Vulnerability mapping of Posta Fibreno (Frosinone - Italy) aquifer, assessed by the SINTACS and PI methods

This paper deals with the vulnerability assessment of an important karstic aquifer named “Alto Bacino del Liri (Lazio)”, in Central Italy. On the first it is given the scketch of the hydrogeological settings. Later on they are shown, briefly, the two vulnerability assessment methods applied to this area. They are the Italian method SINTACS, set up by the Gruppo Nazionale per la Difesa delle Catastrofi Idrogeologiche of the CNR, and the German method PI. The first of them has been tested on some hundreds of sites, as in Italy, as abroad of it, and now it is suggested to be applied by the Italian law on the protection of groundwater quality. The latter one is recently defined and it has been set up in the target of assessing the specific vulnerability of the karstic aquifers. The application of both of them drove to vulnerability mapping layouts which are not very different and gave us the chance of making some considerations on the reliability of each of them depending on the different aim they are employed. As a matter of fact they are outlined the results of the parallel application of them.