Improvements to a Coastal Management Plan in Sicily (Italy): new approaches to borrow sediment mangement

Sicily is a Mediterranean island-region, whose economy is based especially on tourism and also connected with beaches. Unfortunately, in the last fifty years about 2.5 km2 of beach were lost due to erosion, causing damages worth approximately 5 billion Euros. At the moment about 300 km of the 1600 km of coast present erosion problems, 1/3 of which is threatening the economic and important historical assets as well as Sicilian cultural heritage. The Sicilian region decided to solve the issue, avoiding passive protection systems only used for urgent action, but instead adopting a Coastal Management Plan (CMP) aimed essentially at the use of soft protection systems, e.g. beach replenishment. In order to put into practice this type of intervention, thanks to a synergic collaboration with the CMP, a Borrow Deposits Plan (BDP) was drawn up, identifying three possible sources of materials: fluvial material, harbour dredging and submerged deposits. The detected deposits can be estimated in about 5 million m3 of fluvial deposits useful for the pebbly beaches of the north-eastern sectors, while the ones coming from harbour dredging, about 3 million m3, can be used only for local intervention. Submerged deposits located along the north-western coast of the island have a strategic importance. They are situated at a depth of 100 m and are about 120 million m3, with excellent granulometric (fine and medium sands) and compositional features (quartz > 50%). It is clear that in order to better exploit the resources and above all reduce costs, it will be necessary to correctly manage the intervention, that will have to be carried out with the appropriate timing.