La tendance evolutive du littoral emilien-romagnol (Italie)

The effects of subsidence on a coastline is analyzed as a factor of profound changes in the littoral balance and the lagoonal system of the Emilia-Romagna section (Upper Adriatic Sea). Since the beginning of this century, this coastal area, characterized by low sandy coastline features, has been affected by a widespread regression which reached the critical stage after 1950. The factors responsible for this process of degradation, i.e. the diminished supply of fluvial sediments, the prevailing conditions of sea and weather and the establishing of manmade structures, are analyzed. The subsidence, which became serious after the fifties due to exploitation of underground fluids, explains this shore decay once considered as an anomaly of the coastal regime. The Ravenna littoral test area, especially, the close connection of the shoreline evolution, sea depth variations and land subsidence is described.