Geomorphological and Anthropic Control of the Development of Some Adriatic Historical Towns (Italy) Since the Roman Age

Abstract

Dall'Aglio P.L., De Donatis M., Franceschelli C., Guerra C., Guerra V., Nesci O., Piacentini D., Savelli S., 2017. Geomorphological and anthropic control of the development of some Adriatic historical towns (Italy) since the Roman age. Quaestiones Geographicae 36(3), Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Poznań, pp. 111-123. 6 figs.abstraCt: The geomorphological analysis of historically urbanized areas is the best scientific way to understand how the extant geomorphological factors conditioned urbanization. It also provides a baseline to enable comparisons to be made with the modern environment. This paper considers four urbanized historical sites on the Adriatic coast (Italy) that owe their urban development to particular geomorphological and environmental conditions that were modified over the centuries from the Roman age to the present day. The focus here is on the evolution of the shoreline and associated geomorphic variables (streambeds and river mouths migration). These factors are fundamental for determining the development of a city, both as basic boundary elements -therefore including defence and protection -and also for the development of harbours.

Geomorphological Evolution of the Sena Gallica Site in the Morpho-Evolutive Quaternary Context of the Northern-Marche Coastal Sector (Italy)

“…The final geoarchaelogical maps were also interpreted and synthesized with GIS and 3D modelling software [15][16][17].…”

“…The position of the shoreline in the Roman age [6,14,18,19,41,42] is supported by archaeological evidence in the different Northern coastal cities of the Marche (e.g., walls and boundaries of ancient urban areas, river ports, etc. ; see, for example, [15,43,44]). The subsequent advancement of the shoreline from the Roman slope to the current positions is attested by the depositional plain that separates the escarpment from today's shoreline.…”

“…Given negligible local coastal uplift values [9][10][11], the principal factors affecting, in late Quaternary times, the coastal evolution in the study areas are sea-level glacio-eustatic fluctuations modulated by principal glacial-interglacial cycles [12,13]. In the second half of the Holocene, the main causes of the fluvial and coastal evolution can be related to changes in sediment load as a response to forest clearing [14] and/or to minor climatic fluctuations (e.g., the Little Ice Age) [10,15].…”

“…These studies show that Romans implemented important changes on the natural conditioning of the paleo-morphology of the urban fabric of Sena Gallica to adapt the site configuration for defensive settlement and trade purposes [2,[15][16][17].…”

Papia civitas gloriosa: urban geomorphology for a thematic itinerary on geocultural heritage in Pavia (Central Po Plain, N Italy)

“…Urban geomorphology and urban geoheritage are becoming topics that are of growing interest, as they represent the starting point in understanding the relationship between natural modelling processes and anthropic activities, in geoheritage assessment and geoarchaeological studies (Cardarelli et al, 2004;Cremaschi et al, 2018;Dall'Aglio et al, 2011;Dall'Aglio et al, 2017;Del Monte et al, 2016;Giordano et al, 2016;Lewin, 2010;Mozzi et al, 2018;Ninfo et al, 2016;Pica et al, 2016;Rhoads et al, 2016;Stefani & Zuppiroli, 2010). In the beginning, the geomorphological landscape was determinant for village and settlement positioning (Benito-Calvo & Pérez-González, 2015;Cremaschi et al, 2018), but afterwards, human activities progressively became more incisive in reworking morphological features and in conditioning surface geomorphic processes.…”