The port of Genoa - Voltri (Liguria Italy): A case of updrift erosion

The effects of port structures on 'downdrift' shoreline areas have been extensively studied and are widely known today. Their effects on 'updrift' areas are less well known. However, these morphosedimentological variations, although not comparable in intensity to the previous variations, can produce relatively important phenomena on the shoreline, especially in the case of a significant drift. In fact. they can modify the coastal exposure to the wave-wind climate and produce a variation in the drift and sedimentary budget in different areas; consequently, they call produce erosive and accumulation phenomena. This paper presents a study of the shoreline to the west of the poll structures of Genoa-Voltri that have altered the local sedimentary dynamics, causing disequilibrium to the nearby beach with an evident progradation in the eastern area of the shoreline and a significant regression in the central area.