Shoreline changes near river mouth: case study of Sant’Agata River (Reggio Calabria, Italy)

The analysis of shoreline changes is very important for coastal planning and management. In territories such as Calabria (Italy), characterized by significant anthropogenic pressures and various eroded coasts, the knowledge of the shoreline changes, and the factors that influence them, is necessary for management and planning of coastal areas. In fact, shoreline position is one of the most important indicators of coastal dynamics. From this point of view recent advances in remote sensing and GIS techniques allow to estimate with great precision the shoreline changes over the years. The paper analyzes the shoreline changes near the mouth of the Sant’Agata River (Reggio Calabria, Italy), carried out through the comparison of various cartography data. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the main factors influencing the coastal dynamics in order to identify possible correlation between these factors and the shoreline changes. The analysis of these factors shows that, in this case study, the rainfall regime has a considerable influence on shoreline change. The methodology described in this paper is particularly useful for better understanding the factors that most influence the coastal balance and, therefore, is applicable to many contexts which are similar to the Sant’Agata river mouth.