Felice D'Alessandro

A multi-layer capping of a coastal area contaminated with materials dangerous to health

Environmental protection efforts in coastal areas recognise contaminated materials as a critical element of the aquatic ecosystem requiring careful evaluation for their potential remediation. This article considers aspects related to the design of a multi-layer capping for a contaminated coastal area. The area is located just south of the urbanised region of Bari, Puglia Region, along the Adriatic coast of Italy. This area received massive displacement of cement asbestos from residuals of a factory producing concrete pipelines for aqueducts and asbestos boards. The designed reclamation has been proposed in order to allow reuse of the 2.4-km-long coastline for recreational activities. For this purpose, the main objective has been to face aspects related to the problems posed by the design of the adopted capping structure and various constraints related to the natural environment. An extensive numerical study has been carried out to verify the effects of the planned intervention. The local wave climate, wave- and wind-induced circulation, the impact on water quality, and the biological system have been investigated. At present, the intervention is under construction.

DUNE EROSION AND OVERWASH IN LARGE-SCALE FLUME EXPERIMENTS

The present paper gives a general overview of the large-scale physical model experiments performed at the LIM/UPC in Barcelona, within the EU-Hydralab III Integrated Infrastructure Initiative. The model tests have been carried out in a flume with a sandy dune exposed to a combination of water levels and wave conditions. Different regimes of wave attacks on the sandy beach/dune system have been investigated. In particular, the study provides a unique set of large-scale physical data concerning the wave-induced dune overwash. Measurements of hydrodynamics, sediment concentrations and beach-dune profile evolution have been carried out. Profile measurements have been used to calibrate and validate a numerical model (Kobayashi et al. 2007) to predict beach-dune profile modifications over the near-shore region. The numerical model is shown to be in agreement with the experimental data.