Papers by Michele De Biase
Social Science Research Network, 2022
Water, Nov 1, 2021
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Hydrology, Mar 31, 2023
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Desalination, Dec 1, 2021
Abstract Arsenic contamination of drinking water is a result of natural and/or anthropogenic acti... more Abstract Arsenic contamination of drinking water is a result of natural and/or anthropogenic activities, causing undesirable detrimental effects on the environment and the human health. Herein, an integrated process based on Membrane Distillation (MD), photocatalysis and Polymer-enhanced Ultrafiltration (PEUF) was developed for an effective remediation of arsenic (As). This approach, whose effectiveness was demonstrated by experimental tests on artificial solution mimicking As-contaminated water in the area of Sila Massif (Italy), ensured a near total water recovery and a rational management of residual contaminants. MD allowed to produce high-quality freshwater from contaminated feedwater containing As in the range of 0.059-5 mg·L-1, without deterioration of the transmembrane flux up to a recovery factor of 98.8%. Furthermore, a photocatalytic step was applied on MD retentate to convert arsenite As (III) into arsenate As(V), the latter subsequently removed by PEUF with efficiency of 98.2%. Speciation analysis demonstrated the necessity to reduce the feed pH to 5.6 in order to avoid the risk of scaling in MD stage, whereas Na2CO3 softening at pH 9 before the photocatalytic stage ensured both the reactive precipitation of Ca and Mg ions and the depletion of bicarbonate ions.
Frontiers in Water
Offshore freshened groundwater (OFG) is groundwater with a salinity below that of seawater that i... more Offshore freshened groundwater (OFG) is groundwater with a salinity below that of seawater that is stored in sub-seafloor sediments and rocks. OFG has been proposed as an alternative solution to relieve water scarcity in coastal regions and to enhance oil recovery. Although OFG has been documented in most continental margins, we still have a poor understanding of the extent and flow characteristics of OFG systems, and their evolution through time. In view of the general absence of appropriate field data, paleohydrogeological models have been used. The majority of these models are based on 2D approaches, and they rarely consider the future evolution of OFG systems, especially in response to predicted climate change. Here we utilize recently acquired geological, geophysical and hydrogeological data from onshore and offshore the Maltese Islands, and employ 2D and 3D numerical models, to: (i) reconstruct the evolution of the onshore-offshore groundwater system during the last 188 ka, (i...
Hydrology
The productivity of metamorphic aquifers is generally lower than that of the more common alluvial... more The productivity of metamorphic aquifers is generally lower than that of the more common alluvial and carbonates ones. However, in some Mediterranean areas, such as the Calabria region (Italy), water scarcity combined with the presence of extensive metamorphic water bodies requires the development of further studies to characterize the hydrodynamic properties of these groundwater systems in order to achieve their sustainable exploitation. The interest in this goal becomes even greater if climate change effects are considered. The purpose of this study was to provide the geological-structural and hydrogeological numerical modeling of a metamorphic aquifer, using direct and indirect data measurement, in a large area of the Sila Piccola in Calabria. The hydrodynamic characterization of the crystalline-metamorphic aquifer, constituted by granite and metamorphic rocks, is extremely complex. The MODFLOW-2005 groundwater model was used to simulate flow phenomena in the aquifer, obtaining h...
In Italy, despite large areas of the country being covered by metamorphic rocks, the hydrogeologi... more In Italy, despite large areas of the country being covered by metamorphic rocks, the hydrogeological properties of these formations are not yet well known. The productivity of metamorphic aquifers is generally lower than the more common ones such as alluvial or carbonates. However, in some Mediterranean areas such as in Calabria region the scarcity of water resources and their considerable extension (metamorphic aquifers make up 39% of the total) determines a request for further studies either on their hydrodynamic properties and their hydraulic behaviour in order to achieve their sustainable exploitation. Interest in these metamorphic aquifers becomes ever greater if climate changes are considered. The purpose of this study is to provide the geological-structural and hydrogeological modeling of a metamorphic aquifer, through the measurement of direct and indirect data and the application of a numerical model, in a large area of the Sila Piccola, in Calabria. To recognize and charac...
