Atti del 52° Congresso Nazionale: Società Italiana di Igiene, Medicina Preventiva e Sanità Pubblica (SItI)

In recent years, desalination plants gained attention in areas historically suffering from water scarcity like small islands being an important source of potable water. Besides drinking water, desalination plants produce as by-product hypersaline effluents, that are generally directly disposed to the sea with no specific regulations at Italian level. The high density of the discharge can create a briny layer on the seafloor affecting marine organisms and water quality. The aim of this research is assess the effects produced by a hypersaline discharge from a small island Italian desalination plant using early warning indicators of ecosystems health and stressing on the importance of using an integrated approach through multivariate analysis.