Search Results (3)

The Lucanian site of Laurelli represents one of the largest, still poorly investigated, pre-Roman archaeological sites of the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni Geopark (southern Italy). The site lies on a large, low-relief surface in the upper portion of the Serrapotamo River basin, a right tributary of the Bussento River. Geomorphological, stratigraphical, archaeobotanical and archaeometric analyses were carried out to understand the following: (1) the choice to settle at the site of the town of Laurelli; (2) the origin of the raw material used to build the town; (3) the vegetation present during the lifetime of the town; and (4) the causes of its abandonment. The results indicate that the site was chosen because it was almost stable from a geomorphological point of view, not being affected by deep landslides. Further investigations are needed to unravel the possible occurrence of flooding as a causative event for the abandonment of Laurelli. Carpinus was widespread and used as a fuel for iron production, but the areas from which the iron was extracted have not yet been discovered. The multidisciplinary approach adopted is suitable for application in other archaeological areas worldwide. Full article

The interest of the scientific community about geotourism is abruptly increasing, as well as that on geoparks. According to UNESCO, geoparks should define management policies addressed to increasing the awareness of local people and tourists about Earth’s dynamics to reduce the impact of climate change and natural disasters. With this aim in mind, we tried to provide a solid scientific approach to geotourism that could be useful to the development of a geotourism strategy in the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni (CVDA) Geopark, in Southern Italy. Starting from the official inventory of the CVDA Geopark, we defined the potential Education Value (EV) and potential Touristic Value (TV) of each of the 160 sites listed by applying the Brilha method. Then we selected 20 geosites and geomorphosites with high values of both the EV and TV, and we included them in two geoitineraries. The two geoitineraries move in the inner sector of the Geopark (i.e., from the Paestum archaeological area to the Vallo di Diano basin) and along a portion of the coastal stretch (i.e., from Punta Telegrafo cape to the Lambro and Mingardo rivers’ mouths). Selected sites are representative of several geoscience disciplines (e.g., geomorphology, structural geology, quaternary geology, hydrogeology), thus suggesting that the CVDA Geopark is an ideal place where dissemination of geoscience concepts may be carried out. The latter point enhances the high geotourism potential of the area. This kind of approach was not tried before in the CVDA Geopark and can be a useful example of how to promote touristic development strategies in the area. Full article

In watershed mountain basins, affected in the last decades by strong rainfall events, the role of debris-flow and debris flood processes was investigated. Morphometric parameters have proven to be useful first-approximation indicators in discriminating those processes, especially in large areas of investigation. Computation of morphometric parameters in 19 watershed mountain basins of the western side valley of the Vallo di Diano intermontane basin (southern Italy) was carried out. This procedure was integrated by a semi-automatic elaboration of the potential susceptibility to debris flows, using Flow-R modelling. This software, providing an empirical model of the preliminary susceptibility assessment at a regional scale, was applied in many countries of the world. The implementation of Flow-R modelling requires a GIS application and some thematic base maps extracted using DEMs analysis. A 5-meter-resolution DEM has been used in order to produce the susceptibility maps of the whole study area, and the results are compared and discussed with the real debris flow/flood events that occurred in 1993, 2005, 2010, and 2017 in the studied area. The results have provided a good reliability of Flow-R modelling within small catchment mountain basins. Full article