Research of Marine Sand Resources for Beach Nourishment: an Applied result of Geological Map of the Adriatic Sea (1:250000)

Abstract Shorelines and coastal development will be even more vulnerable to hazards in the future. Need for offshore sand for nourishment will increase but volumes for sus- tainable shore protection are uncertain for many regions. Beach nourishment with sand derived from river or coastal borrow sites has been the preferred most common method of shoreline stabilization method in Italy for several decades. This practice has increased rapidly over the last decade to the point that the search of alternative sources of sand became an issue. Better understanding of the shelf geology can aid our ability to plan for sustainable use of offshore sands. Since the '80 the Adriatic shelf has been studied to identify potential sand deposits available for extraction. In- formation about the geology of adriatic shelf regions, the character of the seafloor, and samples comprising the seafloor and subbottom have been aquired by ISMAR- CNR-Bologna as the result of several national and international projects included the Geological Adriatic Map (at the 1:250000 scale). Pleistocene/Holocene relative sea level rise submerged a wide portion of the northern and central Adriatic paleo- alluvial plain has been progressively drowned. For each step of the relative sea level rise a barrier lagoon system has been identifed and the amount of sand has been quantified.The potentially sand resources are available to a confined area in the cen- tral portion of the basin. The average grain size is fine sand, well to moderately well sorted.