Shoreline change dynamics along the Augusta Coast, Eastern Sicily (Italy)

The coastal region of Augusta, Eastern Sicily, Italy, is a densely populated region with approximately 200,000 inhabitants. Human activity factors, such as the development of settlements and ports, and natural phenomena, as extreme events, contribute to shape coastal geomorphology. To protect community economic and social activities, monitoring these variations is needed in coastal management. Therefore, this research aim was to firstly investigate the medium-term shoreline changes along Augusta Bay between 1972 and 2021, and then assess the main local coastal changes determining by the increasing coastal armouring. Shorelines dataset was extracted by satellite imageries as Landsat and Sentinel-2 images through the NDWI and mNDWI method and then statistical parameters were computed by applying Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS). As shown by the rate-of-change statistics, landward shoreline migration occurred along most of the coast with rates up to -1.4 m/year and higher rates were detected in correspondence of the long low-lying sandy beach of the Magnisi Peninsula, and since the 1970s, artificial coastal length significantly and a coastal armouring index of Maximal level was today reached. As such, the high level of artificial coast altered sediment transport and impacts coastal dynamics locally.