<p>The identification of the processes underlining natural systems often re... more <p>The identification of the processes underlining natural systems often requires the adoption of multiple investigation techniques for the assessment of the sites under study. In this work, the combination of information derived from non-invasive sensing techniques, such as geophysics, remote sensing and hydrogeochemistry, highlights the possible influence of global climate change on the future water availability related to an aquifer in a peculiar glacier context, located in central Ecuador. In particular, we show that the Chambo aquifer, which supplies potable water to the region, does not contain fossil water, and it’s instead recharged over time. Indeed, the whole Chambo river basin is affected by the Chimborazo volcano, which is a glacerised mountain located in the inner tropics, one of the most critical places  to be observed in the frame of climate impact on water resources. Thanks to the infomation gathered by the various surveying techniques, numerical modelling permitted an estimate of the recharge, which can be fully originated by the runoff from Chimborazo melting glaciers. Actually, the retreat of the glaciers on top of the Chimborazo is an ongoing process presumably related to global climate change.</p>
SIDISA2021-XI International Symposium on Environmental Engineering, 2021
Advances in Water Resources, 2021
Abstract Cellular Automata (CA) are particularly suitable for physically-based modelling of compl... more Abstract Cellular Automata (CA) are particularly suitable for physically-based modelling of complex hydrological processes due to their inherent aptitude for parallel computing. Nevertheless, other CA specific features like asynchronism could be exploited to enhance further the computational efficiency. This note introduces an innovative activation/deactivation rule enabling for the first time the practical application of asynchronous CA to subsurface flow problems. The asynchronism rule, consisting of a threshold depending on the spatial total hydraulic head difference between each automaton and its neighbourhood, was implemented in the new OpenCAL parallel software library using the Extended CA (XCA) paradigm. It was tested performing hundreds of wet front propagation simulations in a comprehensive probabilistic framework, considering several thresholds and addressing both two- and three-dimensional domains with heterogeneous hydraulic properties. Furthermore, realistic simulations of a drip-irrigated field entailing combined infiltration/exfiltration cycles were carried out. The application of the asynchronism rule generated considerable computational benefits for all the test cases, even adopting low threshold values, reducing the elapsed time by up to 80-85% while preserving numerical accuracy. In particular, the three-dimensional simulation of the drip-irrigated field demonstrated the practical relevance of the approach. The computational improvement produced by the combined effect of parallel computing and the proposed asynchronism strategy enables increased space-time resolution on wider study areas and further developments focusing on the simulation of computationally demanding relevant processes.
PeerJ, 2021
Background The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is the second global health emergenc... more Background The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is the second global health emergency the world has faced in less than two decades, after the H1N1 Influenza pandemic in 2009–2010. Spread of pandemics is frequently associated with increased population size and population density. The geographical scales (national, regional or local scale) are key elements in determining the correlation between demographic factors and the spread of outbreaks. The aims of this study were: (a) to collect the Mexican data related to the two pandemics; (b) to create thematic maps using federal and municipal geographic scales; (c) to investigate the correlations between the pandemics indicators (numbers of contagious and deaths) and demographic patterns (population size and density). Methods The demographic patterns of all Mexican Federal Entities and all municipalities were taken from the database of “Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía” (INEGI). The data of “Centro Nacional de Prog...
Geophysical Research Letters, 2021
RSC Advances
Although the discovery of plastic in the last century has brought enormous benefits to daily acti... more Although the discovery of plastic in the last century has brought enormous benefits to daily activities, it must be said that its use produces countless environmental problems that are difficult to solve.
Water
The effects of changes in climate predicted for 2100—reduction in recharge, increase in water dem... more The effects of changes in climate predicted for 2100—reduction in recharge, increase in water demand and sea-level rise—on groundwater volume and saltwater intrusion have been quantified in the Maltese Islands, an archipelago located at the center of the Mediterranean Sea. A three-dimensional density dependent and heterogeneous model, working in transient conditions, was developed based on morphological and geological information. The hydraulic conductivity and porosity of the lithological formations were derived from previous tests and studies conducted on the islands. The complex fault system intersecting the area has also been included in the model. The results show that among the three considered factors affecting groundwater resources, the most significant is the increase in water demand, which is closely followed by the decrease in groundwater recharge. Sea-level rise plays a marginal role. The 80-year simulation period showed that these combined impacts would cause a loss of ...
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Papers by Michele De Biase