Reversed responses within a segmented detached breakwater, the Tuscany coast Italy—a case study

A multiple detached breakwater system was designed to protect an extended length of shoreline in front of the presidential villa located in the Gombo region, Tuscany, Italy. The purpose of this empirical field study was to examine the impact of the surface-piercing segmented breakwater on the subaqueous morphology and to follow the effect of the breakwaters on the beach.Shoreline mapping was performed on rectified, stereo-plotted air photos and was also based on topographic field surveying. Bathymetric mapping was based on interpolation of profile lines extending to 10 m water depth.Building the breakwaters in a downstream order caused the trapping of the longshore-driven sediments mainly at the southernmost breakwaters that faced the longshore sediment supply. The longshore down-current direction controlled the hierarchy of the beach response. Two relatively coherent behavioral domains were found to exist: (1) the “permanent tombolo stage” of segments 1–3 and (2) the “no sinuosity” response of the beach opposite the northern segment no. 5. The segment no.4, in-between, did not exhibit a coherent behaviour, indicating a drastic reversal in the sedimentary regime.The three southernmost tombolos facing the longshore current became the main sediment trap, causing a lee-side erosional effect to emerge within the protection scheme of the segmented detached breakwaters. The oblique incident waves enter through the gaps and maintain in the inshore the depleted longshore drift, causing the shoreline configuration in the lee of the northern breakwaters to develop into a prograding log-spiral bay.