Delineating groundwater contamination risks in southern coastal metropoles through implementation of geochemical and socio-environmental data in decision-tree and geographical information system.

Due to global warming and local anthropogenic pressures, sustainable groundwater resource exploitation in coastal cities is increasingly threatened. For example, the fifth largest Brazilian city, Recife, is considered as a representative hot spot for these issues and illustrates the great challenges facing many urban areas in the southern hemisphere. There, recharge as well as surface water and groundwater quality are altered by frequent droughts and poorly planned environmental management since decades.

Elucidating heterogeneous nitrate contamination in a small basement aquifer. A multidisciplinary approach: NO isotopes, CFCs-SF6, microbiological activity, geophysics and hydrogeology.

Nitrate contamination of groundwater remains a major concern despite all the measures and efforts undertaken over the last decades to protect water resources. We focused on a small catchment in Brittany (France) facing nitrate pollution with concentrations over the European drinking water standard of 50 mg.L.

Zinc isotope composition as a tool for tracing sources and fate of metal contaminants in rivers.

Zinc is a ubiquitous metal, acting both as an essential and a toxic element to organisms depending on its concentration and speciation in solution. Human activities mobilize and spread large quantities of zinc broadly in the environment. Discriminating the natural and various anthropogenic zinc sources in the environment and understanding zinc's fate at a catchment scale are key challenges in preserving the environment.

Autotrophic denitrification supported by biotite dissolution in crystalline aquifers (1): New insights from short-term batch experiments.

We investigate denitrification mechanisms through batch experiments using crushed rock and groundwater from a granitic aquifer subject to long term pumping (Ploemeur, France). Except for sterilized experiments, extensive denitrification reaction induces NO decreases ranging from 0.3 to 0.

Multi-layered water resources, management, and uses under the impacts of global changes in a southern coastal metropolis: When will it be already too late? Crossed analysis in Recife, NE Brazil.

Coastal water resources are a worldwide key socio-environmental issue considering the increasing concentration of population in these areas. Here, we propose an integrative transdisciplinary approach of water resource, water management and water access in Recife (NE Brazil). The present-day water situation is conceptualized as an imbricated multi-layered system: a multi-layered water resource, managed by a multi-layered governance system and used by a multi-layered social population.