Erosive phenomena in the Kaulon archaeological site: origins and remedies

Abstract. This paper analyses the erosive phenomena which affected the coast of Monasterace Marina, in the province of Reggio Calabria (Italy), where the Kaulon archaeological site is located on a dune and which extends along the coast for 1 km. The phenomena which began in the last 50 years have been reinforced in the new millennium. Recently, a storm that occurred in early December 2013 eroded much of the beach and caused destruction of parts of the dune, with sliding of some archaeological finds onto the beach below. Following this storm, the Provincial Administration of Reggio Calabria in January 2014 built a barrier. It was only a temporary intervention however. In fact, in early February 2014 another storm caused further damage to the beach and to the site. As a result of this, in 2015, the Calabria Basin Authority proposed a design solution which is part of the Master Plan of solutions to mitigate the risk of coastal erosion in Calabria.

In this paper, all the possible causes of erosion are investigated through the analysis of different types of data: bathymetric, cartographic, geological, geomorphological, sedimentological, climatic and wave climatic. This analysis is carried out for different historical periods over the last 50 years. Also analysed were extreme sea storms, coastal and river sediment transport, land cover and average rainfall, in order to understand the erosive phenomena. Finally, the huge amount of data obtained in this study was used to analyse the project proposal for different solutions to the problem.