OAL-IT

Po di Goro - Bellocchio beach - Panaro river

OAL-Italy is located on Po di Goro, Bellocchio beach and Panaro river.

This area is subjected to the following hazards:

  • storm surge
  • flooding
  • coastal erosion
  • drought
  • salt intrusion
  • river flooding

01 / 03
1

Po di Goro

This is a branch of the delta Po river.

The Po di Goro departs from the right bank of the Po river, in correspondence with the settlements of Serravalle (in the province of Ferrara) and Papozze and Santa Maria in Punta (in the province of Rovigo). The stream (of about a length of 45 km) flows into the Adriatic Sea, near Gorino Ferrarese, in the municipality of Goro (FE).

This area is subject to flooding, drought and salt intrusion.

In this area there is a great interest for NBS that mitigate salt intrusion and save the many activities related to agriculture along the Po river.

2

Bellocchio beach

The Bellocchio beach is one of the remaining natural littoral of the Emilia Romagna region. It consists of a low sandy beach with a lagoon where only a few residual natural dunes are still present.

This area is subject to coastal erosion.

The NBS will consist of an artificial dune consolidated with naturalistic engineering work that should protect a natural vegetated dune from erosion and from marine floods.

In this site an artificial dune will be implemented to mitigate the coastal erosion.

3

Panaro river

Panaro is the last right tributary of the Po river. For total length it is the third right tributary of the Po river; its basin is 2,292 km² at the Po confluence and the downstream part of the river has high earth banks on both sides, since this area has always been subject to flooding.

The NBS will be the installation of herbaceous perennial deep rooting plants as coverage of earth embankments, for preventing riverbank failures induced by erosion.

01 / 07

Po di Goro - Lighthouse

Porto di Po di Goro Lighthouse (Faro di Porto di Po di Goro) is an active lighthouse located on the Isola dell'Amore, the narrow land that divides the river branch from the sea.

Inside the Po di Goro

On the inner side of the island, a new GNSS station has been implemented.

Outside the Po di Goro

On the other side of the island, there is a long beach on the Adriatic sea.

New GNSS station

We implemented a new GNSS station in this site on October 2019.

The pole

We built first a reinforced concrete pole to sustain the experimental setup. The GNSS station was built near a tide gauge measurement station.

Together with stakeholders

We worked together with local stakeholders.

GNNS station

This station is monitoring subsidence since November 2019.

01 / 09

Bellocchio beach

Bellocchio beach is on a 9 km stretch of coast, located in the Ferrara and Ravenna provinces, in the region of Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, facing the North Adriatic Sea. It is located on the Po plain, to the south of the Po River Delta, the largest natural reserve in Emilia Romagna and an UNESCO World Heritage site.

Stakeholders

Cooperation starting from earlier phases of the design, during implementation until the last monitoring phase is indispensable to reach the goal

Field trips and meetings organised involving RINA-C, ARPAE, IRIS sas and public authorities :

● the Land Security Agency and Civil Protection Agency;

● Police Department for biodiversity and parks protection - Punta Marina Regional Office;

● the Soil, Coast Defence and Reclamation Service,

● the Management Board for Parks and Biodiversity - Po Delta.

Design meetings and field trips results

● activation of a co-design group composed by RINA C, IRIS SAS and local authorities

● definition of technical aspects (i.e. location, dimension and characteristics of the artificial dune);

● definition of all authorization process (i.e. list of environment studies and steps needed to obtain permits)

● definition of the implementation procedure (i.e. contents of collaboration agreement to develop the work)

● assignment of tasks.

Bellocchio Beach – NBS design

Preliminary design already submitted, detailed design ongoing, to undergo the Conference of Services procedure for approval. Dune layout defined.

Bellocchio Beach – NBS design

Cross section being finalised

The figure shows a section of the dune that will be implemented in the OAL-IT (some features of the dune are on a process to be patented). Some sensor will be embedded geotextiles for the monitoring of the inner structure of the dune.

Modelling activities

Morphological modelling of Bellocchio OAL-Italy has been carried on by means of the coastal model XBeach in order to design the NBS.

Implementation of the NBS

The Regional Agency of Land Security and Civil Protection will have a key role in implementing the NBS due to its function of local authority that adopts action plans to secure the territories affected by extreme events in Emilia Romagna.

A Collaboration Agreement between Arpae and the regional Agency of Land Security and Civil Protection, required to transfer activities , was submitted to the approval of Emilia-Romagna Regional Council.  

Topographic and Bathymetric survey

Marine events modify the beach morphology, therefore several morphological surveys were carried on and are planned.

Topographic And Bathymetric Map

Elaboration of morphological map in order to assess the evolution of the beach and the NBS performance

01 / 05

Panaro river

The NBS will be implemented on the the riverbank near the city of Bomporto (MO), where the drainage area is around a thousand square kilometers.

Preliminary works

Preliminary works

Grey

The figure shows the existing grey structure on the river embankment. Our NBS will be implemented near this grey structure.

Field trips

Several field trips on the riverbanks during 2019.

01 / 06

Laboratory experiments

Soil samples have been taken to perform laboratory classification test, such as:

Specific gravity (useful for the determination of unit weigth), granulometrc curve, Atterberg Limit (for plasticity data), organic matter and calcareous content have been determined from specimens collected 0.2 to 0.5 m depth, representative for the vadose zone, where atmosphere-vegetation-soils interactions occur.

Soil samples for the lab experiment

A series of nine caissons have been filled with compacted soil taken from the experimental site (stante 95): two groups of three caissons each have been vegetated with both shallow-rooted and deep-rooted perennial herbaceous species respectively, while a third test was carried out on bare soil.

Laboratory setup

A testing method have been developed and realized to simulate erosion on vegetated soils in laboratory flume tests, investigating the influence of the vegetation on the flow field and on the soil erosion processes.

Flume channel

Preliminary experiments have been performed to define all hydraulic conditions (e.g. flow velocity and depth), testing procedure (duration and sequence of test) and measuring system (Particle Image Velocimetry, Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter, sediment transport, eroded profile).

Water flow measuement

A testing method have been developed and realized to simulate erosion on vegetated soils in laboratory flume tests, investigating the performance of two tipololgies of herbaceous plants.

Flume tests

This movie shows the experiments of flow over the vegetated soil and the monitoring system.

01 / 09

The models

The OAL-IT modelling group is focusing on the evaluation of the NBS in the present and the future climate.

Scenarios with seagrass to decrease energy from storm surges

Results up to date:

1) Model grid and bathymetry implemented on CMCC supercomputers

2) Computational resources assessment: Wave model time for 1 year simulation: < 4 hr à 160 hrs for 40 years simulation,

SHYFEM (HYDRODYNAMICS) computational requirements still under investigation

3) Assessment of benthic seagrass parametrizations and insertion into the model: on-going

An estuary box model for the salt wedge intrusion

Wave modelling

The coastal domain

Wave propagation

Water level

Salt intrusion modelling

Fluid-structure interaction modelling

This models study how the NBS structure (in grey) is modified by the interaction with the fluid flow.