BESIO G.

Coastal resilience is often achieved by traditional civil engineering projects, such as dikes and breakwaters. However, given the pressing nature of Climate Change, integrating energy converters in "classical" structures can enhance innovation, and help in pursuing decarbonisation targets. In this work, we present an alternative for integrating...

Clean energies are being incorporated into the energy mix in numerous countries. Through a spatial survey of maritime trade, restricted military maritime areas, marine planning, and the presence of fauna and flora along the Ligurian Sea, locations for possible investments in wave energy harvesting were identified in the Northern Thyrrenian Sea,...

This paper analyses a methodology to identify sub-series of waves parameters and wind speed able to explain the overall variability of the input dataset. To this end, the K-means clustering technique is applied to a 40-year long time series of hindcast data off the Genoa coastline (NW Italy). K-means aims to group the data in a reduced number...

Salinity and turbidity currents developing two dimensionally on steep and mild slopes are simulated numerically. An application of the process-based model Delft3D-Flow is presented that is able to capture the dynamics of subaqueous dense underflows by solving the two dimensional over the vertical (2DV) Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations...

Absolute and relative dispersion are fundamental quantities employed in order to assess the mixing strength of a basin. There exists a time scale called Lagrangian Integral Scale associated to absolute dispersion that highlights the occurrence of the transition from a quadratic dependence on time to a linear dependence on time. Such a time...

The Italian territory, due to its geomorphological and climatic characteristics, is particularly prone to hydrogeological instability phenomena such as flash floods, river floods, sea storms and coastal erosion. These phenomena are particularly relevant due to the considerable Italian coastline, of about 8300 km in length, and to the presence...

A state-of-the-art regional assessment of future directional wave spectra in the Mediterranean Sea and the projected changes with respect to hindcast is presented. A multi-model EURO-CORDEX regional ensemble of bias-adjusted wave climate projections in eleven locations of the Mediterranean are used for the assessment of future seasonal changes...

Wave-induced currents play a key role in coastal sedimentary and hydrodynamics processes, and in particular, rip currents are probably the most widely studied aspect. Rip currents are characterized by a strong seaward-directed flow, which can transport sediments, planktonic organisms, nutrients, pollutants, and suspended material. However, rip...

Fluid flows reveal a wealth of structures, such as vortices and barriers to transport. Usually, either an Eulerian or a Lagrangian frame of reference is employed in order to detect such features of the flow. However, the two frameworks detect structures that have different properties. Indeed, common Eulerian diagnostics (Hua-Klein and...

This paper provides a methodology for classifying samples of significant wave-height peaks in homogeneous subsets in terms of the atmospheric circulation patterns behind the observed extreme wave conditions. Then, a methodology is given for the computation of the overall extreme value distribution by starting from the distributions fitted to...

Plastic pollution in seas and oceans has recently been recognized as one of the most impacting threats for the environment, and the increasing number of scientific studies proves that this is an issue of primary concern. Being able to predict plastic paths and concentrations within the sea is therefore fundamental to properly face this...

Wind-generated ocean waves are key inputs for several studies and applications, both near the coast (coastal vulnerability assessment, coastal structures design, harbor operativity) and off-shore (a.o. oil and gas production, ship routes, and navigation safety). As such, the evaluation of trends in future wave climate is fundamental for the...

For this study, we analyzed the performance of the wave model Wavewatch III® forced by a limited area atmospheric model in the Mediterranean Sea. The simulation results have been compared to buoy measurements through single point statistical indicators such as normalized bias and symmetrically normalized root mean square error. A performance...

Contamination of marine sediments by organic and/or inorganic compounds represents one of the most critical problems in marine environments. This issue affects not only biodiversity but also ecosystems, with negative impacts on sea water quality. The scientific community and the European Commission have recently discussed marine environment and...