Fluvial Geomorphology and River Management

This Special Issue deals with the role of fluvial geomorphology in landscape evolution and the impact of human activities on fluvial systems, which require river restoration and management [...

Geoheritage Management in Areas with Multicultural Interest Contexts

Sites of geo-cultural interest are often included in areas where multicultural contexts (geo and non geo) are present. Cultural heritage dissemination is sometimes mono-contextual, paying little attention to the possibility of inclusion in a wider multicultural context. When these different contexts are linkable to each other following a specific theme, multicultural heritage dissemination will be possible, and often the geo context can represent a fulcrum, a resilient tool in doing that. A portion of the Sinni river’s catchment area (Basilicata region, Southern Italy) has been chosen to test and verify the multi-level/disciplinary approach applicability. The area is located on the southeastern edge of the Pliocene to Pleistocene Sant’Arcangelo basin in the Southern Apennines chain of Italy. Here, both basic observations on the physical geography landscape evolution and specialized observations on river dynamics and on the hydrographic network have been carried out. Educational routes will be proposed with different educational levels along a path that will include the San Giorgio Lucano hypogea. This paper represents the results of a qualitative study providing an overview of the possibility, in a multicultural context, about whether, when, and how the geo context may act as a link between the different disciplines and what is the best way to make it. A relational database, organized in contexts, areas, and themes, is planned at different levels of detail, and is currently being developed in order to make final products easily available. Each level will be provided with basic concepts, territorial contextualization, and of activities/itineraries. The goal is to provide a versatile tool that enhances the territorial multi-cultural heritage to reach a greater number of end users interested in both geo and non geo contexts

From settlement abandonment to valorisation and enjoyment strategies: insights through EU (Portuguese, Italian) and Non-EU (Albanian)‘ghost towns’

The abandonment of inhabited places is a phenomenon widespread on a global scale that has spanned centuries. It has led to the birth of the so-called ‘ghost towns’. These lifeless sites dot the internal Mediterranean and European areas, testifying to the changeability of the human settlements. Through a vision that reverses the paradigm that epitomises the ‘ghost towns’, these places can be transformed from a problem into an opportunity for the development of the territories that host them. The main topic of this article is to present and update investigations performed on three abandoned settlements sited in Portugal, Italy, and Albania in view of their tourist exploitation, considering three different tailored strategies: underwater tourism, dark tourism, and heritage tourism. For each site, we analysed the site history, the abandonment causes, and the territorial- geological features, thus arguing for the possible valorisation and enjoyment approaches with special attention to digital technologies, which are highly underexploited in the sector. This study, which is part of an international research landscape still in the initial stages, falls within the BEGIN project (aBandonment vErsus reGeneratIoN), which aims to develop a multilevel methodological–operational protocol useful in regional, national, EU, and non-EU contexts for the dissemination of knowledge, conservation, regeneration, valorisation, management, and fruition of areas classified as a ‘ghost town’. The research findings can be useful for scholars, practitioners, and local entities entrusted to manage the abandoned towns. Furthermore, the methodological approach followed in this research can supply useful insights into aims to valorise and enjoy worldwide ‘ghost towns’

Quaternary alluvial fan systems of the Agri intermontane basin (southern Italy): tectonic and climatic controls

The Agri River high valley is a Quaternary intermontane basin located in southern Italy. The tectonic evolution of this basin was controlled by Lower Pleistocene strike-slip master faults, subsequently reactivated as normal faults until the Middle Pleistocene. The Quaternary sediments of the basin infill are mainly constituted of continental clastics, represented by coarse-grained alluvial deposits divided by unconformities. The arrangement of clastic deposits suggests that the Pleistocene to Holocene alluvial fan system developed along the eastern margin of the valley. Five generations of slope and alluvial fan systems have been recognized in the Agri basin. The oldest fans have formed on both slope and alluvial deposits. The younger alluvial fans are located along the entire valley floor and arose upon the earlier fan apexes originating in these valleys. The youngest fans are arranged in two different generations and show proximal facies distributed along the foot slopes. Plan view morphology, fan slope profiles, and sedimentary features of the fan system have been used here to determine the magnitude of the tectonic deformation episode affecting the faulted mountainous front of the Agri basin eastern margin. Both fast and slow tectonic episodes occurred during the different regional Quaternary tectonic stages that affected the southern Apennine chain. These tectonic episodes have therefore been analysed in relation to climatic conditions in order to determine their contributions to the evolution of the Pleistocene to Holocene fan system

Geomorphology of the Agri intermontane basin (val d’Agri-Lagonegrese National Park, Southern Italy)

