Landslide monitoring at the Cala Rossa Sea Cliff (Favignana Island, Sicily)

Abstract

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 cropping out 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 displacement monitoring of cliffs were carried on to identify the most unstable areas providing a support to the local authorities in the implementation of effective and sustainable mitigation measures. If adequate measures will be taken in future, operators and users of the tourist circuit will have the opportunity to enjoy these amazing sites with a reduced risk