The world’s coastal area is now directly affected by global warming. A significant portion of the world’s population lives in the Mediterranean basin and exerts strong direct human pressure on coastal areas and river basins. River management plans, residential and industrial structures, and coastal protection projects result in the loss of a large portion of the sediments that rivers deliver to the sea, together with the continued and extensive use of coastal areas. This results in a negative sediment budget and reduced resilience of mobile coastal systems. Moreover, the rise in eustatic sea level resulting from glacier melt threatens coastal areas characterized by low rocky coasts and coastal plains. Negative vertical land movements amplify this effect in the low-lying areas with a significant regional and local contribution, often linked to human activities. Sea warming and the release of thermal energy generate intense marine meteorological phenomena known as “medicanes”, whose impact on the coastal zone leads to frequent flooding. The possible tsunami impacts could not be counteracted by the coastal landscape which is in evident and continuous degradation. The combination of sea level rise, paroxysmal weather processes and human activity amplifies erosional processes and reduces the ability of coastal systems to adapt to new conditions; this increases the vulnerability of coastal plains, inducing more and more real risk situations.
The vulnerability of Mediterranean coastal areasin response to sea level dynamics: a short review of causes, effects and open questions
