Jorge M. Espinha Marques

• University of Porto

Serra da Estrela Natural Park is situated on the highest mountain in central Portugal, being the climate of this research region strongly affected by its geographic location and geomorphology. To find out possible relationships between shallow groundwater systems and alpine ponds, groundwater samples from 15 springs were collected between 2010 and...

Coal mining often produces severe environmental effects, including impacts on the soil system and, specifically, on hydropedological conditions that control the leaching of significant ions and Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs). The research objective is to assess changes in the hydropedological conditions in an area with a coal mining waste pile t...

Purpose Pejão Mining Complex locates in Castelo de Paiva municipality and, until its closure in 1994, was one of the most important coal mines in the Douro Coalfield. This work aims to study the presence, quantify, and evaluate the dissemination of mercury (Hg), a potentially toxic element (PTE) of major public health concern by the World Health Or...

Introduction: The exploitation of anthracite A in the Pejão mining complex (Douro Coalfield, North Portugal) resulted in the formation of several coal waste piles without proper environmental control. In 2017, a new pedological zonation emerged in the Fojo area, after the ignition and self-burning of some of the coal waste piles, namely: unburned c...

One of the most important mining areas in the Douro Carboniferous Basin is the Pejão Coalfield. In the summer of 2017, a wildfire promoted the ignition and self-burning some of the coal waste piles in the area and caused important environmental changes, promoting a new heterogenic pedological zonation. This study aims to assess the ecotoxicological...

Every year, camping tents are used as shelters for several hundreds of millions of overnight stays. The indoor air temperature in camping tents may be above 50 °C, which is inadequate for storing temperature-sensitive materials. The research objective was to develop and assess a method to create a safe storage zone in camping tents exposed to direc...

Engineering works, especially those carried out in an urban environment, generally concern shallow depths in which soil or weathered rock mass is present. The assessment of a rock mass weathering grade relies on chemical and mechanical features related to the degradation of the mechanical properties and the increase of permeability. This study aims...

The target of this study was the tungsten Regoufe mine, whose exploitation stopped in the 1970s. When the mine closed, an unacceptable legacy constituted of mining waste tailings and the ruins of infrastructure was left behind. This work assessed the soil, plants, and water contamination in the mining area; namely their content in potentially toxic...

Abandoned mines and disposal of mining residues can be responsible for the release of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) into the environment causing soil and water contamination, with potential ecological damage and human health hazards. The quantification of the apportionment of PTEs in soils and the study of the associated ecological and human he...

Throughout the world, mountain populations have developed specific agroecosystems, with different types of water supply for irrigation and domestic use. The Drave mountain village (North Portugal) has, for centuries, faced harsh hydrological, hydrogeological, and hydropedological conditions. Since the second half of the twentieth century, the natur...

Associated with the exploitation of metallic minerals in Europe during the 20th century, several mining areas were abandoned without adequate environmental intervention. Furthermore, these areas lack studies to characterize the impact of pollution on the hydrogeological system. The area surrounding the tungsten mine of Regoufe, in northern Portugal...

Coal mining can generate organic and inorganic contaminants that can be disseminated in the surrounding soils by leaching and/or aerial deposition. This study aims to identify and characterize the physicochemical and geochemical changes promoted in soils from the surrounding area of a self-burning waste pile in an abandoned coal mine. A soil sampli...

Mountains are universally regarded as key sources of high-quality water resources, fundamental for the local populations as well as for communities living downstream. In recent years, global awareness has been growing among citizens, as well as public and private institutions concerning the need to protect mountain water resources. Many mountain ca...

Two water effluents that drain from the abandoned coal mine of São Pedro da Cova (NW Portugal) were characterized in terms of their physic-chemical properties and suitability for irrigation purposes. Samples were also collected in a local surface stream, upstream and downstream from the mine drainage points, also used for irrigation by local farmer...

The São Pedro da Cova waste pile (Porto, Portugal) is composed of coal mining residues that have been self-burning since 2005 and is located close to an inhabited area and social infrastructures, further adding to effects on the environment and human health. Therefore, there is a great interest in the environmental monitoring of this waste pile. Th...

Coal mining originates environmental impacts on soil and water bodies, including the leaching of Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in mine waste piles. This research aims to identify and characterize changes induced by self-burning in Technosols from a coal mine waste pile by means of a comprehensive hydr...

Groundwater data from 15 springs at Serra da Estrela mountain, located at the Seia-Torre-Covilhã sector, were collected between 2010 and 2011 along six fieldwork campaigns. Isotopic (2H; 18O, and 3H) and chemical determinations were performed. The data were compared with the isotopic and chemical composition of seven alpine ponds located within the...

