The evolution of coastal and transitional environments depends upon the interplay of human activities and natural drivers, two factors that are strongly connected and many times conflicting. The urge for efficient tools for characterising and predicting the behaviour of such systems is nowadays particularly pressing, especially under the effects of a changing climate, and requires a deeper understanding of the connections among different drivers and different scales. To this aim, the present paper reviews the results of a set of interdisciplinary and coordinated experiences carried out in the Adriatic Sea (north-eastern Mediterranean region), discussing state-of-the art methods for coastal dynamics assessment and monitoring, and suggests strategies towards a more efficient coastal management. Coupled with detailed geomorphological information, the methodologies currently available for evaluating the different components of relative sea level rise facilitate a first identification of the flooding hazard in coastal areas, providing a fundamental element for the prioritization and identification of the sustainability of possible interventions and policies. In addition, hydro-and morpho-dynamic models are achieving significant advances in terms of spatial resolution and physical insight, also in a climatological context, improving the description of the interactions between meteooceanographic processes at the regional scale to coastal dynamics at the local scale. We point out that a coordinated use of the described tools should be promptly promoted in the design of survey and monitoring activities as well as in the exploitation of already collected data. Moreover, expected benefits from this strategy include the production of services and infrastructures for coastal protection with a focus on short-term forecast and rapid response, enabling the implementation of an event-oriented sampling strategy.
No other environmental variable of ecological importance to estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems around the world has changed so drastically, in such a short period of time, as dissolved oxygen. Coastal surveys in United States and Europe found that a staggering 78 % of the assessed continental U.S. coastal area and approximately 65 % of Europe’s Atlantic coast exhibit symptoms of eutrophication. The 65 % of the coasts counted by Diaz does not take into account inland seas like the Adriatic or Baltic Seas but also for these, eutrophication and consequently anoxia are common problems. In the present study a simple and economic device is proposed to enhance vertical mixing processes and to induce aeration of deep water by pumping of oxygen-rich surface water downwards to a desired depth around the halocline. The hydrodynamic parameters of the device are estimated through free oscillation tests. Preliminary values of the downward water flux velocity inside the device and the movements of the floater under the action of 4 regular waves, characterizing of the wave climate in the Nord Adriatic Sea, are estimated.
Abstract. Numerical modelling has become an essential component of today's coastal planning, decision support and risk assessment. High-resolution modelling offers an extensive range of capabilities regarding simulated conditions, works and practices and provides with a wide array of data regarding nearshore wave dynamics and hydrodynamics. In the present work, the open-source TELEMAC suite and the commercial software MIKE21 are applied to selected coastal areas of South Italy. Applications follow a scenario-based approach in order to study representative wave conditions in the coastal field; the models' results are intercompared in order to test both their performance and capabilities and are further evaluated on the basis of their operational use for coastal planning and design. A multiparametric approach for the rapid assessment of wave conditions in coastal areas is also presented and implemented in areas of the same region. The overall approach is deemed to provide useful insights on the tested models and the use of numerical models -in general -in the above context, especially considering that the design of harbours, coastal protection works and management practices in the coastal zone is based on scenario-based approaches as well.
This work presents the results of the numerical study implemented for the natural area of Lido di Spina, a touristic site along the Italian coast of the North Adriatic Sea, close to the mouth of River Reno. High-resolution simulations of nearshore dynamics are carried out under climate change conditions estimated for the site. The adopted modeling chain is based on the implementation of multiple-nested, open-source numerical models. More specifically, the coupled wave-2D hydrodynamics runs, using the open-source TELEMAC suite, are forced at the offshore boundary by waves resulting from the wave model (SWAN) simulations for the Adriatic Sea, and sea levels computed following a joint probability analysis approach. The system simulates present-day scenarios, as well as conditions reflecting the high IPCC greenhouse concentration trajectory named RCP8.5 under predicted climate changes. Selection of sea storms directed from SE (Sirocco events) and E-NE (Bora events) is performed together with Gumbel analysis, in order to define ordinary and extreme sea conditions. The numerical results are here presented in terms of local parameters such as wave breaking position, alongshore currents intensity and direction and flooded area, aiming to provide insights on how climate changes may impact hydrodynamics at a site scale. Although the wave energy intensity predicted for Sirocco events is expected to increase only slightly, modifications of the wave dynamics, current patterns, and inland flooding induced by climate changes are expected to be significant for extreme conditions, especially during Sirocco winds, with an increase in the maximum alongshore currents and in the inundated area compared to past conditions. coastal planning and decision assessment, accounting for typical features at a coastal engineering scale, such as nonlinear processes of wave propagation and interactions between offshore and coastal structures and the inclusion of inshore boundary conditions, such as river run-off.In recent years, research efforts have focused on the development of methodological frameworks based on advanced numerical modeling [5,6], which can be used to study the effects of future climate change scenarios affecting both the intensity and frequency of storm-surge events, wave climate, currents, sea-level rise, and riverine sediment discharge. Since the above-mentioned phenomena may increase the flood risk for coastal areas, the understanding of their dynamics at coastal scale becomes essential for the design of climate-change resilience protection and, in general, spatial planning activities.Thus, the development of multipurpose measures mitigating erosion and inundation and increasing coastal defense efficiency requires a challenging prediction of sea forcings variation induced by the estimated effects of climate change.Recently, regional future scenarios accounting for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sea-level projections at 2100 characterized by Representative Concentration Pathways equal to +8.5 W/m 2 (here...
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