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Re-shaping the “original SIN”: a need to re-think sediment management and policy by introducing the “buffer zone” concept

  • Sediments as a Dynamic Natural Resource – From Catchment to Open Sea
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The effects of long-standing industrialization processes and poor environmental management practices have often left a harmful legacy for marine-coastal sites worldwide, causing a wide range of unforeseen impacts on the ecosystem and on human health. A critical revision of available data from three highly contaminated Italian sites (Augusta Bay, Sicily; Cagliari Gulf, Sardinia; Pozzuoli Bay, Campania) revealed the crucial role of biogeochemical/physical dynamics and potential widespread delivery of contaminants as key components for a wider comprehensive sediment management.

Materials and methods

Datasets of organic pollutants (ΣPAHs, ΣPCBs), heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, V, and Zn), radionuclides, and grain size composition of marine sediments of all three sites were critically reviewed and seafloor bathymetric data were analyzed.

Results and discussion

A critical review of available physical and chemical information of sediments collected from the three marine sites provides a better understanding of the physical and biogeochemical dynamics of large-scale dispersion of contaminants in those areas, as well as new insights in terms of improved sediments management policies with actions of larger scale monitoring of the “buffer zone” confining with the national relevance and highly contaminated site to trace inputs and accumulation effects of pollutants deriving from the point-source.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates how the presence of polluted sediments on the coastal areas can have, also after the closure of anthropogenic activities, a potential impact at a large scale. Then to better evaluate the effective impact, we suggest the adoption of a buffer zone contiguous to the national relevance sites (SIN) area. While SINs are optimized to define the state of the art of the near-source pollution, buffer zones may help to outline the rate of delivery of pollutants to the deep sea. Buffer zones must be designed by taking into account the local hydrodynamics, sedimentology, and geomorphology, and should be monitored, even if at a lower resolution, like SINs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Maria Bonsignore (IAS-CNR) for the precious support to the Hg measurements and the “Minerva Uno” crew for the valuable support during the CNR oceanographic surveys. Thanks are also due to the personnel of the port authorities of Augusta town for their precious logistic support for all the field research activities. The authors are, also, grateful to anonymous reviewers and editor for their useful comments and suggestions. Patricia Sclafani is acknowledged for the revision of the English text.

Funding

RITMARE (MIUR-CNR) and CISAS (MIUR-CNR) projects funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research provided financial support to this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Science Institute (ISMAR-CNR), Calata Porta di Massa, 80100, Naples, Italy

    Stella Tamburrino & Salvatore Passaro

  2. Istituto per lo studio degli impatti Antropici e Sostenibilità in ambiente marino (IAS-CNR), Via del Mare 3, 91021, Torretta Granitola (Campobello di Mazara), TP, Italy

    Daniela Salvagio Manta, Enza Quinci & Mario Sprovieri

  3. Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), Via Vitaliano Brancati 60, 00144, Rome, Italy

    Antonella Ausili & Elena Romano

Authors
  1. Stella Tamburrino
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  2. Salvatore Passaro
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  3. Daniela Salvagio Manta
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  4. Enza Quinci
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  5. Antonella Ausili
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  6. Elena Romano
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  7. Mario Sprovieri
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Correspondence to Stella Tamburrino.

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Responsible editor: Jasmina Obhodas

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Tamburrino, S., Passaro, S., Manta, D.S. et al. Re-shaping the “original SIN”: a need to re-think sediment management and policy by introducing the “buffer zone” concept. J Soils Sediments 20, 2563–2572 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-019-02486-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-019-02486-1

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