First Outcomes of a Project Dedicated to Monitoring Groundwater Resources in Apulia, Southern Italy

The deepest cave in Apulia, an almost entirely karst region in southeastern Italy, has recently been the object of a project aimed at evaluating the quality and quantity of the groundwater resources. The cave system, located in one of the most remarkable karst landforms in the region (Canale di Pirro polje), reaches the water table at a depth of -264 m. Diving explorations brought the total depth of the cave down to -324 m. This contribution illustrates the preliminary activities carried out during the project, with a particular focus on geology, morphology and structural geology of the cave system and surrounding areas, together with hydrogeological research and chemical analyses of the groundwater.