District Po — Water Directive — Underground Water Corps 2015

Groundwater bodies of the Po River District Management Plan drawn up in accordance with the European Directive 2000/60/EC. They concern, as defined in the Directive, all waters below the surface of the soil in the saturation zone and in direct contact with the soil or subsoil. A body of groundwater is defined, again by the Directive, as a separate volume of groundwater contained in one or more aquifers (in turn defined as one or more underground layers of rock or other geological strata of porosity and permeability sufficient to allow a significant flow of groundwater or the extraction of significant amounts of groundwater). In the plain area of the Po River district, characterised by the presence of large thicknesses of porous sediments, several overlapping levels of water bodies have been identified, from the most superficial to the deepest. The bodies of water have therefore been grouped, in the plain area, by ‘circulation systems’: ground, shallow, deep. Karst or fractured water bodies have also been identified for hill and mountain areas, described as belonging to the hill-mountain system. All water bodies of the Po River District Management Plan are characterised in terms of significant pressures, environmental status, impacts and environmental objectives. Pressures are the variables directly or potentially responsible for environmental degradation, and a pressure is defined as “significant” if alone, or in combination with others, it contributes to an impact (a deterioration of the state) that may jeopardise the achievement of the environmental objectives referred to in Article 4(1) of Directive 2000/60/EC. The environmental status of groundwater is composed of chemical and quantitative status, and may be good or poor. It is classified on the basis of specific parameters set out in the current legislation. The environmental objective for a water body indicates the state (chemical and quantitative) that the water body must achieve by a certain date, thanks to the measures that are applied there.