The project develops an integrated methodology to optimise the protection of groundwater catchments from urban pollution. This requires identifying their origins which are not always known, characterising composition and importance in terms of pollutant load, assessing current/future risks for the environment and the catchment itself, and the need for remediation. To do so, a combination of tracers and approaches has been applied and a decision-making reference system is going to be developed.

Soil and groundwater remediation at industrial contaminated sites require suitable field instrumentation for subsurface characterization. The proposed method provides chemical, hydraulic information and images from the subsurface via customized sensors installed in boreholes. Their installation at a brownfield allows flow and transport characterization of water and contaminants across a heterogeneous subsurface. The results proof the effectiveness of the method for characterization purposes.