Escursione lungo il litorale “piceno”

Abstract At the end of the National Symposium “Coastal erosion: defense, adaptation or withdrawal?”, organized by the Italian National Group for the Research on Coastal Environment (GNRAC), a short (half day) excursion has been organized to visit the “picena” coast (i.e. the portion of Marche littoral to the south of the Conero Mt.): some key location of which are here synthetically described. Namely, some of the main features of the coastline in Porto Sant’Elpidio, Porto Recanati and Sirolo are described. Key words: Adriatic Sea, Marche Region, coastal erosio

Tendenza evolutiva della spiaggia della Riserva Naturale della Sentina (San Benedetto del Tronto, AP)

Abstract The Regional Natural Reserve “Sentina” stretches itself for some 1.7 km along the southernmost end of the littoral area of San Benedetto del Tronto (AP) at the boundary with Abruzzo; it hosts one of the very few costal dunes still preserved in the Marche Region. Its gravelly-sandy beach in still natural, but is bound to the north by a long series of emerged barriers and to the south by a long (more than 300 m) pier; these structures noteworthy influence the retreat of the shoreline. In the area, a long monitoring (starting from 2000) has been carried out in order to interpret and quantify the modification occurred on both the emerged and submerged beach. During this time span, the shoreline retreated every year: up to 2006 its retreat has been evaluated in 27.7 m, with a local maximum of 33.5 m, whilst for the following 6 years (notwithstanding an artificial nourishment in 2008) it continued to retreat by 22.2, as an average. Therefore, in 12 years wave erosion resulted in some 50 m of backing; this also implied the loss of about 42’000 m2 of coastal dunes. Therefore, it is logical to assume that if no relevant intervention will be carried out, standing the almost absent nourishment deriving from the solid load of the Tronto R., in the next future the Sentina area will suffer progressive coastal erosion, with severe backing of the shoreline and distruction of the coastal dunes. Keywords: coastal erosion, monitoring, “Sentina” Reserve, coastal dune

Gli effetti antropici nell’evoluzione storica della costa “Picena”

The historical evolution of the southern Marche shoreline (between the Conero promontory and the Tronto R. mouth) has been investigated comparing it with both natural and anthropic changes. The study started searching, georeferencing and digitizing in a GIS environment all the available historical maps and the observations deriving from archeological and documental findings, in order to reconstruct the position of the shoreline at different times, mostly for fluvial mouths. This allowed us to highlight that for the last two millennia anthropic interventions influenced coastal dynamics more than climate variations. For all the investigated sites a close relation between shoreline fluctuations and forestation/deforestation processes was clearly revealed. Among others, it emerged that river mouths progradation continued up to 1930, well after the end of the “Little Ice Age” (around 1850). The above relation is particularly striking for the last two centuries, for which we have both accurate maps and census of forested areas. During the XIX century, notwithstanding the warm climate favored slope protection, widespread deforestation resulted in a regular advance of shorelines (average rate about 4.95 m/y for the first half of the century and 1.08 m/y for the second half). The XX century featured a more irregular behavior with substantial retreat after the ‘30s: this derives almost exclusively from anthropic interventions in the river basins (construction of dams, river bed quarrying, river reshaping, abandonment of crops etc.) leading to a severe decrease of solid load. For the last few decades and at present, the most important factors driving the behavior of coastlines resulted to be the various interventions carried out along the beaches and in front of them to reduce erosion. Keywords: antropogenic impact, historical evolution, coastline, central-southern Marche, Adriatic Se

Net Sediment Transport Paths based on Grain-Size Trend Analysis and Monitoring of the Southern Marche Region Coast: the Sentina Beach Case Study (Italy, Central Adriatic Coast)

