del contaminante hipotético hacia el océano; sin embargo, la diferencia de concentración entre las simulaciones con y sin mareas podrían ser de hasta 15%. En el segundo análisis, el valor de dispersividad para el modelo sin mareas fue incrementado en una zona cercana al límite del océano. Mediante un leve incremento de la dispersividad en esta zona, la diferencia máxima entre la simulación con y sin mareas se redujo hasta un 7%. En el último análisis, se calculó un valor de aparente dispersividad para cada celda del modelo usando las variaciones simuladas de velocidad a partir de un modelo con mareas. El uso de valores de aparente dispersividad en modelos con un límite océanico constante parece proveer un enfoque razonable para aproximar los efectos de las mareas en las simulaciones donde la representación explícita de los fluctuaciones de la marea no es factible. I modelli di flusso idrico sotterraneo densità-dipendente richiedono solitamente importanti risorse computazionali, specie per quelle simulazioni che includono variazioni di breve periodo delle condizioni al contorno, come le fluttuazioni di marea. Generalmente i modelli di intrusione salina trascurano le oscillazioni mareali e questo può portare ad errori nelle concentrazioni simulate, sia per l’intrusione salina sia per il trasporto di inquinanti. In questo articolo vengono valutati gli effetti della marea sulle concentrazioni simulate in un acquifero costiero attraverso tre analisi. Nella prima, vengono paragonate simulazioni con e senza marea per tre differenti valori di dispersività: la marea non influenza significativamente, in termini di massa, il...

ACS Style

Ivana La Licata; Christian Langevin; Alyssa M. Dausman; Luca Alberti. Effect of tidal fluctuations on transient dispersion of simulated contaminant concentrations in coastal aquifers. Hydrogeology Journal 2011, 19, 1313 -1322.

AMA Style

Ivana La Licata, Christian Langevin, Alyssa M. Dausman, Luca Alberti. Effect of tidal fluctuations on transient dispersion of simulated contaminant concentrations in coastal aquifers. Hydrogeology Journal. 2011; 19 (7):1313-1322.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ivana La Licata; Christian Langevin; Alyssa M. Dausman; Luca Alberti. 2011. "Effect of tidal fluctuations on transient dispersion of simulated contaminant concentrations in coastal aquifers." Hydrogeology Journal 19, no. 7: 1313-1322.

Journal article
Published: 30 July 2009 in Hydrogeology Journal
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A seawater-intrusion study was conducted at an oil-refinery site located on the coast in the lower Esino Valley, Italy. A steady-state density-dependent flow model was used in order to understand the position of the freshwater/salt-water interface, as influenced by the hydrogeologic structure and the presence of industrial activities and a river. Collected data and model results showed that in a large part of the area, the salt-water interface is steep and can penetrate only a few meters inland. On the other hand, close to the river mouth, seawater represents the main saline source for the aquifer. The river, in connection with the sea, can enhance seawater encroachment into the coastal aquifer; a long-term survey of river level and chloride concentrations in groundwater is recommended to further improve the physical model and to obtain a better calibration. At the refinery site, two “secondary” sources of saline water were identified and were demonstrated to have had a great influence on the presence of brackish waters in the unconfined aquifer: leakage from the fire-extinguishing system (network of pipes containing seawater) and rough sea events. This confirmed that groundwater contamination by chloride can result from means other than seawater intrusion.

ACS Style

Luca Alberti; Vincenzo Francani; Ivana La Licata. Characterization of salt-water intrusion in the lower Esino Valley, Italy using a three-dimensional numerical model. Hydrogeology Journal 2009, 17, 1791 -1804.

AMA Style

Luca Alberti, Vincenzo Francani, Ivana La Licata. Characterization of salt-water intrusion in the lower Esino Valley, Italy using a three-dimensional numerical model. Hydrogeology Journal. 2009; 17 (7):1791-1804.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luca Alberti; Vincenzo Francani; Ivana La Licata. 2009. "Characterization of salt-water intrusion in the lower Esino Valley, Italy using a three-dimensional numerical model." Hydrogeology Journal 17, no. 7: 1791-1804.