The problem of land occupation in the Protection Perimeter area of groundwater abstractions for medical spas: the case of São Pedro do Sul medical spa (Portugal)

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4. The problem of land occupation in the Protection Perimeter area of groundwater abstractions for medical spas: the case of São Pedro do Sul medical spa (Portugal)

Thermalism or the use of medical spas is an activity with very remote origins, all over the world, especially in mountain areas, in the interior of territories, in places where special groundwaters emerge, often hot, and which were used by societies over time in health benefits. In Portugal, currently, thermalism is a very regulated activity. The fundamental pillar of such activity is the exploitation of special groundwater, but only after it has been classified as natural mineral water (NMW). The NMW, over time, must maintain its quality and physical-chemical stability, otherwise, it loses its classification and can close the medical spa. To this end, there are several mechanisms to defend the quality of the resource, one of them being the Protection Perimeter (PP) of the groundwater abstractions, to "try to regulate" potential human actions to mitigate potential harmful actions to the quality of the resource. Thus, after framing the subject under study, this paper makes a synthetic presentation of the PP and the geomorphological, geological, and hydrogeological aspects associated with the São Pedro do Sul Medical Spa. The following presents the methodological aspects of the problem under study. Then, in some detail, the results of technical reports prepared over two and a half decades are presented, with reference to technical and scientific aspects used in their preparation, namely the scenarios of potential contamination of NMW from the potential pretensions. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations on the global methodology of this type of situation are presented.

9th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (ICEG2023)

Emerging Contaminants