Site characterization and mitigation of the coastal risks : the southern Sicily and the Maltese islands

Abstract

The southern coast of Sicily and the islands of the archipelagos of Malta are highly exposed to risks coming from the sea. Such coasts are subjected to fast erosion due to natural and anthropic causes which involve the failure of cliffs, the triggering of localized erosions and the possibility of flooding. In this context the Project NEWS - Nearshore hazard monitoring and Early Warning System - (INTERREG V-A Program “Italia-Malta”) aims to tackle such problems through the development and use of smart technologies as well as traditional methods. The research activity aims to develop an integrated system, which includes monitoring, early warning monitoring and mitigation of the coastal risks, specifically aiming at advising the population about the risk of flooding, littoral sand erosions, cliff failures and at activating protection measures. To validate the proposed integrated system a campaign of investigation including geological field survey and geotechnical laboratory tests will be planned in four test sites. The test sites include different coastal stretches: the coast of Granelli (Pachino) characterized by a thin sandy coast; the coast of Santa Maria del Focallo (Ispica) in South Sicily; the high stretch of coast present in Selmun and Wied Il-Mielah in the archipelago of Malta. The paper focuses on the results regarding the geophysical and geotechnical characterization for a Maltese site. A basic equation for toe erosion by waves proposed by Sunamura [30] can be applied to study the phenomena on the test sites. This approach can be a useful contribute to begin to assess defense strategies for the erosion risk.