Sea currents and waste water diffusion

A wastewater sea outfall system is an integral and fundamental part of each wastewater treatment with ultimate sink in the sea water. The design of a water treatment plant and wastewater outfall must take into account the use of the environmental water, the values of physicochemical parameters to be respected in order to safeguard the use itself, and the quality of the environmental water where wastewater is issued.
It is well known that outfall pipes are used to issue the depurated water of cities at a sufficiently long distance from the shoreline, in order to avoid the polluting action of the outfall, which could cause damage to the coastal cities and shorelines which need to be preserved. For these goals preliminary investigations must always be carry out with the aim of:

1. Verifying the type of sea current circulation in the interested
and neighbouring zones.
2. Knowing the sea motion field of the interested zone.
3. Knowing the physicochemical characteristics of the environmental
water.
 
The sea has always been the ultimate sink of wastewater coming from the land. The water quality in coastal regions near an outfall pipeline and, consequently, the life of the marine ecosystem and the sea use by local populations depend on the outfall quality and its type of discharge. In this study we analyze:
 
1. Sea current circulation data.
2. Meteorological data (wind direction and velocity).
3. Wave data.
4. Salinity and temperature gradients.
 
The purpose of the present reserach is to study the hydrodynamic aspects in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto the Tremiti Islands, by means of mathematical modelling and field measurements, using a vessel mounted acoustic Doppler profiler.