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Beyond the human-related conception, Urban Science is a broad concept that includes and concerns various interconnected issues linked to Natural, Engineering, Human, Social, and Computational Sciences. Natural Science is represented by issues linked to GeoScience and BioScience. GeoScience issues concern (i) the physical-environmental aspects linked to (a) design, planning, and expansion of the urban environment; (b) urban management interventions; (c) prevention and (d) mitigation of natural and human-induced risks; (e) defense against natural and human-induced risks and (ii) cultural aspects linked to (a) educational purposes and (b) promoting, enhancing, and disseminating scientific as well as territorial and environmental knowledge and awareness. Geoscience is represented also by Street Geology, a silent geology mainly present in historical centers of urban areas, but not only, and that can be used as an educational tool, an opportunity for broader discussions on geological-environmental and socio-cultural issues. Look, see, understand, and take awareness are four steps that give voice to street geology. This paper highlights some aspects of GeoScience in two different urban areas, located in Southern Italy, represented by (a) the Longobard Walls of Benevento (BN) and (b) the 1794 Vesuvius' lava flow in Torre del Greco (NA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abandonment of inhabited places is a phenomenon widespread on a global scale that has spanned centuries. It has led to the birth of the so-called 'ghost towns'. These lifeless sites dot the internal Mediterranean and European areas, testifying to the changeability of the human settlements. Through a vision that reverses the paradigm that epitomises the 'ghost towns', these places can be transformed from a problem into an opportunity for the development of the territories that host them. The main topic of this article is to present and update investigations performed on three abandoned settlements sited in Portugal, Italy, and Albania in view of their tourist exploitation, considering three different tailored strategies: underwater tourism, dark tourism, and heritage tourism. For each site, we analysed the site history, the abandonment causes, and the territorial-geological features, thus arguing for the possible valorisation and enjoyment approaches with special attention to digital technologies, which are highly underexploited in the sector. This study, which is part of an international research landscape still in the initial stages, falls within the BEGIN project (aBandonment vErsus reGeneratIoN), which aims to develop a multilevel methodological–operational protocol useful in regional, national, EU, and non-EU contexts for the dissemination of knowledge, conservation, regeneration, valorisation, management, and fruition of areas classified as a 'ghost town'. The research findings can be useful for scholars, practitioners, and local entities entrusted to manage the abandoned towns. Furthermore, the methodological approach followed in this research can supply useful insights into aims to valorise and enjoy worldwide 'ghost towns'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uplift and erosion rates have been calculated for a large sector of the Campania-Lucania Apennine and Calabrian arc, Italy, using both geomorphological observations (elevations, ages and arrangement of depositional and erosional land surfaces and other morphotectonic markers) and stratigraphical and structural data (sea-level related facies, base levels, fault kinematics, and fault offset estimations). The values of the Quaternary uplift rates of the southern Apennines vary from 0.2 mm/yr to about 1.2–1.3 mm/yr. The erosion rates from key-areas of the southern Apennines, obtained from both quantitative geomorphic analysis and missing volumes calculations, has been estimated at 0.2 mm/yr since the Middle Pleistocene. Since the Late Pleistocene erosion and uplift rates match well, the axial-zone landscape could have reached a flux steady state during that time, although it is more probable that the entire study area may be a transient landscape. Tectonic denudation phenomena — leading to the exhumation of the Mesozoic core of the chain — followed by an impressive regional planation started in the Late Pliocene have to be taken into account for a coherent explanation of the morphological evolution of southern Italy.

This document is a summary of a special issue on fluvial geomorphology, river management, and restoration. The issue addresses the role of fluvial geomorphology in landscape evolution and the impact of human activities on fluvial systems. It also discusses the influence of climatic changes on rivers and their interaction with marine systems. The special issue includes research papers from different parts of the world, covering topics such as river restoration, water availability in rural communities, and fish passage in restored fluvial channels. The papers use various methods of investigation, including field surveys, modeling, and statistical analyses. Overall, the special issue contributes to the understanding of fluvial dynamics and the vulnerability of fluvial environments. [Extracted from the article]

The Southern Apennines consist of a Cenozoic to Quaternary fold and thrust belt characterized by a complex structural architecture. In the axial portion of the chain, corresponding to the Agri Valley, folds and faults with multiple styles formed during the progressive emplacement of various tectonic units, derived from different paleodomains. In the available geological maps, the geometry of these tectonic structures is often hindered by scarce cartographic detail due to the use of basic stratigraphic subdivisions. Therefore, at the aim to better define these structures and contextually update the outcropping stratigraphic units, we realized a detailed geological map, which take into consideration not only the formation as basic stratigraphic units, but also finer subdivisions such as members or beds. Using this approach, we improved the stratigraphy of the area, we recognized new geological units and, eventually, we reconstructed the structural setting, and the tectonic evolution of the Agri Valley in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morphometric analyses of both the topography and drainage network have been carried out in a large sector of the Ionian coastal belt of southern Italy in order to unravel the possible control of Late Quaternary thrust front activity on the evolution of the fluvial net. The study area extends in the southernmost sector of the Bradano Foredeep and is featured by several orders of uplifted marine terraces, ranging in age from Middle Pleistocene to Late Quaternary. The flight of the marine terraces is deeply cut by a trellis-type and regularly spaced minor fluvial network. Morphotectonic investigations based on field survey, photo-aerial interpretation, topographic attributes, morphometric