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Human influence over 150 years of coastal evolution in the Volturno delta system (southern Italy)

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Abstract

This paper focused on the past shoreline change rates along the coastal plain of the Volturno River, in southern Italy, western Mediterranean. A wide database comprising historical maps, aerial photographs, topographic sheets, bathymetric data was used to extract the spatial and temporal information of the coastlines at seven time points. Coastline displacement was calculated for two successive time points and relative surface variation (accretion and erosion) was estimated as well as minimum and maximum accretion/erosion linear values and rates. The surface variation analysis has revealed that the studied coast can be considered homogeneous since the 1970s, whereas it exhibits a variety of shoreline evolutionary trends after that time period. Timing and causes of trends and rates of variation were detected. Based on the estimated shoreline change rates, an appropriate morhodynamic one-line model was applied to predict evolutionary scenarios also in presence of port and defence works. The results obtained strongly emphasize that a successful coastal management requires a constant monitoring of the human-induced changes to account for the variability of rates over time.

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Acknowledgements

This work is the result of interdisciplinary researches and surveys carried out by all the authors. In particular, D. Ruberti and M. Vigliotti analyzed the hydrogeomorphological evolution of the coastal setting. M. Vigliotti processed the data and carried out the GIS analyses. A. Di Mauro, R. Chieffi and M. Di Natale applied the mathematical modeling. All the authors actively discussed the issues and identified commonalities and differences with other case studies. Conclusions are the result of collaboration between all authors. The research was granted by the Italian Research Ministry to DR and MDN.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Design, Building and Environment (DICDEA) - Campania University “L. Vanvitelli”, Via Roma, 29, 81031, Aversa, CE, Italy

    Daniela Ruberti, Marco Vigliotti & Michele Di Natale

  2. Med.Hydro s.r.l., Aversa, Italy

    Anna Di Mauro & Roberto Chieffi

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  1. Daniela Ruberti
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  2. Marco Vigliotti
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  3. Anna Di Mauro
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  4. Roberto Chieffi
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  5. Michele Di Natale
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Correspondence to Daniela Ruberti.

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Fig. S1.

a) Shoreline evolution south of the Pinetamare Marina. Base map the 2011 orthophoto. b) Shoreline position forecast for the 2026, based on the one-line model calculations. Note the retreat estimated downdrift the extisting breakwater. (GIF 568 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 61179 kb)

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Ruberti, D., Vigliotti, M., Di Mauro, A. et al. Human influence over 150 years of coastal evolution in the Volturno delta system (southern Italy). J Coast Conserv 22, 897–917 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-017-0557-x

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