A study based on geochemical and environmental isotope data was performed in two low-temperature hydrothermal systems in NW Portugal (Caldelas and Gerês hydrothermal systems). This study aims to demonstrate the role of integrated hydrogeological tools for developing conceptual models of groundwater circulation. The studied hydrothermal systems are...

The investigation about wildfires has demonstrated that research should include studies on the overall assessment of the processes, thus promoting the public awareness about impacts. The aim of this study is to assess the changes on the carbon content of soils affected by wildfires in Caramulo Mountain (Portugal) to therefore identify the environme...

Peri-urban areas are territories that combine urban and rural features, being particularly vulnerable to wildfire due to the contact between human infrastructures and dense vegetation. Wildfires may cause considerable direct and indirect effects on the local water cycle, but the influence on groundwater quality is still poorly understood. The aim o...

Serra da Estrela is Portugal's mainland highest mountain, with distinctive geological, climatic and geomorphological characteristics which play a key role on surface and groundwater resources. These mountains have the largest set of glacial ponds of Portugal and are scarcely studied. Besides, there are concerns of possible impacts of the use of sal...

Groundwater is a crucial natural resource for regular socio-economic function. Groundwater vulnerability to pollution can be assessed through Geographical Information System (GIS)-based qualitative methods. GIS-based tools, dedicated to the assessment of groundwater vulnerability, usually present several limitations, such as high cost, unavailable...

Water resources in mountain regions are at risk due to demographic and economic growth and climate change. This paper presents an evaluation of the impacts of climate change on the groundwater resources of Serra da Estrela Mountain (Portugal). The changes in the water resources in the last 30 years of the twenty-first century have been evaluated wi...

Fire is a major ecosystem process affecting forests and wooded areas in the Mediterranean basin. In recent years, a clear increase in wildfires in Portugal has taken place with strong impacts on ecosystems. The destruction of vegetation cover and the change in soil properties lead to modifications in the hydrological regime, due to the contribution...

Water from mountainous regions is a strategic natural resource. In Mediterranean mountainous regions, which, in many cases, correspond to protected areas, high-altitude roads are often the main threat to the sustainability of water resources. In these regions, the regular socioeconomic functioning requires frequent road de-icing operations which no...

This paper aims to highlight the role that the assessment of hydrogeological conceptual models of the thermomineral water systems of a given region plays in the sustainable management and protection of its resources (e.g., possible drilling plans to capture thermomineral waters with higher flow rate and/or temperature) and development (use of therm...

We would like to gratefully acknowledge all reviewers for their time and expertise so generously given to the peer review of manuscripts in Sustainable Water Resources Management in 2018. We truly appreciate their continued support and commitment in helping us maintain and improve the quality of our journal.

The importance of Mountains for the world's water supply has been increasingly recognized. However, in many cases the existing roads require regular de-icing operations which may have a severe impact on the natural hydrogeochemical conditions of the local hydrological systems due to the regular use of substances such as sodium chloride and calcium...

Simple statistical models were developed to relate available meteorological data with daily river discharge (RD) for rivers not influenced by melting of ice and snow. In a case study of the Vouga River (Portugal), the RD could be determined by a linear combination of the recent (PR) and non-recent (PNR) atmospheric precipitation history. It was fou...

Groundwater is more and more regarded as a crucial resource and its pollution is a major environmental concern at global scale. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are often used to estimate groundwater vulnerability to pollution as it provides several efficient tools to manipulate and analyze a number of biophysical data types of hydrogeologica...

Hard-rock catchments are considered to be source of valuable water resources for water supply to inhabitants and ecosystems. The present work aims to develop a groundwater vulnerability approach in the Caldas da Cavaca hydromineral system (Aguiar da Beira, Central Portugal) in order to improve the hydrogeological conceptual site model. Different ty...

The ecological and socioeconomic importance of mountains is being increasingly recognised. Such regions provide key ecosystem services, namely, water supply which benefits local as well as lowland human populations. Besides mountain aquifers and rivers, alpine lakes and ponds are crucial for water resources management but are also important in hydr...

Groundwater pollution is a major environmental concern at global scale. It usually restricts the use of water resources for domestic, agricultural or industrial purposes, with significant impact on human well-being. Aquifer remediation may be very difficult or even impossible due to technical and/or economic constraints. To help prevent groundwate...

Forest fires are a regular occurrence in Portugal but, until now, little is known about its effect on groundwater quality. Fires may conduct to considerable environmental impacts that are cumulative as a result of pollutants mobilized by the fire, chemicals used to fight the fire and the post-fire response of the landscape that may contribute to p...

Hard-rock watersheds are essentially confined to fractured and weathered horizons, but they are a source of valuable water resources at a regional level, namely for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes, and public supply. They commonly exhibit complex geological bedrock and morphological features as well as distinctive gradients in rainfa...

