Considerations on coastal protection and management

Abstract

As a contribution to the 2019 World Water Day, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei promoted a symposium on “Coastal protection and management”. A selection of the papers presented at the meeting have been assembled as a Topical Collection. Costal zones are densely populated due to their morphological, climate, economic and recreational opportunities, but are exposed to the adverse effects of the sea action, in the recent decades worsened by growing human impact and sea level rise. Both erosion and accretion change the shoreline and the coastal zones, with the first prevailing today. Different estimates have been produced of beach erosion at a global or national level. In Italy more than 40% of the low coasts are presently eroding, despite decades of expensive beach defence works. In addition, high coastal infrastructures and settlements recently became more frequently exposed to storm surges. The papers collection deals with (a) monitoring studies of natural and man-induced shoreline changes, (b) hard and soft shore protections projects, (c) littoral hazards as tsunami, extreme high waters and storm surges, (d) protection of cultural heritage threatened by sea. General considerations on the challenge posed by the sea-level rise and possible solutions, i.e. defence, adaptation or managed retreat, are briefly summarized.