Cartography and remote sensing for coastal erosion analysis

Italian coasts are subjected to morphological modifications that in the last decades have, in many cases, been the cause of considerable coast-line withdrawal. A detailed cognizance on dynamics and relative consequences on territory and environment is necessary to plan actions for limiting these events and their impacts. Reconstruction of temporal shoreline changes can be realized using historical and recent maps, remote sensed images and topographic survey results. Because of the heterogeneity of these data, their different levels of accuracy must be considered. In this paper one of the most emblematic Italian shorelines affected by erosion, the Domitian shoreline located in Northern Campania Region (South Italy), is considered. GIS environment is used to compare ancient and recent maps as well as remote sensed images. Cartographic layers include IGMI (Istituto Geografico Militare Italiano) products from 1876 to 1984, on a scale 1:25.000 or 1:50.000. Others are an aerial photo (1:10.000) produced in 1998 and an IKONOS panchromatic image acquired in 2005. Taking into account the heterogeneity of these documentations, to realise comparisons of their contents, all layers are related to the same cartographic datum (Gauss-Boaga Roma40), so a reconstruction of the coastal evolution from 1876 to 2005 is obtained.