Water quality alterations due to forest fires may considerably affect aquatic organisms and water resources. These impacts are cumulative as a result of pollutants mobilized from fires, chemicals used to fight fire, and postfire responses. Few studies have examined postfire transport into water resources of trace elements, including the polycyclic...

Groundwater pollution is a constant concern. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) provide useful tools to manipulate the variables that can be used pre-vent/minimize these issues. This article presents the development of a tool to pro-duce maps under a GIS open source environment. The application was developed through Quantum GIS (QGIS) software....

Contamination of water resources by mine effluents is a serious environmental problem. In a old coal mine, in the north of Portugal (São Pedro da Cova, Gondoma),forty years after the activity has ended, a neutral mine drainage, rich in iron (FE) it stills being produced and it is continuously released in local streams (Ribeiro de Murta e Rio Ferrei...

In order to decrease the risk of severe wildfire, prescribed fire has recently been adopted in Portugal and elsewhere in the Mediterranean as a major tool for reducing the fuel load instead of manual or mechanical removal of vegetation. There has been some research into its impact on soils in shrublands and grasslands, but to date little research h...

Interflow is the shallow sub-horizontal water flow through the saturated/unsaturated zone generally of a short transit time. It is the main component of the water balance in mountain regions. The study of interflow requires the development of appropriate conceptual models. Its quantification involves challenges due to: (1) the lack of methods to de...

Caldas de Moledo thermal (27–46 °C) spring and borehole waters issue in the region of the famous Port Wine vineyards, in the Douro River valley (Northern Portugal). The most abundant lithotypes are lower Cambrian metasedimentary rocks, Variscan granitoids and aplite-pegmatitic veins. The thermal waters are characterised by pH ≈ 9.0, TDS ranging fro...

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The objective of this work was to determine criteria of identifying contaminated soils related with mining activity from São Pedro da Cova, Gondomar (north of Portugal). There were considered 21 samples, from contaminated soil and uncontaminated soil, taking into account the type of soil and distance to the contaminant source. The samples were coll...

Mountains are often considered as the world's water towers. This paper presents a critical review on the research con-cerning the integrated assessment of groundwater resources of the mountain hydrogeologic system of Serra da Estrela Natural Park (central Portugal). The study area is the Zêzere river basin upstream of Manteigas village located at t...

Ecosystems provide hydrological services, namely water supply and water damage mitigation, essential for human well-being. Concerns over water problems and hydrological services provision have been increasing in the last decades, with special emphasis for water scarcity. For an effective water management and planning, hydrological services should b...

Resumo: Num momento em que a gestão sustentável dos recursos hídricos se assume como uma das maiores preocupações à escala mundial, as regiões de montanha têm vindo a ser reconhecidas como Reservatórios de Água (PROGRAMA UNESCO IHP-VI). O facto de muitas destas áreas se localizarem a altitudes elevadas e serem recortadas por rodovias obriga a frequ...

The assessment of contaminant dispersion in Controlled Dumps (CD) of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is possible through the combination of geophysical, geochemical and statistical methods. The methodology applied in this study will contribute to evaluate the environmental consequences of the Matosinhos CD (N Portugal), which is set in a granitic cryst...

In the present moment, the sustainable water management is a major concern throughout the world. Mountain areas are more and more recognized as the world's water towers (UNESCO IHP-VI PROGRAMME). Since a large number of mountains are located at high altitude and are crossed by roads, deicing operations are inevitable. The use of deicing chemicals s...

In a multidisciplinary approach, geological, geomorphologic, structural, hydrogeochemical and isotopic surveys were conducted on the Serra da Estrela groundwater system (central Portugal) in order to establish/develop a conceptual circulation model of the Caldas de Manteigas thermomineral system. A detailed study of the isotopic and geochemical com...

Mountain areas are the source of high quality and socioeconomic relevance water resources. The sustainable management of such regions is fundamental to maintain the water supply to populations in wide areas all over the planet. Serra da Estrela is the origin of water resources of strategic importance to Portugal. In the highest part of the mountain...

The aim of this paper is to review the results of the assessment of low-temperature geothermal resources (issue temperatures between 41 and 77 °C) that occur in the Portuguese mainland. For this purpose, a multidisciplinary approach, including geologic, tectonic, geochemical, geophysical and isotopic (δ2H, δ18O, δ13C, 3H and 14C) techniques, was ap...

Mountains are often recognized as the world's water towers, due to their exceptional ability to generate water resources of good quality and, frequently, of considerable economic value (e.g. UNESCO IHP-VI Programme: http://www.unesco.org, Aureli 2002).

High-mountain basins provide a source of valuable water resources. This paper presents hydrological models for the evaluation of water resources in the high-mountain Zêzere river basin in Serra da Estrela, Central Portugal. Models are solved with VISUAL BALAN v2.0, a code which performs daily water balances in the root zone, the unsaturated zone an...

