Dear Colleague,
The next Italian Geological Society (SGI)Congress will be held in Parma from 16 to 19 September 2019 together with the Italian Society of Mineralogy and Petrography (SIMP).
We hereby invite you, from now until 20 May, to consider the opportunity of submitting an abstract in the Congress sessions. Particularly, I come to your attention to suggest to submit an abstract in the session P29. Unsaturated zone preferential flow in porous and fractured media
http://parma2019.socminpet.it/index.php/sessioni/elenco-sessioni-new#p29
The session encourages the contributions addressing the topics described below by means different approaches such as case studies, innovative methodologies, field and laboratory tests, in order to favorite discussion and sharing experiences.
Water that infiltrates at the land surface will be transported by various mechanisms through the unsaturated zone. For example, water may move rapidly through vertical preferential flow paths, laterally along lithological boundaries, or more slowly as diffuse flow through soil or rock matrix. Predicting where water goes and how fast are crucial for aquifer recharge, contaminant transport, and other hydrologic issues. Water enters subsoil as a combination of diffuse and preferential flow. This partitioning has great impact on ecosystems, agriculture, and water resources in that it determines how water becomes divided among the shallow unsaturated zone, aquifer, and surface water, and how rapidly it replenishes each of those systems. When precipitation or surface water occurs on extremely dry soils, for example, the portion that goes to recharge by preferential flow may increase at the expense of water replenishing soil moisture available for plant use, or vice versa. These influences need to be better understood and quantified in order to optimize water management practices associated with recovery from drought. Other major issues related to preferential flow include: - Aquifer recharge: preferential fluxes may transport a major portion of water reaching the aquifer, whether by natural or artificial, managed recharge. - Contaminant transport: travel time prediction, amount of contaminant transported in a given time, prediction of water fluxes to be combined with chemical reaction dynamics; all are extremely sensitive to preferential flow. - Effect of climate change on water quality and availability: influence on recharge and contaminant transport; preferential flow related to storm intensity, frequency, duration, and other factors; quantitative relation of preferential and diffuse fluxes (episodic and continuous recharge).
For abstract submission guidelines see:
http://parma2019.socminpet.it/index.php/abstracts/info-norme/8-frontpage/155-info-eng
For any question which may arise, please do not hesitate to contact me or the session Coconvenors Lorenzo De Carlo, Rita Masciale e Giorgio Cassiani.
Looking forward to seeing you in Parma,
kind regards, also on behalf of Lorenzo De Carlo, Rita Masciale e Giorgio Cassiani,
Maria C. Caputo