Assessment Methods for Sea-RelatedHazards in Coastal Areas

Italian legislation provides for hazardcontingency plans to be prepared by the regional,provincial and local authorities. Despite the extentof damage often caused on the Italian coasts by theaction of the sea, sea related hazards have so farbeen usually ignored; only recently a limited budgetin some provinces was allocated for the analysis ofrisks related to storm damage.The present paper reports on the proceduresand the techniques employed and tested within theframework of the provincial contingency plan onthe coast of the Salerno province in Italy (Figure 1).The work was mainly oriented to the evaluation ofthe potential damage that can be caused by the directaction of waves on coastal areas and on thepreparation of hazard maps. The methods and the datathat can be used to evaluate the risks are reviewed here,first by rapid examination of the wave fieldformation offshore and its transformation on shallowwater and then by considering the run-up on beachesand infrastructures; the paper is focussed inparticular on these latter problems, which – formsome point of view – are original and specific tocivil protection problems.