This work outlines some results of coupled geologic, hydrogeologic, tectonic, geochemical and isotopic techniques applied to low-temperature (40°Cto 76°C) geothermal resources investigations. Two case studies of N-Portugal are presented and discussed. This multidisciplinary approach has been used to build up a "picture" of the geothermal systems. T...

This work outlines some results of coupled geologic, hydrogeologic, tectonic, geochemical and isotopic techniques applied to low-temperature (40°C to 76°C) geothermal resources investigations. Two case studies of N-Portugal are presented and discussed. This multidisciplinary approach has been used to build up a “picture” of the geothermal systems....

Not much research is being done on Geological sequestration/Storage of CO2 in Portugal. However, Portugal is emitting CO2 and other GHG at a much higher level than permitted under Kyoto Protocol and European (ED 2003/87/EC and 1007/101/EC) and national (PNALE II) legislations. Additionally, to continue utilizing fossil fuels for power generation an...

Understanding the role of the vadose zone is essential to accurately assess hydrogeological systems and the respective groundwater resources. The study area (Manteigas - Nave de Santo António - Torre sector, serra da Estrela Mountain, Central Portugal) presents specific geological, morphotectonical and climatic characteristics with significant infl...

This study summarizes the results of geological, geomorphological, tectonic, geochemical, geophysical, hydrogeological and isotopic techniques in hydromineral resources assessment (issue temperature between 27ºC and 45ºC). Two case studies are presented: i) Serra da Estrela mountain region, the highest mountain in Portuguese mainland and ii) Serra...

Understanding the role of the vadose zone is essential to accurately assess hydrogeo- logical systems and their respective groundwater resources. The study area (Manteigas - Nave de Santo António - Torre sector, Serra da Estrela Mountain, Central Portugal), presents specific geological, morphotectonic and climatic characteristics which influence th...

This paper presents a distributed hydrological model for the evaluation of water resources, which has been obtained by extending the capabilities of VISUAL-BALAN V2, a lumped hydrological code developed by the University of La Coruña, and coupling it to a GIS. VISUAL-BALAN is a lumped hydrological model, which solves the water balance equations in...

In this paper, we characterize the composition and flow paths of the low-temperature geothermal waters that discharge in the Manteigas-Nave de Santo António-Torre region, situated in the mountainous terrain of Serra da Estrela (Central Portugal, Iberian Massif). Geologic, geomorphic, structural, hydrogeochemical, isotopic (18O, 2H and 3H) and clima...

Numerical models are needed to evaluate complex hydrological systems. VISUAL BALAN v2.0 is a lumped hydrological code which performs daily water balances in the soil, the unsaturated zone and the aquifer requiring a small number of parameters. VISUAL BALAN has been used to model the river Zêzere catchment upstream of Manteigas (Serra da Estrela, Ce...

RESUMO: A Universidade Júnior (Ujr) é um projecto da Universidade do Porto concebido para promover a cultura, a ciência e a tecnologia e motivar os jovens alunos do ensino básico e secundário a frequentar o ensino universitário. O Departamento de Geologia participou com oito projectos, dois no âmbito do programa Oficinas de Verão e seis no âmbito d...

The results of a preliminary hydrogeological study of the river Zêzere catchment upstream of Manteigas (Serra da Estrela Natural Park, Central Portugal) are presented. In this mountain region, different types of groundwater and surface water (used in several economic activities) occur. The methodology adopted in this study emphasizes the way how Ge...

A hydrogeological conceptual model of the Caldas do Moledo geothermal site is proposed that shows mixing between geothermal waters and local shallow groundwaters. Stable isotope values of Caldas do Moledo geothermal waters indicate recharge areas located at relatively high altitudes (850–1250 m a.s.l.). The NW–SE Vigo–Régua shear zone plays an impo...

The results of multidisciplinary studies concerning the Po̧co Quente thermal (T_e7≈22.9°C) spring waters, located at the Granj̃ao-Caldas do Moledo sector (Peso da Ŕegua, Northern Portugal), are presented. The hydrogeological and geotectonic studies indicate that the location of Po̧co Quente spring is mainly conditioned by the local structural geolo...

The results of studies concerning the geologic, geomorphologic, tectonic and hydrogeologic features of Caldas do Moledo (Peso da Ŕegua, Northern Portugal) hydromineral system are presented. The geological and structural study included the survey of structural discontinuities and tectonic lineaments. A major granitic outcrop was identified and mappe...

The modelling of a hydrogeological system should start with the elaboration of a conceptual model, which consists of a mental construction — expressed by ideas, words and figures — resulting from the available informa - tion at a certain moment. The definition of a conceptual model is one of the first, and most important, steps of the modelling pro...