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Anthropic vs. natural shoreline changes along the northern Campania coast, Italy

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Abstract

Analysis of historical cartography, wind direction data, orientation of Volturno River mouth and shoreline changes through time point out a series of morphological changes due both to natural and man-induced processes, which occurred along the Domitia coast (Litorale Domitio) since the second half of the 50s. Meteorological time series analysis showed evidence of a change in wind frequency and direction before and after the second half of the 70s, with almost complete disappearance of wind calm periods. Particularly, after 1975, the angle of wave attack had changed and intensity and frequency increased, thus accelerating coastal erosion in some areas. The morphological response to these environmental changes, likely due to global warming and short climatic crises interacting with anthropic modifications of landscape, resulted in different orientation of the Volturno River mouth which rotated from NW (between the 50s and 70s) to SW (from the mid-70s until the present). Moreover, the NW-SE littoral drift caused a clockwise rotation of the entire coastal segment with fulcrum pole close to the river mouth, since the 50s. These findings may allow the assessment of land-use scenarios tuned with evolution trends in order to properly address planning of these reactive and dynamic landscapes.

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Acknowledgements

This work is the result of interdisciplinary researches and surveys carried out by all the authors. In particular, C. Donadio and D. Ruberti analyzed the hydrogeomorphological and meteomarine features as well as coastal processes along the Domitio Littoral. M. Vigliotti and C. Stanislao processed the data and constructed the georeferenced thematic maps using GIS. R. Valente wrote the Environmental design aspects paragraph, and described adaptive landscape approach related to anthropic interventions along the study area in the Introduction. R. Ivaldi processed the bathymetric data. 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. This paper is an Italian contribution to the project IGCP 639 – International Geological Correlation Programme “Sea-level change from minutes to millennia” by UNESCO – IUGS (Project Leaders: S. Engelhart, G. Hoffmann, F. Yu and A. Rosentau). We acknowledge the Istituto Idrografico della Marina (Genoa) for having permitted the elaboration of unpublished bathymetric data from 1887. The Authors wish acknowledge the insightful comments of the anonimous reviewers which greatly improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Environment and Resources, University of Naples Federico II, Largo San Marcellino 10, 80138, Naples, Italy

    C. Donadio & C. Stanislao

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Design, Building and Environment, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via Roma 9, 81031, Aversa, CE, Italy

    M. Vigliotti, R. Valente & D. Ruberti

  3. Istituto Idrografico della Marina. Ministero della Difesa. Passo dell’Osservatorio 4, 16134, Genoa, Italy

    R. Ivaldi

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  1. C. Donadio
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Correspondence to D. Ruberti.

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Donadio, C., Vigliotti, M., Valente, R. et al. Anthropic vs. natural shoreline changes along the northern Campania coast, Italy. J Coast Conserv 22, 939–955 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-017-0563-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-017-0563-z

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