In many studies of coastal management, it is essential to have a reasonable estimate of sediment transport. Several models, both with deterministic mathematical framework and datadriven one, were built by numerous researchers to predict bed material transport. In this works, therefore, the GSTA method will be applied to an irregular distribution of samples to obtain a sediment transport model characteristic of the Sentina beach, located in the municipality of San Benedetto del Tronto at the southern boundary of the Marche Region. The results will be compared with those obtained from the application of the standard Gao & Collins (1992) method and with some modifications. General transport paths in the whole study area, without uncovered areas, were obtained through a regular grid of points. A two cells circulation system was highlighted as a result of a sea storm from 95°-105°N. To this purpose morphological surveys of the whole beach, both emerged and submerged, were performed in the period 2012-2015. Particularly were carried out: seabed bathymetric surveys, reliefs of the beach profiles and shoreline position in different periods, sampling and grain size analysis of sediments taken both in the emerged and submerged beach. The monitoring testified that the Sentina beach is affected by strong erosion phenomena: in the last years most of the seaward surface (about 23.000 m2 for a trend of 4,3 m/year and a volume equal to 135.000 m3) of the beach has disappeared (period 2012-2015) and the landward border has constantly retreated at the expense of the existing lagoons environment. In this way a general set back of the whole beach environment was happened

Anthropogenic influence on recent evolution of shorelines between the Conero Mt. and the Tronto R. mouth (southern Marche, Central Italy)

A study of the shoreline evolution during the last two centuries along the southern portion of the Marche region (between the promontory of the Conero Mountain and the Tronto River mouth) has been carried out on the basis of historical data and taking into account the effects of both natural events and anthropogenic interventions. The research started with searching, acquiring, georeferencing and digitizing all the available maps surveyed from 1835 to the present. The above data set has been used to implement a vector geodatabase containing the successive position and shape of shorelines, with particular attention to the neighboring river mouths. Since transitional and beach deposits have been almost completely eroded during the last decades, the adoption of traditional techniques of geomorphologic and sedimentological analyses has not been possible. The results of the above analyses have been correlated with the main natural events and human interventions occurring during the considered time span. The results of this comparison highlights that the evolution of river mouths and neighboring beaches mostly depends on deforestation carried out in their hydrographic basins. In the study area, the progradation of river mouths continued after the end of the Little Ice Age (ended around 1850). Namely, it has been observed that the retreat coincided with the start of reforestation and agricultural development (in the 20's of the last century). During the following decades, further interventions, such as construction of dams and check dams, extraction of sediments from thalwegs, fillings, modifications of stream paths, abandonment of agricultural practices etc., contributed to a severe reduction of river solid load with subsequent retreat of both river mouths and beaches, thus making it necessary to protect them with artifacts

Convegno Nazionale "Erosione costiera: difesa, adattamento o arretramento?"

Il Convegno, organizzato nell'ambito delle attività del Gruppo Nazionale per la Ricerca sull'Ambiente Costiero, in collaborazione con Legambiente Nazionale, ha visto la presenza di oltre 120 partecipanti, con 21 interventi scientifici orali e numerosi contributi tramite poster tramite cui si è cercato di definire lo stato dell'arte a livello nazionale sul problema dell'erosione dei litorali marini. Al convegno ha fatto seguito un'affollata escursione lungo la costa delle Marche centro meridionali

Escursione lungo il litorale “piceno”

Abstract At the end of the National Symposium “Coastal erosion: defense, adaptation or withdrawal?”, organized by the Italian National Group for the Research on Coastal Environment (GNRAC), a short (half day) excursion has been organized to visit the “picena” coast (i.e. the portion of Marche littoral to the south of the Conero Mt.): some key location of which are here synthetically described. Namely, some of the main features of the coastline in Porto Sant’Elpidio, Porto Recanati and Sirolo are described. Key words: Adriatic Sea, Marche Region, coastal erosio

Caratteristiche e tendenze evolutive della costa marchigiana

Coastal erosion is one of the main consequences of cli- mate change and human impacts that are increasingly dam- aging the infrastructure, habitats and economy of coastal communities. In the Marche Region, more than in other Italian territories, the mitigation and adaptation measures adopted have involved the construction of hard defense structures (barriers and groins) and, secondarily, beach nourishment with sand and gravel. This work describes the main characteristics of the Marche Region’s beaches, the factors that have conditioned their evolution and a par- ticular case study: the Sentina Nature Reserve. This coastal area is described as a virtuous example for territorial anal- ysis and new models for intervention planning based on scientific outcomes

