Winter Sandy Protections of the Northern Adriatic Coast against Flooding: Preliminary Results

Coastal erosion induces a constant and often permanent loss of territory. This phenomenon is more alarming when assosiated with the lowering of the hinterland territory because of the subsidence. This trend sets the conditions for more frequent and vast floodings due to sea storm and high water events. Such floodings not only bring remarkable uneasiness to people and local economies but, sometimes, they can be transformed in more serious catastrophe, as during the inundation of Venice in 1966. Fortunately, because of the weather-marine and geomorphological conditions of the coast of Emilia-Romagna, in the northern Adriatic sea (Italy) floodings provoke damages principally to infrastructures and human activities. In order to reduce these risks, temporary sandy levees are constructed during the winter period by the owners of the infrastructures: the material used is usually taken from the lower part of the beach and deposited without following a suitable procedure. If these morphological variations are not accurately evaluated, they may induce changes on the beach and increase the actual erosion. In order to reduce such phenomenon and improve the performance of these temporary interventions, a study has been conducte which aims to determine the sea storm impact on the sand levee and to evaluate the most appropriate constructive modalities and the possibility to use sand coming from the cleaning of the beach during the summer period, which is today accumulated in dumps. A methodology based on the use of the SBEACH (Storm-induced BEAch CHange) software is presented. First results are encouraging. More simulation will be performed in order to validate the methodology.