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Assessing of detached breakwaters and beach nourishment environmental impacts in Italy: a review

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Abstract

Coastal regions are exposed to natural phenomena such as sea waves, sea level rise, climate change, and flooding events. These factors, along with human pressures, lead to an increase in coastal erosion. In response, hard engineering measures were realized as breakwaters and groins, to oppose erosion processes along the sandy beaches of the Italian coastline. These types of defense systems showed negative impacts on landscapes, ecosystems, and expected results. Additionally, the use of coastal revetments, submerged sandbars, soil bioengineering, and beach nourishment projects were used to defend seaboard areas from the risk of a growing shore withdrawal. Among these soft solutions, beach nourishment is becoming an environmentally friendly method to control shoreline erosion, increasing the width of sandy beaches to guarantee a better tourist use of coastal regions and to add a greater buffer between the shoreline and existing infrastructure. In recent times, nourishment projects have been combined with other protective measures, such as submerged sandbars and underwater detached breakwaters, limiting the loss of sediments from sandy beaches and allowing better protection from stormy events. These mixed solutions ensure effective coastal protection by maintaining the width of sandy beaches for tourist use, guaranteeing the environmental safeguard of the coastal ecosystems. In order to achieve the best result with these types of projects, a close collaboration between coastal engineers, geologists, biologists, and policymakers toward integrated coastal zone management is necessary. The study described in this paper has taken the form of a literature review regarding both the negative environmental impacts and the benefits associated with the use of old and new coastal defense systems.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the MIUR-ex 60% Project (responsibility of Fabio Ietto). The authors are indebted to the reviewers for the very constructive comments that helped to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems in the Mediterranean, Via Cavour 4-6-87036, Rende, Cosenza, Italy

    Nicola Cantasano

  2. European Federation for Soil Bioengineering, Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Federico Boccalaro

  3. Fabio Ietto, University of Calabria, Department of Biological, Ecological and Earth Sciences, Arcavacata di Rende, Cosenza, Italy

    Fabio Ietto

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  1. Nicola Cantasano
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Correspondence to Nicola Cantasano.

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Cantasano, N., Boccalaro, F. & Ietto, F. Assessing of detached breakwaters and beach nourishment environmental impacts in Italy: a review. Environ Monit Assess 195, 127 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10666-9

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