Description and objectives

The RISCHiA-Re project (Survey of Submarine and Coastal Instabilities for Hazard Assessment – including Remote Assessment) is a collaboration between the Institute of Marine Sciences of the CNR and two private companies: Planetek Italia srl and Leonardo SI srl. It was funded by Sapienza University as part of the SPOKE 2 activities, with D.R. no. 376/2025 – Prot. no. 16151 of 07/02/2025.

The research programme, which combines fundamental research and industrial research, is divided into six interconnected activities, one of which is coordination and another dissemination. The objectives of Rischia-Re are 1) to improve understanding of the susceptibility of gravitational failures in shallow waters (within -100 m) and at the heads of canyons bordering the coastline, 2) to develop the conceptual design of possible innovative and integrated solutions for monitoring gravitational instabilities at the heads of submarine canyons near the coast and in coastal cliffs.

The first activity concerns the operational use of satellite data to detect changes in the heads of canyons that run along the coast and are within 15 metres of depth. The areas involved include the Ionian coast of Calabria and the Tyrrhenian coast of Campania, Calabria and Sicily. The activity is carried out in collaboration with the Department of Earth Sciences of Sapienza University and involves two phases: development of an initial prototype and testing in the area of Bova Marina (Ionian Sea) and Bagnara Calabra (Tyrrhenian Sea), chosen for the variability of the canyon heads, and subsequent application of the methodology in 15 other selected areas of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas.

A second activity involves surveying approximately 90 underwater landslides whose crowns are located within 100 metres of depth along the entire margin of Campania, a morphodynamically active sector of the Tyrrhenian Sea, using high-resolution bathymetric models, with the aim of developing models of susceptibility to gravitational instability in areas close to the coast and on a regional scale.

A third activity focuses on the morphological changes of the cliffs exposed in the southern sector of the island of Ischia in close connection with receding canyon heads, using an integrated multi-scale and multi-temporal approach, which includes satellite radar interferometry, high-precision topographic surveys and the planning of possible monitoring actions.

Finally, the fourth activity, characterised by its potential industrial value, outlines the conceptual design of a stationary, object-based sonar system for the long-term monitoring of unstable underwater slopes, with the aim of detecting pre-failure physical changes that may be precursors to collapse.