Numerical results of the pollutant spreading offshore Taranto

In this work the results of some numerical simulations of pollutant spreading offshore the city of Taranto (Southern Italy) are shown. This site appears both complex to study and interesting because of the presence of industrial and civil discharges, which affect the quality of the water itself and the coastal areas. Firstly, simulations were carried out by means of the Princeton Ocean Model (Blumberg and Mellor, 1987), in order to obtain a typical circulation pattern in the domain, by using some selected input forcings. The hydrodynamic output of the POM model was tested with some field measurements, acquired during some surveys performed along the investigated area in the summer 2008. The same field data were also used to calibrate DHI-MIKE 21 FM, a 2D finite element model based on a flexible mesh approach. The comparison between the two models was evaluated. Successively, the spreading of substances spilled into the seawater from the existing wastewater sources (both industrial and civil) was simulated and discussed, by using field data.