Geomorphological Mapping As a Tool to Characterize and Manage Quarry Dump Deposits: the Case Study of Carrara Marble Basins

Geomorphological mapping as a tool to characterize and manage quarry dump deposits: the case study of Carrara marble basins

Linda Alderighi1, Carlo Baroni 1,2, Maria Cristina Salvatore 1,2

1 Università di Pisa, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra; 2 Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Pisa

| 4–8 May 2020 © Authors 2020. All rights reserved. | 4–8 May 2020 Study area: Carrara marble basins Apuan Alps retain many naturalistic, geomorphological and geological elements including many geosites and are renowned in all over the world for the white marble of Carrara.

Glacial and cryonival landforms

Karst Coastal plain landforms

High density of quarry

© Authors 2020. All rights reserved. Marble has been exploited since pre-Roman time determining nowadays a high density of quarries, among the highest in the world | 4–8 May 2020 High dynamicity and Cultural heritage of ravaneti Quarry dump deposits accumulated Pluri-millennial during centuries, locally called quarrying activity ravaneti, retain typical textural composes a dynamic characteristics closely linked to the and outstanding different techniques adopted over anthropic landscape. time for marble extraction. Therefore, During the last quarry dumps represent a key access decades widespread for reconstructing the evolution of debris flows the Apuan marble exploitation. For 2007 frequently affected this reason, ancient ravaneti assume the area representing an inestimable value within the serious hazardous historical and cultural heritage of Italy events for quarrying activity, infrastructures as well as urban centres

2016

Anthropic landforms Natural landforms -Ravaneti -Erosional landforms and deposits due to interaction -Quarry exploitation areas, quarry yards between natural processes and quarrying activity -Access road to quarries (debris flow tracks and lobes, gullies, landslides, …)

• Data management in GIS environment: Database: -manually digitization of landforms in vector domain (3 geometries: point, line, polygon ) operating at a scale between 1:500 and 1: 1000 directly on the Vector domain (*.shp) more recent high resolution orthophotographs + -Data collection into a properly created database (joined with .shp) Attribute table (*.dbf) • Criteria adopted for the geomorphological characterization : Natural landforms: guidelines proposed by Italian researchers for identifying landforms according to morphogenesis, morphodynamic, morphochronology (guidelines proposed by the Gruppo Nazionale Geografia Fisica e Geomorfologia (1993) and guidelines proposed for the fieldwork and preparation of the Geomorphological Map of Italy at a scale of 1: 50.000 (Gruppo di lavoro per la Cartografia Geomorfologica, 1994)) Anthropic landforms: guidelines of the Geomorphological Map of the Carrara Marble Basins (Baroni et alii, 2010)

• Criteria adopted for the d > 1 m geomorphological characterization of ravaneti :

TEXTURE, WEATHERING AND VEGETAL COVER OF DEBRIS

30 cm < d < 1 m

d < 30 cm

Debris-flows channels and lobes, and gullies are widely developed on ravaneti with fine matrix | 4–8 May 2020 Results: geomorphological characterization of quarry dumps 5 5 5 4 4 4 2 2 2 3 3 3 2 2 2 Area km Area km Area km 1 1 1 0 0 0 Surface weathering Vegetated Texture Weathered clasts surface Coarse texture No cover Grass cover Medium texture Unweathered clasts Shrubs cover Trees cover Fine texture

100% 2.0 Coarse texture clast

1.8 supported Coarse texture matrix 80% 1.6 supported 1.4 Medium texture clast supported 60% 1.2 Medium texture matrix 1.0 supported Fine texture clast supported 40% 0.8 2

0.6 km Fine texture matrix 20% 0.4 supported Unweathered clasts 0.2

0% 0.0 Weathered clasts Unvegetated quarry dump deposits Quarry dump deposits with

Vegetal cover Vegetal cover Vegetal cover Vegetal cover Vegetal cover Vegetal cover Vegetal cover Vegetal grass cover Quarry dump deposits with

Texture and matrix and Texture matrix and Texture matrix and Texture matrix and Texture matrix and Texture matrix and Texture matrix and Texture shrubs cover Weathering of clasts of Weathering clasts of Weathering clasts of Weathering clasts of Weathering clasts of Weathering clasts of Weathering clasts of Weathering Quarry dump deposits with Area outside Torano extractive Colonnata Miseglia Pescina- Piscinicchi Combratta trees cover extractive basin basin extractive basin extractive basin Boccanaglia extractive basin extractive basin Total extent of quarry dump © Authors 2020. All rights reserved. extractive basin | 4–8 May 2020 Results: slope instabilities on quarry dumps

Total length of linear erosional features

Quarry dump Gully Quarry dump interested by areal Debris flow channel erosion Other landforms 00 05 10 15 20 25 30 Km

Distribution of slope instabilities on quarry dump deposits

Areal erosion

Gully

Debris flow channel

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Quarry dump deposits: Fine texture matrix supported Medium texture matrix supported Coarse texture matrix supported Fine texture clast supported Medium texture clast supported Coarse texture clast supported

© Authors 2020. All rights reserved. | 4–8 May 2020 Conclusion Geomorphological mapping allow to © Authors 2020. All rights reserved. characterize landscape features of this peculiar region concerning anthropic landforms originated by millennial quarrying activity. The geomorphological characterization represents a relevant tool for the monitoring and management of ravaneti suggesting both potentially removable and potentially worthy of geo-conservation quarry dumps on the bases of ì) their historical heritage, ìì) their role in slope instabilities, and ììì) their role in preventing hazardous flooding events, being this sector among the rainiest regions of Europe.

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