The aim of this paper is to show the most important landforms of the Agri intermontane basin, a large continental tectonic trough included within the Val d'Agri-Lagonegrese National Park, southern Italy. The map was produced using aerial photo interpretation and field survey at a 1:25,000 scale and is composed of a main geomorphological map and three smaller submaps that provide more information on the geology of the basin. The geomorphological map includes seven groups of landforms, each of them modelled by a different surface process that worked on both the Mesozoic to Cenozoic bedrock and Quaternary clastic successions of the Agri basin. Based on the dominant morphogenetic process active in the past, the landforms have been grouped as follows: (1) structurally controlled and tectonic landforms; (2) fluvial landforms; (3) karst and fluvio-karst landforms; (4) gravity-induced landforms; (5) glacial landforms; (6) anthropogenetic landforms; (7) polygenetic landforms. These landforms allow discrimination of the main geomorphic processes that have worked on the basin and have provided information about long- to short-term landscape evolution since the Pliocene. The map can be a useful tool for studies on landscape evolution, hazard evaluation, and land management of a drainage basin, and in the production of planning guidelines of the protected area

Late Pleistocene differential uplift inferred from the analysis of fluvial terraces (southern Apennines, Italy)

The stratigraphic architecture and morphological assemblage of the Pleistocene fluvial terraces contained in two contiguous fluvial valleys are used to understand the spatial distribution and the timing of the differential uplift that affected two different geological and geomorphological settings of an active orogen. The study areas, both placed in the eastern sector of the southern Apennines of Italy, are the Sant'Arcangelo sedimentary basin and the Valsinni Ridge anticline. Pleistocene uplift rate of 0.7–0.9 mm y−1 and historical earthquakes affecting those areas suggest active tectonics. Based on the synthem units used to classify the fluvial deposits in the field, several strath, fill, and fill-cut terraces have been mapped in the middle valleys of the Agri and Sinni rivers. Four Middle Pleistocene high terraces (Qes) are found in the Sant'Arcangelo Basin and cut its infill, and three Late Pleistocene lowterraces (Qt) are found at both the Agri and Sinni valley flanks. The Agri and Sinni rivers cross-cut the NW–SE-oriented fold-and-thrust belt of the southern Apennines from W to E, producing a transverse drainage. As a result, ten- to hundred-metre deep gorges and wide floodplains were created in the middle reach of the river valleys. Computation of the bedrock incision rates from the Qes1, Qes4, and SQt1 terraces, corresponding to 1.2 ± 0.2 mm y−1 at 400–240 ka and 0.8 ± 0.2 mm y−1 in the last 240 ka, together with the terrace profile arrangements in the Agri and Sinni valleys, allow for the documentation of i) the differential uplift of the study area and ii) the age of terrace abandonment corresponding to the beginning age of the vertical incision in the valley floor sediments to form the Qt terraces. The differential uplift is subsequently discussed in a space and time–sequence evolution of the Late Pleistocene to assess the complex morphotectonic development that occurred in the eastern threshold of the basin. The differential uplift of both the Sant'Arcangelo Basin and Valsinni Ridge would appear to indicate that buried fold-and-thrust structures that affect the Mesozoic–Cenozoic sedimentary nappes are still active, and they also controlled the slab retreat processes in the Mediterranean region during the Late Pleistocene

Drainage integration of small endorheic basins at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition: An example from southern Italy

The drainage integration of three Late Pleistocene intramontane basins located in the southern Italian Apennines was reconstructed by integrating information derived from geomorphic, structural, and stratigraphic analyses. The Santaloja (SLJ), Lago (LG), and Pantani (PN) basins are located in the axial zone of the Apennines fold-and-thrust belt where they mainly comprise Mesozoic to Cenozoic deep-sea water siliceous and calcareous rocks. The Quaternary development of these intramontane basins draining the Basento River catchment provides an example of drainage evolution within collisional mountain belts and its tectonic and climatic controlling mechanisms. Tectonically, sets of NW-SE- and NE-SW-trending faults formed a large trough with ensuing river valley development configured to synclinal folds. The ongoing interplay of these active and passive tectonic controls lead to compartmentalisation into three endorheic basins. Uncalibrated radiocarbon dating of peat layers from boreholes reveals that lacustrine facies conditions prevailed during the Late Pleistocene, spanning 34,785 to 41,325 ka during Marine Isotope Stage 3. Morphometric analysis suggests that these endorheic lacustrine basins subsequently became integrated via overspill from 13.25 kyr calBC onwards linked to Late Pleistocene climatic changes creating the Basento River. Within the axial zone of the southern Apennines, tectonically driven headwards erosion is commonly attributed to lengthening of major rivers like the Basento River. However, this study demonstrates a more complex interplay between tectonics and climate change for intramontane basin development and its drainage evolution