title: Assessment of sediment contamination and sampling design in Savona Harbour, Italy.
abstract: A method for assessing environmental contamination in harbour sediments and designing the forthcoming monitoring activities in enlarged coastal ecosystems is proposed herein. The method is based on coupling principal component analysis of previous sampling campaigns with a discrete optimisation of a value for money function. The objective function represents the utility derived for every sum of money spent in sampling and chemical analysis. The method was then used to assess actual contamination and found to be well suited for reducing the number of chemicals to be searched during extended monitoring activities and identifying the possible sources of contamination. Data collected in Savona Harbour (Porto Vado), Italy, where construction of a new terminal construction is planned, were used to illustrate the procedure. 23 chemicals were searched for within a total of 213 samples in 68 sampling points during three monitoring campaigns. These data were used to test the procedure. Subsequently, 28 chemicals were searched for within 14 samples in 10 sampling points and collected data were used to evaluate the experimental error and to validate the proposed procedure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Università di Genova, Via Opera Pia 15, Genova 16145, Italy. Electronic address: paladino@unige.it.
authors.forename: Ombretta
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Paladino
authors.affiliation: CIMA Research Foundation, International Centre on Environmental Monitoring, Via Magliotto 2, Savona 17100, Italy. Electronic address: marco.massabo@cimafoundation.org.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Massabò
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Università di Genova, Via Opera Pia 15, Genova 16145, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fissore
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Università di Genova, Via Opera Pia 15, Genova 16145, Italy.
authors.forename: Arianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moranda
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D007558:Italy; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012107:Research Design
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants
keywords: Coastal ecosystems; Harbour contamination; Planning strategies; Principal component analysis; Sampling design