Processi di arretramento di sponde fluviali: attività di campo lungo il Fiume Cecina e modellazione matematica

During recent years, a series of research activities on bank erosion processes has been carried out on riverbanks of the Cecina River (Tuscany). This research is aimed to make progresses on the following linked aspects: (a) better comprehension of processes occurring at the scale of the bank profile; (b) interaction of bank processes with meandering processes. Obviously, the two topics have mutual interactions and feedbacks, in the sense that existing meandering (hydrodynamic and morphodynamic) models can help to evaluate the crucial variables driving bank processes (i.e. shear stresses, changes in bed elevation, etc.), while the development of a bank model can be subsequently incorporated in existing meandering models. Specific objectives can be listed as follows: (a) to improve the ability to calculate and accounting for the basic parameters to be included in fluvial erosion models, by testing new methods for the measurement and/or estimation of erodibility parameters of sediments and of near bank shear stresses; (b) to couple existing hydrodynamic and morphodynamic models at the scale of a meander reach with models for fluvial erosion, seepage, and mass failure at the scale of a single bank profile. This presentation intends to provide a state of the art of the researches in progress on these topics along the Cecina River.