Corte, France

Integrated Water Monitoring Assessment Across Time and Scale

Mineral water has an exclusive socio-economic value, deriving from industrialization and commercialization processes, but also a fundamental cultural value for local populations who are using spring waters for domestic consumption on a daily basis in a different way over tim
The complexity of the water-rock interaction processes giving origin to unique water mineralization requires the adoption of multiple and integrated approaches to characterize their composition.

For this reason, the Summer School will cover different topics necessary for a comprehensive characterization of mineral and thermal waters, which include:

- hydrogeochemistry (gas and physicochemical parameters): to evaluate groundwater natural composition and assess deviations from natural baseline values;
- structural geology: to better assess the geometry of groundwater flow path;
- isotope hydrology: to trace groundwater recharge processes and age;
- hydrogeology: to identify groundwater flow paths and support geochemical pieces of evidence on water-rock interaction and mixing processes with surface water to complement vulnerability assessments;
- socio-hydrogeology: to assess the socio-economic impact of mineral and thermal waters, and to understand how to effectively translate scientific outcomes to the water users.

The school will take place in Corsica, a unique place for testing integrated approaches, characterized by the presence of a multi-composite geological and hydroclimatic context, giving origin to different types of thermo-mineral waters. Indeed, the Mediterranean mountainous Island of Corsica is well known as a geo-diversity hotspot. Mineral and thermal groundwater are very special water resources characterized by stable and specific geochemical characteristics in terms of dissolved ions and gaseous contents as well as stable, and most of the time, relatively high temperatures. Groundwater circulation in-depth increases the complexity and the multiplicity of groundwater pathways and provides a high diversity of water qualities with potential commercial and health benefits such as for mineral, thermal, alkaline, CO2-rich, brines, ferruginous or sulphurous waters. These processes can be even more complex in the case of long-residence-time groundwater.

Integrated geological and environmental tools are very interesting when used together because they can provide information on water origins and chemical properties, as well as an estimation of the timing of the processes.

The school will be held in collaboration with Dr. Sebastien Santoni, with the help of Dr. Emilie Garel, Dr. Thomas Leydier, and Prof. Frederic Huneau, and the support of the Université Pascal Paoli.

Course leader

Prof. Viviana Re

Target group

MSc students, PhD candidates and early-stage researchers in Geology, Environmental Sciences or similar fields; professionals in the related field.

Course aim

The interdisciplinary summer school proposes a novel and integrated approach to understand the past, present, and future of water resources through the lens of structural geology, geochemistry, and socio-hydrogeology.

Thanks to hands-on field and laboratory experiences the summer school will provide participants an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the main disciplines necessary to characterize water quality and quantity and to translate this information into management proposals for the long-term protection of this resource.

After the course participants will be able to carry: plan integrated monitoring assessment, use in situ monitoring probes, correctly store and preserve samples for chemical and isotopic analyses. Participants will learn to identify the main geological structures in the study area, collect and store samples and deepen their understanding of water-rock interaction processes in mineral waters.

Fee info

EUR 500: tuition fees

Scholarships

Available. Write to the coordinator for further information