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Resedaercvhelo&pment

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coast of the Favignana island
(Sicily, Italy)

Favignana Island (Sicily, Italy) is a historical and environmental attraction site frequented by tourists especially
during the long warm season of the year. Over several centuries the sea cliffs constituted by calcareous sandstone
outcropping in the east side of the island have been exploited for the production of building stone. Currently
the quarries used for the rock extraction as well as the natural cliffs are undergoing extensive erosional
and gravitational processes. Besides putting at risk the safety of the people attending the area, the widespread rock
falls are likely to threaten sites of great historical and anthropological value that, once destroyed, can no longer be
reconstructed. The rock mass quality assessment and slope displacements monitoring of cliffs were conducted with
the aim of identifying the most active areas and providing support to the local authorities in the implementation
of effective and sustainable mitigation measures. If adequate measures are taken in the future, operators
and users of the tourist circuit will have the opportunity to enjoy these amazing sites with a lower landslide risk

DOI 10.12910/EAI2015-071

QL. Falconi, A. Peloso, A. Screpanti, A. Tatì, V. Verrubbi

Introduction

Sea cliffs often constitute environmental monuments of rare erosion rate can reach several decimeters per year [1].
beauty. Notwithstanding an apparent imperturbability, Although these processes are not the most dangerous
these massive erosive landforms are subject to continuous landslide events, their magnitude in terms of volume and
evolution due to the action of gravity and aggressive velocity of the paroxysmal phase may constitute a real
exogenous agents. The geomorphologic evolution along hazard for human beings, buildings and infrastructures in
these steep slopes, often highly fractured, mainly occurs the near-shore areas [2].
with the detachment and movement of blocks extremely A high percentage (35%) of the coastline delimiting
variable in size. Rock falls, topples and slides from the the Italian peninsula and islands is constituted by
cliffs commonly involve single small-volume blocks and, steep sloping cliffs, plunging into the sea or separated
albeit more rarely, huge rock bodies as well. Depending from it by a thin strip of sandy or gravel beach, or a
on several different characteristics of the cliffs and of the bank of fallen blocks [3]. In some Italian regions (e.g.
triggering landslide mechanism, the average coastal Liguria, Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia) this
percentage is significantly higher and the erosion
Contact person: Luca Falconi processes of the cliffs constitute a serious problem.
luca.falconi@enea.it Nevertheless, the increasing thermoclastic processes
and the local stress condition at the foot of the cliffs as a
result of the ongoing climate change, and particularly of
the variation in temperature regimes and fluctuations in

60 EAI Energia, Ambiente e Innovazione 4/2015