Industrial Pressures and Assessment of Biochemical River Quality: a Short-cut Methodology

In Europe, a comprehensive assessment of surface water bodies is hindered by a widespread deficiency in quality monitoring data, both spatially and temporally, which impedes sustainable water management. In light of this challenge, this paper proposes a multidisciplinary short-cut methodology to estimate the biochemical quality of rivers determined by primary anthropogenic pollution sources acting as the most significant pressure on surface water. The proposed methodology comprises three main steps: 1. Identifying primary anthropogenic pollution sources and assessing their relative expected pressures on river water, 2. Spatially allocating identified sources along the river using a raster-based approach, and 3. Assessing the overall biochemical state of surface water. The industrial activities considered significant for river quality deterioration include establishments under the Seveso Directive, activities subject to the IPPC-IED discipline, and wastewater treatment plants. Contaminated sites are also considered, representing former industrial activities that continue to indirectly impact water bodies. To address the scarcity of monitoring data, the methodology relies on accessible official documentation for the assessment. The methodology was applied to a river basin exposed to various industrial pressures in the North of Italy. The obtained results have been compared with available water quality records to check the methodology's ability to reproduce the trend of measured data along the main river stem. The results of this preliminary investigation suggest that the developed approach has the potential to be a valuable tool for assessing biochemical river quality in regions with limited monitoring data.