Modificazioni dell'ambiente costiero in Campania (litorale Domitio, Golfo di Gaeta) in conseguenza delle opere umane

Abstract

The paper reports on the geoenvironmental modifications of the coast of the Gulf of Gaeta near Naples (Southern Italy), which took place after the widespread urbanization of littoral areas in the last decades and the construction of coastal engineering works. The investigated area is the seaward border of the Campanian Plain, fed by the Volturno and Garigliano rivers. The plain is a perityrrhenian graben of Plio-Pleistocene age limited by mesocenozoic carbonatic ridges on NW, N-NE and SE and filled by terrigenous and pyroclastic deposits, the latter from the Roccamonfina and Phlegraean Fields areas. Since Roman times, the littoral has been characterized by constant progradation with values ranging 100 m to 10 m/Century in the area on the north of the Volturno River mouth; these values have decreased in the last decades, and large littoral areas are at present subject to erosive phenomena triggered by anthropic activity. In particular, in the area of the Volturno River delta, the construction of several thousands of residence houses stiffening the right side of the deltaic front has greatly modified the coastal processes (i.e., rectification of the river mouth cusp that extended over a great distance into the sea) favouring a marked retreat of the coastline. In the area of Pineta Mare, to the south of the Volturno River, the construction of a marina has modified the coast regime causing a remarkable retreat of the downdrift side of the beach, which is now partially controlled by a series of protective works at sea.