Marcello Benedini – författare

This book offers a comprehensive framework of the current state of water resources in Italy and of the main stages of the evolutionary way in the last decades for achieving an integrated, sustainable and equitable water resources management. The main paradigms of water resources development are identified as: i) engineering and economic approach to water resources exploitation, ii) focus on pollution control and  water-excess management, iii) a comprehensive approach toward a sustainable and equitable distribution of resources and effective risk reduction of water-related disasters. 

The book will not only be useful for water professionals, but also for citizen who like to discern the key factors which delay the recognition of water as a resource for life. The description of the problems and adopted solutions could also serve as a guideline for similar situations encountered in other countries, improving the preparation of the responsible people.

The main objective of the Water Framework Directive in the European countries is to achieve a “good status” of all the water bodies, in the integrated management of river basins. In order to assess the impact of improvement measures, water quality models are necessary. During the previous decades the progress in computer technology and computational methods has supported the development of advanced mathematical models for pollutant transport in rivers and streams. This book is intended to provide the fundamental knowledge needed for a deeper understanding of these models and the development of new ones, which will fulfil future quality requirements in water resources management. This book focuses on the fundamentals of computational techniques required in water quality modelling.

Advection, dispersion and concentrated sources or sinks of contaminants lead to the formulation of the fundamental differential equation of pollutant transport. Its integration, according to appropriate initial and boundary conditions and with the knowledge of the velocity field, allows for pollutant behaviour to be assessed in the entire water body. An analytical integration is convenient only in one-dimensional approach with considerable simplification. Integration in the numerical field is useful for taking into account particular aspects of water body and pollutants.

To ensure their reliability, the models require accurate calibration and validation, based on proper data, taken from direct measurements.  In addition, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis are also of utmost importance.  

All the above items are discussed indetail in the 21 chapters of the book, which is written in a didactic form for professionals and students.