Chapter Riccione’s study case: experimentation of innovative artificial reef for coastal defense and increase marine biodiversity

Abstract

Riccione is a town (near Rimini) on Romagna coast, with a small port and with the problem of coastal erosion that, reducing the width of the beaches, can create great problems for tourist activities and buildings in case of adverse weather events (so frequent today). Since the eighties of the 20th century, underwater artificial barriers have been placed on the natural sandy seabed of this area, for coastal defense from waves and storms. Initially they were only “sandbags” - bags of synthetic material filled with sand - arranged parallel to the coast, about 200 meters from the shore, at a depth of about 2/3 meters. In the last ten years, other experiments were done, with positioning of other types of submerged structures (innovative barriers such as “Reef balls” and “W-MESH”) always parallel to the coastline and close to shore. Monitoring results have shown the positive impact of underwater artificial barriers on water quality and increase marine biodiversity (rocky and sandy seabed) in this marine area. Several species of rocky environment colonized these reefs, increasing natural environmental richness. The experimentation is still ongoing.