A New Application of System Theory to Foredunes Intervention Strategies

Abstract

A study was carried out on the coast applying an extension of the "System Theory" methodology, investigating the relationships which exist between agents and processes in the beach-foredune system. For this purpose 14 parameters were chosen which are believed to define the system: 4 to describe the meteorogical and oceanographic characteristics, 1 for the evolutionary ones, 2 for the sedimentological ones, 5 for the morphological ones and 2 for the biological ones. Their interaction intensity and dominance were then defined by means of some methodological procedures.

The same procedure was applied to 10 coastal tracts. Each one was described by the 14 chosen parameters and the comparative instability indices of the foredunes were obtained as well as the specific interaction intensity and dominance. This enabled us to suggest precise and diversified interventions on the basis of the peculiarities of the different tracts into which the coast had been divided on the basis of parameter differentiation. This approach allows a correct management of the foredunes to be put into operation and for the possible modifications induced by the proposed interventions to be evaluated.