Coastal aquifers of Europe: an overview

Europe has a long coastline along which many human activities are concentrated. Coastal aquifer development is often intensive and subject to salinity problems as a result of seawater intrusion, upconing of deep saline water, and residual salinity in aquitards. Studies have been carried out since the end of the nineteenth century, and have set the basic principles of freshwater/marine-water relations. Some aquifers are carefully studied, monitored and managed; examples can be found in The Netherlands, Belgium, southern Italy and northeastern Spain. Often important coastal aquifers are of relatively small size but crucial to supply human needs, which vary from mostly urban and industrial in mid to high latitudes, to dominantly seasonal for irrigation in the Mediterranean area and the archipelagos. The different situations can be grouped into: recent deltas, other coastal detritic formations, carbonate formations, and the special situations in small islands. Comments on these situations are provided and some examples are introduced, just for illustration.