Land subsidence due to groundwater withdrawal in the Emilia-Romagna coastland, Italy

The Emilia-Romagna coastland, south ofthe Po river delta, Italy, has been affected after World War II by a widespread settlement ofanthropogenic origino The extensive groundwater pumping in the 1970s has proven tbe main responsible for tbe alarming land subsidence. The occurrence is reconstructed since thc 1950s with the aid of advanced finite element (FE) flow and poro-elasto-plastic models. After calibrating the regional subsidence model against the piezometric and leveling records observed over the !ast decades, a prediction ofthe land subsidence expected in 2016 is performed by the use ofthe pumping scenario for thc next years. The results show that the extensive groundwater withdrawal occurred in the pasi is most likely the main responsible for tbe present land settlement as well, because of tbe delayed compaction of tbe clay aquitards comprised between the depleted aquifers. However, the available pumping data do not allow for a thorough understanding of the current pointwise settlement process along the coastline, which is the mosl vulnerable area ofthe Emilia-Romagna region from an environrnental viewpoint.