Abstract
The assessment of coastal erosion risk is a major challenge, since environmental and geomorphic features, together with sea state parameters, can seriously change the configuration of coastal areas. In addition, the anthropic actions of the coastal communities may also drastically modify the configuration of the coast in vulnerable areas. In this study, a linkage between regional mapping guidelines and national geological cartography procedures is presented as a meaningful tool in the geomorphic trends analysis for the integrated mapping of the main morphological patterns of San Vincenzo’s coastal area, in the region of Tuscany (Italy). Comparing and joining different procedures—which have different scales and topics—requires adapting the fields and the information provided in maps and databases. In this case study, a GIS morpho-sedimentological approach is developed. This GIS approach enables us to cover several issues simultaneously, such as the representation of coastal active processes, the adaptation of regional and national cartography to coastal erosion assessment, and lastly the calculation of the sedimentary stock analysis, since it represents the first attribute of coasts to be preserved in a resilience-oriented integrated assessment.
Highlights
To assess and contrast coastal erosion is a rather topical issue, since coastal areas worldwide represent peculiar and very sensitive environments, extending for 1,634,701 km [1]
This was generally occupied by sediments moved by wave motion and currents, proportionally with the sea state parameters, especially during extreme events. Hydrodynamics in this zone suddenly changed the morphology of the seabed, its depth, and moved the different class sizes of sediment; such dynamism entailed a huge task in data collection and reproducibility of the survey conditions
Regarding the physical properties of the samples, they provided the identification of a class of sediments that fits the morpho-dynamic model and the geomorphic evidence extracted from the bathymetric analysis, as well as from the geomorphological analysis
Summary
To assess and contrast coastal erosion is a rather topical issue, since coastal areas worldwide represent peculiar and very sensitive environments, extending for 1,634,701 km [1]. The occupation and management of these areas needs to be planned properly, and the territory to be known in all its approaches in order to make decisions. Mapping the territory represents one of these actions and deciding on the proper methods to use becomes a tricky choice. In particular geomorphological mapping, has already been addressed as a potential tool in the evaluation of the resilience assessment of coastal areas procedures [2,3]. It can be used to produce diagnostic indicators [4], and new conceptual spatial units to future scenarios and coastal erosion risk assessment [5]. Nowadays, computing trends of geomorphological variations have been widely tested, and many geomatic technologies [6,7] have become economically approachable, especially when taking into account readily available online resources, such as images and open data
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