Engineering geological map of the Chiavari city area (Liguria, Italy)

Abstract

An engineering geological map at a scale of 1:10,000 of the Chiavari city area (Northern Italy) – a major tourist and economic attraction of the Ligurian East Riviera – is presented in this paper. The municipality land shows an excellent geomorphological case-study of the well-known Ligurian coast: a floodplain, fairly wide and inhabited, formed by several floods of the two main rivers, a hill hinterland, reasonably inhabited, developed in marly limestones and sandy shales flysch and the coast – featuring cliffs and narrow pebbly beaches – deeply modified. This map was compiled by combining available geological data with a new engineering geomorphological field survey and including geotechnical data which were obtained from studies carried out for town planning and building purposes. On the basis of the critical review of the available lithostratigraphic data from drilling, as well as geotechnical and geophysical analyses carried out between 1981 and 2010 on the municipality land, an engineering geological map was compiled. Nine engineering geological units were established, based on their physical characterizations and geomechanical properties. This paper presents an example of geocartography that could be applied to urban land planning for housing and construction of technical works; it also represents the base for geological hazard evaluation.