River Transport in Calabrian Rivers

The issue of river transport does not only concern river basins but also influences the equilibrium of the neighboring coasts. In fact, the eroded material within the river basin can reach the beaches near the river mouth. Therefore, high river transport can act as a natural nourishment while low river transport can cause shoreline erosions. The paper describes the methodology adopted to quantify river transport in Calabrian rivers. Calabria represents an interesting case study due to its geomorphological peculiarities. Indeed, most Calabrian rivers are characterized by a torrential and irregular hydrological regime, with extensive dry periods and frequent sudden flooding, caused by short and intense rainfalls. Also, many of these rivers have very wide beds with coarse grain size. This combination of hydrological and granulometric characteristics causes high solid transport, and the relative variations can alter the coastal dynamics and the shoreline evolution near the river mouths. The methodology described in this paper was applied in each river basins and is divided into four main phases, as follows: morphometric characterization, estimate of average yearly precipitation and temperature, estimate of Gavrilovic model coefficient, and estimate of river transport. Gavrilovic’s model was used as it is particularly reliable for rivers such as the Calabrian ones.