Beach Erosion in the Gulf of Castellammare di Stabia in Response to the Trapping of Longshore Drifting Sediments of the Gulf of Napoli (Southern Italy)

Abstract

Abstract:The results of this study have allowed verification that longshore sediment transport along the coast of Napoli Gulf (southern Italy) takes place from Northwest to Southeast. The current analysis describes the results of an integrated sedimentological and geomorphological study of the Neapolitan coastal area. A sedimentological and morphosedimentary study was carried out by bathymetric survey and sampling of bottom sediments. The analysis of modal isodensity curves shows that all the sediments are moved from NW to SE by longshore currents parallel to the coastline. The morphological evolution of the Castellammare di Stabia Gulf coastal area, based on historical coastline changes, starts from 1865, when the sandy littoral was wide and in its natural state. Since the construction of the Torre Annunziata harbor in 1871, sediments transported by a NW-SE longshore drift have become trapped, inducing the genesis of a new wide triangular-shaped beach on the updrift side (NW) of the harbor breakwall. This process induced a significant shoreline retreat of the south-east sector of the littoral. Widespread beach erosion of the coastal physiographic unit of Castellammare di Stabia Gulf (delimited by two ports) is more developed in the southern portion. This study highlights a slight rotation of the shoreline toward the East and a general trend of regression, with typical overall accentuation of shoreline concavity, and significant widening of the triangular-shaped beaches at the end of the falcate. This reduced sediment input removed from the sedimentary budget a large amount of deposits, which are hardly restorable due to the scarce supply of sediment load by the Sarno river and its tributaries. In addition to this new and important derived morphologic feature, other recent human interventions have contributed to further modifications of morphologic characteristics of emerged and submerged beach. The intense use of the territory caused modifications on both the fluvial course and river mouth with direct and indirect effects on the shoreline and the drainage network of the Sarno River.

Topography and structural heterogeneities in surface ground deformation: a simulation test for Somma-Vesuvius volcano

“…Since the last eruption in 1944, the Somma-Vesuvius volcano is in a quiescent phase. It has an activity consisting of hundreds of low energy earthquakes per year (Bianco et al, 1998;De Natale et al, 1998, 2004, generally characterized by earthquake swarms (Bianco et al, 1999), fumarolic activity at the summit crater (Chiodini et al, 2001) and subsidence (Tammaro et al, 2013;Pingue et al, 2013). The largest earthquake (MD = 3.6) was recorded on October 1999 (Del Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.…”

“…(a) Geological map relating to the part of the domain enclosed in the red box (fromPennetta, 2018). It includes Gulf of Napoli and the Somma-Vesuvius volcano, southern Italy.…”

Methodology for Improving the Analysis, Interpretation, and Geo-Visualisation of Erosion Rates in Coastal Beaches—Andalusia, Southern Spain

“…However, due to the lack of resources allowing 3D measurement (volume), two-dimensional (surface area), and linear-distance calculations (length) have been historically the most used. In the literature, different techniques and data have been used to estimate coastal sediment loss such as historical maps [13][14][15][16], topographical surveys [17][18][19] and remote sensing [20][21][22][23]. However, although these studies enable retrospective analysis, they lack the spatial continuity and accuracy that certain coastal studies may require.…”

Seven Good Reasons for Integrating Terrestrial and Marine Spatial Datasets in Changing Environments

“…Antonioli et al [107]; Aucelli et al, [108]; Zaggia et al [109]; Casalbore et al [110]; Di Paola et al [111]; Moore et al [112]; Obrocki et al [113]; Pennetta et al [114]; Urlaub et al [115]; Biolchi et al [116]; Buosi et al [117]; Mucerino et al [118]; Toker et al [119]; Rizzo et al [120] 6…”

“…Among hazards induced by the ongoing climate change, coastal inundation (especially along stretches of coast affected by subsidence; [108]) and coastal erosion triggered by extreme meteorological events, and sea-level rise are the most reported in the literature. In particular, several papers concern (i) the quantification of sea-level rise (e.g., [2,93,107,111]; Figure 9), (ii) the general impacts of sea-level rise on coastal environments [97,102] and (iii) the assessment of coastal exposure and coastal erosion (e.g., [98,114,117,118]). Terrestrial and marine datasets are differently analyzed and integrated, although bathymetry is often taken into consideration, especially in those works presenting predictive models on sea-level rise and coastal inundation.…”