Increasingly fragile shores: 712 extreme weather events from 2010 to June 2023 in 240 coastal regions

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While history continues to talk about it Storms in Lombardy and Venetoin relationship Legambiente published today reports that from 2010 to June 2023, according to the association’s Città Clima Observatory, there were 712 extreme weather events, out of a total of 1732 events occurred in 240 of the 643 coastal municipalities (equivalent to 37.3%). There are 186 victims out of a total of 331 across Italy. In detail, the events recorded were: 254 floods from high rain199 damages from typhoons and wind gusts, 84 damages to infrastructures from heavy rains, 64 damages from storm surges, 46 river floods, 21 landslides from heavy rains, 19 damages from hailstorms, 10 damages from prolonged drought, 9 damages to historical heritage from heavy rains and 6 cases of record temperatures.

Since 2010, the most affected areas have been: Sicilywith 154 extreme events, the Puglia With 96, f Calabria (77) and Campania (73). Among the municipalities most affected are: Bari, with 43 cases, Agrigento, with 32 cases, Genoa, with 27 cases, Palermo and Naples, with 23 cases, and Ancona, with 22 cases.

Therefore, the beaches and coastal areas are always among the most fragile and suffering on the peninsula. To weigh the effects of the climate crisis, the rise in sea water temperature and above all the extreme weather events that are increasingly affecting coastal municipalities, Legambiante explains.

In the report prepared by the Environmental League (“Beaches 2023. Situation and changes taking place in the Italian coastal regions”), released on the day of the interministerial technical table on state-owned concessions convened by the Meloni government, a package of seven interventions of the executive branch was also indicated. Climate crisis, erosion, soil depletion, beach concessions, areas at risk of flooding, illegal beach access and sea pollution are the six indicators at the center of the report for measuring impacts on beaches.

Coastal erosion and soil consumption

Even the data onCoastal erosion It’s connected soil consumption: Between 2006 and 2019, 1,771 km of low-lying natural coastline out of a total of 4,706 km were modified, corresponding to 37.6% (Ispra data). One problem is that in Italy we continue to interfere with works such as canyons and breakwaters, reaching a total of 10,500 hard works along the Italian coasts, approximately 3 works per 2 km of coast. These are the works that increase the artificiality of the coastline and which, as shown in many coastlines, inevitably modify sea currents and simply divert the problem to other stretches of coast. Land consumption in Italian coastal municipalities is more than 420,000 hectares in 2021 which represents 27% of the total land consumed in Italy, an increase of almost 6% compared to the 2006 figure.