Giovanni Randazzo

Tourist-beach protection in north-eastern Sicily (Italy)

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean, and tourism represents the most important income in the regional budget. This is due to a mild climate, to its considerable archaeological and cultural heritage, but above all to the beaches, which host visitors for most of the year. Nevertheless, Sicily has no official Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) policy and also lacks an overall plan for coastal protection. In 2000, however, driven by the EU, a process of selection of projects based on objective parameters was initiated. Not all of these projects have had the expected results and some are yet to be completed. One of these is Giardini Naxos, Taormina beach, one of the main tourist resorts in Sicily. There, due both to the incorrect position of the port structure and to the rapidly increasing coastal urbanization (second homes, hotels and waterfront), a process of coastal erosion has started, the beach has disappeared, and the promenade has been damaged. To rebuild the shore in order to protect the structures behind it and to restore the coast for beach goers, a submerged barrier (like a reef) was designed to protect an artificial beach replenishment using local and remote sands, mined from the continental platform bottom and compatible both in terms of composition and grain size. Even though the results were excellent during the first stages of the project, towards the end, financial support disappeared and the funds were allocated to other projects. This experience in Giardini Naxos illustrates the ineffectiveness of defensive action in the absence of coastal planning that takes into account the sustainability of interventions on a regional basis both from a structural and an economic standpoint.

The Historical Evolution of the Tindari-Marinello Spit (Patti, Messina, Italy)

The aim of this paper is to investigate the evolution of Tindari-Marinello spit, which comprises a natural reserve and small lakes between Tindari (west) and Oliveri (east) towns of Messina province (Sicily, Italy). In particular, the spit is certainly worthy of analysis because it represents a significant case study of interaction between human activities and geological evolution of the lakes and coastline. The paper will also provide data on antiquarian studies on Tindari and information on cartography, which are beneficial to understand the spit evolution through the past and present history.

The natural causes of shoreline evolution of Capo Peloro, the northernmost point of Sicily (Italy)

ABSTRACT Randazzo, G., Cigala, C., Crupi, A., Lanza, S., 2014. The natural causes of shoreline evolution of Capo Peloro, the northernmost point of Sicily (Italy). In: Green, A.N. and Cooper, J.A.G. (eds.), Proceedings 13th International Coastal Symposium (Durban, South Africa), Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 70, pp. 199–204, ISSN 0749-0208. During recent times, the worlds coastline has been constantly changing, and factors such as: the absence of sediment transport from rivers, urbanization of the coastal zone, construction of protective structures and ports, contribute to such change. An increase in frequency and intensity of storm events may also play a role. In the area of Capo Peloro (eastern Sicily) in the last 180 years, the changing coastline has been assessed using maps, aerial photographs, urban plans, historical notes, and surveys from 1824 to 2013 with the support of a long winded dataset series (1951 to 2012). The area of Capo Peloro is the northernmost headland of Sicily, dividing the Tyrrhenian from the Ionian Sea and stretching into the Strait of Messina. The four beaches which constitute the continuous coastal system of the cape show rapid evolution. Analysis of the wind records shows a decreasing trend for winds coming from the orientation range of 290°–330°, while there is an increasing trend for those coming from the range of 331°–20° and, in general, wind intensity has increased in the last 9 years. Comparison of the coastal evolution pattern and the wind data set, a direct relationship has been recognized, while urbanization has not affected this trend. The beach of Tiro a Volo lost its capability to regenerate and protect itself naturally in 2012, which was the windiest year of the series considered. Erosion in 2012 uncovered old anthropic structures, eliminating the morphological connection between the beach and the alluvial plain. The hardening of the landward limit of the beach caused a loss of beach resilience. Due to the exposed structures, an artificial redistribution of the sedimentary material in the area is now necessary.