Granulometric calibration of the Erosion Potential Method (EPM) model: estimation of sediment production that affects a coastal area

Mariano Tenuta^3,4, Rocco Dominici¹, Paola Donato¹, Gianpietro Imbrogno², Stefania Lirer³ & Rosanna De Rosa^1
1Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy.
²E3 Earth, Environment, Engineering Società Cooperativa, University of Calabria, Via Ponte Bucci, Cubo 15B, Rende, Italy.
³Department of Innovation and Information Engineering, Guglielmo Marconi University, Roma, Italy.
⁴Direzione Generale Territorio e Protezione Civile, Regione Lombardia, Milano, Italy.
Corresponding author e-mail: mariano_tenuta@regione.lombardia.it

The beach sediment at the Ofanto river mouth (Apulia, Southern Italy) is very well sorted, and is mainly represented by medium sand. The granulometric analysis within the Ofanto basin shows a more heterogeneous distribution with coarser sediment prevailing upstream, and medium-fine sands more abundant in the other sectors. The occurrence of placers of volcanic minerals both in the river and in the beach sands allowed us to use them as geo-markers to estimate the grain size reduction from the river’s source to its mouth. The percentage of river sediment producing medium sand at the mouth was calculated for each sector of the Ofanto basin. It was, used as a reduction factor to correct the total budget of sediment production obtained by PyQGIS YES plug-in. In this way it was possible to calibrate the model and identify the areas of the feeding basin mainly contributing to the production of beach sediment at the river’s mouth.

Heavy Minerals, Sediment Production, Ofanto Basin, EPM Model.