Cultural heritage and subsidence: the emblematic case study of Santa Croce in Ravenna (Italy)

The paper deals with subsidence and flooding risks associated to the Archaeological Site of Santa Croce, encompassing a 5th century church together with the remains of a Roman domus and its mosaics, located in the centre of the historic town of Ravenna (Italy). A geotechnical field campaign and the installation of a new piezometer monitoring system were carried out in 2022, under the framework of H2020 SHELTER project, to investigate the critical issues generated by water drainage in the site, requested by the significant natural and anthropic land subsidence phenomenon that has affected the site since its origins. The case study is presented herein, together with a brief description of the ongoing investigation activities and a few preliminary results.