Microbiological quality of bathing waters: evaluation of classicand innovative parameters relating to climate variables and to sanitation interventions

The microbiological safety of bathing water is an issue of public health of increasing importance owing to the rapid urbanization of coastal area that lead to high pollution load flowing into seawaters, mainly in the summer season. Beside the significance for public health, recreational water quality is an important indicator of tourism development, since beach advisories and closures due to lack of compliance with bathing suitability standards have a negative impact on the economy of coastal area. The PhD project focused on risk management of bathing waters affected by short-term pollution events. Several successive phases were carried out: (i) explorative activity of bathing waters impacted by pollution sources, through microbiological monitoring with traditional microbial parameters (faecal indicators) and pathogens, in parallel with chemical-physical monitoring; (ii) evaluation of the effectiveness of disinfection with Peracetic Acid of a point and non-conventional contamination source (drainage pump), through an analogous monitoring; (iii) development and application of a Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) model for the implementation of a specific Water Safety Plan (WSP) for the study area. The developed framework can be transposed to other area that suffer from bathing water quality impairments, and it is valuable approach for water managers, provided with greater understanding of scenario that may impact on recreators health risk.