RT book part
T1 Bad Practice in Erosion Management: The Southern Sicily Case Study
A1 Anfuso Melfi, Giorgio
A1 Martinez, JA
A1 Rangel-Buitrago, N
A2 Ciencias de la Tierra
K1 erosion
K1 Italy
AB This case study from Sicily illustrates a common sequence of eventswhere one unwise action was countered with another, which in turn createdadditional problems. The situation arose through strong political interference andignorance (or lack of concern) regarding the environmental impacts of humaninterventions on the shoreline and by the public perception that government has aduty to protect private property. The poor design and location of ports and harboursproduced infilling problems and huge updrift accretion with concomitant downdrifterosion. The human-induced coastal retreat was counteracted by the progressiveemplacement of breakwaters creating a “domino” effect. On many occasionsthese were constructed to protect unplanned and illegal (in the sense that they donot conform to planning regulations) beachfront summer houses. Without thepresence of these structures, there would have been no need for publicly fundedintervention.Furthermore, only a narrow coastal belt close to the shoreline is used bybathers on the wide beaches formed updrift of ports and harbours and in the leeof breakwaters, most of the accreted beach being unused or partially occupied bytourist developments. Thus beach users and municipalities acquired some benefitsfrom beach accretion at specific sites, the opposite being true in eroding areas.
SN 978-94-007-4122-5
YR 2012
FD 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/15908
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/15908
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 10-may-2026