Geomorphological map of the Italian coast: from a descriptive to a morphodynamic approach

This work was performed within the framework of the Working Group (WG) “Coastal Morphodynamics” of the Italian Association of Physical Geography and Geomorphology (AIGeo), in the wider context of AIGeo cooperation with the Institute for the Protection and Environmental Research (ISPRA) for the updating of the legend for the “Geomorphological Map of Italy”. The WG dealt with the legend for the coastal portions and focused on marine, lagoon, lacustrine, and eolian landforms, processes and deposits. The legend specifically addresses the coastal zoning of geomorphological hazard and risk in order to support land-use planning and management. The proposed legend seeks to represent and highlight the origin of each landform as well as their dynamics and modern trends. The legend provides information about morphological characteristics at small and large scales. The relict morphological features and the active ones are reported together with the quantitative parameters useful for the description of the present morphodynamics and wave/climate conditions. On the basis of the activities and experiences carried out by the “Coastal Morphodynamics” AIGeo WG, during the last year, some examples of coastal geomorphological mapping at different scale (1:5.000 and 1:25.000) are presented. They concentrate on the problems both of the littoral plain and rocky coast dynamics and to the interactions with anthropic modifications.