Assessment of maritime erosion index for ionian-lucanian coast

Abstract

It is assumed worldwide that the assessment of coastal erosion and induced risk can be carried out through concise indexes which take into account both morphological and anthropic characteristics of littoral system as well as energy intensity of wave climate. The classic literature proposes different indicators in order to describe erosion/progradation activities along the coast and climate wave conditions, generally expressed by wave energy. This means that the physical strength for coastal erosion is commonly assumed to coincide to the annual storm intensity and treated like an independent variable. In the present paper, the maritime erosion index has been proposed to be employed in risk assessment induced by continuous nearshore wave modelling and storm events corresponding to different boundary conditions. Such an index takes into account both erosion power and climate wave power. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out with reference to the case study of Ionian-Lucanian coast (Southern Italy) through the comparison with commonly used storm intensity and exposure index.