Abstract
The coastal vulnerability index (CVI) is a popular index in literature to assess the coastal vulnerability of climate change. The present paper proposes a CVI formulation to make it suitable for the Mediterranean coasts; the formulation considers ten variables divided into three typological groups: geological; physical process and vegetation. In particular, the geological variables are: geomorphology; shoreline erosion/accretion rates; coastal slope; emerged beach width and dune width. The physical process variables are relative sea-level change; mean significant wave height and mean tide range. The vegetation variables are width of vegetation behind the beach and posidonia oceanica. The first application of the proposed index was carried out for a stretch of the Apulia region coast, in the south of Italy; this application allowed to (i) identify the transects most vulnerable to sea level rise, storm surges and waves action and (ii) consider the usefulness of the index as a tool for orientation in planning strategies. For the case study presented in this work, the most influential variables in determining CVI are dune width and geomorphology. The transects that present a very high vulnerability are characterized by sandy and narrow beaches (without dunes and vegetation) and by the absence of Posidonia oceanica.
Highlights
The potentially massive impact of climate change on the world’s coastal zones is globally recognized
Some differences have been found likely due to the four variables proposed in the coastal vulnerability index (CVI) to evaluate the ability of “natural systems” to dissipate the wave energy: emerged beach width; dune width; width of vegetation behind the beach and Posidonia oceanica
The CVI is a useful method for the assessment of the relative physical vulnerability of a stretch of coastline to the effects of climate change
Summary
The potentially massive impact of climate change on the world’s coastal zones is globally recognized. In literature there are various applications of the CVI with modifications and integrations of physical parameters to adapt the index to the particular coastal area [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26] In this context, the present paper proposes a methodology and presents a case study for assessment of the physical vulnerability to coastal hazards; in particular, the paper proposes a CVI suitable for Mediterranean areas which considers 10 variables. The study described in this paper, as mentioned above, presents an application of the CVI with the integration of four physical variables The choice of these variables is due to the consideration that for low-lying coastal areas of the Mediterranean, which represent 46% of the Mediterranean coastline [40], coastal flooding generated by storm surge and wave-breaking represents one of the main destructive natural disasters in the Mediterranean [41]. Variables are ranked on a linear scale from 1–5 in order of increasing vulnerability and CVI values are classified in four different groups using percentiles as limits
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