Endovascular Revascularisation versus Open Surgery with Prosthetic Bypass for Femoro-Popliteal Lesions in Patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease

Aim: Complex atherosclerotic femoro-popliteal lesions have traditionally been treated with bypass surgery. A prosthetic graft is used to save the vein graft for more distal revascularisations or when a vein graft is unavailable. The endovascular approach has gained popularity and is offered as a first-line strategy for complex lesions. This study aimed to evaluate whether endovascular procedures can be used as a first-line treatment strategy for complex native femoro-popliteal lesions over open surgery with prosthetic bypass in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Methods: This single-centre retrospective observational study was conducted between 2013 and 2021; it included patients with symptomatic PAD who required limb revascularisation at the femoro-popliteal segment and who had complex lesions. The primary endpoints analysed were technical success, primary patency, freedom from clinically driven target lesion revascularisation (cdTLR), freedom from major adverse limb and cardiovascular events (MALE and MACE, respectively), freedom from limb loss, and survival. The secondary endpoints were length of in-hospital stay, and duration and costs of the procedure. Results: We identified 185 limbs among 174 suitable candidates for comparison, wherein 105 were treated with an endovascular procedure and 80 with a femoro-popliteal prosthetic bypass. Most patients in both groups presented with chronic limb-threatening ischaemia, and >90% of them had an American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification of >3. The endovascular group had more octogenarians (p = 0.02) and patients with coronary disease (p = 0.004). The median follow-up was 30 months. The technical failure rate for endovascular procedures was 4.7%, versus 0% in the open group (p = 0.047). Freedom from MACE was similar in both groups. The endovascular group showed superior primary patency (p p p p = 0.0018) at 24 and 48 months. Further analysis performed for the open above-the-knee sub-group showed that the aforementioned endpoints were similar between the groups at 12 months and were better in the endovascular group at 24 and 48 months. Procedural time and in-hospital stay were longer in the open group than in the endovascular group (p p Conclusions: Endovascular procedures are safe for treating complex femoro-popliteal lesions in patients at a high risk for surgery and show better outcomes at 24 months than prosthetic bypasses do. The latter may be considered as an alternative should endovascular treatment fail

Primary drug-coated balloon versus drug-eluting stent for native atherosclerotic femoropopliteal lesions: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to compare drug-coated balloon (DCB) to drug-eluting stent (DES) angioplasty as a primary option in patients with femoropopliteal lesions in terms of primary patency and freedom from clinically driven target lesion revascularization (cdTLR) and major adverse limb events (MALE). Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed using the PubMed and Embase databases. All studies written in English language and reporting data presenting a comparison between patients receiving primary percutaneous balloon angioplasty using the DCB versus primary percutaneous stenting with DES for native femoropopliteal lesions were included in this meta-analysis. Results: There were 984 patients with 1078 femoropopliteal lesions, of which procedures with DCB and DES were performed in 514 and 564 lesions, respectively. Overall, majority patients were men with a mean age of 70.9 years; and there were no significant differences between the two groups regarding the cardiovascular comorbidities. With regards to the procedural strategy, there was significant heterogeneity in the DCB group. This included adjunctive procedures such as atherectomy besides the angioplasty of the target vessel, which was reported in one study as a part of 32.1% of the procedures in the DCB group. Provisional bare metal stents (pBMS) for residual stenosis and dissection were used in four studies with a percentage varying from 14.8-25.3%. Overall, at 1 year, all outcomes were similar for all the endpoints; however, where adjunctive procedures were performed (atherectomy + pBMS) in the DCB group, the outcomes were better (primary patency p.001, freedom cdTLR p.001, freedom form MALE p.002). In studies where no adjunctive procedures were performed in the DCB group, the results favored the DES group for the primary patency (p.026) and freedom from cdTLR (p.044). Conclusions: DES seems to be superior in terms of cdTLR and primary patency at 1 year when compared to the procedures performed solely with DCB. For DCB to achieve optimal results, further adjunctive procedures such as pBMS and atherectomy are needed. More studies are needed to confirm the superiority of the primary stenting with DES at the femoropopliteal segment