indices, and analysis of longitudinal river profiles suggest a strong control on the drainage network arrangement by a pervasive orthogonal fracture system, produced and preserved into the brittle caprock of the terraces, made by conglomerate. Since a similar pervasive and orthogonal fracture pattern is typically generated by gentle folding of rocks, the development of the Ionian hydrographic networks could be attributed to a general--maybe still active--bending of the foredeep area due to the eastward propagation of blind thrusting of the Apennines orogenic chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to show the most important landforms of the Agri intermontane basin, a large continental tectonic trough included within the Val d'Agri-Lagonegrese National Park, southern Italy. The map was produced using aerial photo interpretation and field survey at a 1:25,000 scale and is composed of a main geomorphological map and three smaller submaps that provide more information on the geology of the basin. The geomorphological map includes seven groups of landforms, each of them modelled by a different surface process that worked on both the Mesozoic to Cenozoic bedrock and Quaternary clastic successions of the Agri basin. Based on the dominant morphogenetic process active in the past, the landforms have been grouped as follows: (1) structurally controlled and tectonic landforms; (2) fluvial landforms; (3) karst and fluvio-karst landforms; (4) gravity-induced landforms; (5) glacial landforms; (6) anthropogenetic landforms; (7) polygenetic landforms. These landforms allow discrimination of the main geomorphic processes that have worked on the basin and have provided information about long- to short-term landscape evolution since the Pliocene. The map can be a useful tool for studies on landscape evolution, hazard evaluation, and land management of a drainage basin, and in the production of planning guidelines of the protected area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work a detailed geomorphological study aimed to reconstruct the Holocene evolution of a slope largely affected by landsliding is presented. The study area is located in the lower valley of the Tanagro River, flowing in the Auletta basin, a Pliocene to Quaternary tectonic depression located along the elongation axis of southern Apennines. In order to investigate the relationships between landscape evolution and triggering factors, and to better constrain the Holocene palaeoclimate scenario in which the mass movements occurred, geomorphological data have been integrated with those deriving by the stratigraphic, chronological, and minero-geochemical analyses of the deposits genetically related to the landslide events. The investigated landslide shows a complex style of activity, with compound rotational and translational slide in the upper part of the slope evolving into flow in the lower part. The chronological evolution of the landslide activity has been constrained through radiocarbon dating of palustrine deposits, genetically related to the landslide, and of interbedded paleosols. On the basis of the presented data, the main landslide event can be placed at the beginning of the Holocene and it is followed by a period of scarse landslide activity, as demonstrated by the sedimentation of palustrine deposits within an endorheic pond. As the small basin was created by a counterslope rotation related to the main landslide phenomenon, its deposits post-date the age of the landslide. The geomorphological features related to the main gravitative event are strongly modified by reactivations occurred at the beginnings of Sub-Boreal period, which represent, in southern Europe, the warmest and wettest stage of the Holocene. As confirmed by mineralogical and geochemical data, intense and/or prolonged precipitation might have played a major role as triggering factor in reactivating the slope movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis of this study was one of existence of spatially organized links between the time series of river runoff and climate variability indices, describing the oscillations in the atmosphere–ocean system: ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation), PDO (Pacific Decadal Oscillation), AMO (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation), and NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation). The global river flow reconstructions (ERA-20-CM-R) for 18 study areas on six continents and climate variability indices for the period 1901–2010 were used. The split-sample approach was applied, with the period 1901–2000 used for training and 2001–2010 used for testing. The quality measures used in this paper were mean absolute error, dynamic time warping, and top extreme events error. We demonstrated that a machine learning approach (convolution neural network, CNN) trained on climate variability indices can model the river runoff better than the long-term monthly mean baseline, both in univariate (per-cell) and multivariate (multi-cell, regionalized) settings. We compared the models to the baseline in the form of heatmaps and presented results of ablation experiments (test time ablation, i.e., jackknifing, and training time ablation), which suggested that ENSO is the primary determinant among the considered indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lower Calore and middle Volturno valleys preserve stratigraphical and morphological evidence and tephrostratigraphic markers particularly suitable for reconstructing the long-term geomorphological evolution of the central-southern Apennines. Aim of our study is to identify the main steps of the Quaternary landscape evolution of these valley systems and to improve knowledge about the relationships between fluvial processes and tectonics, volcanic activity, climatic and human influences. To this purpose, we carried out an integrated geomorphological and chrono-stratigraphical analysis of identified fluvial landforms and related deposits, integrated by 230Th/234U datings on travertines from the Telese Plain area. The study highlighted in particular: (1) fluvial sedimentation started in the Middle Pleistocene (~650 ka) within valleys that originated in the lower Pleistocene under the control of high-angle faults; (2) extensional tectonics acted during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene, driving the formation of the oldest fluvial terraces and alluvial fans, and persisted beyond the emplacement of the Campanian Ignimbrite pyroclastic deposits (~39 ka); and (3) from the late Upper Pleistocene onwards (<15 ka), the role of tectonics appears negligible, while climatic changes played a key role in the formation of three orders of valley floor terraces and the youngest alluvial fans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study cross-sections on the Detailed Geological Map of Poland (SMGP) to find a geologic and geomorphic pattern under river valleys in Poland. The pattern was found in 20 reaches of the largest Polish rivers (Odra, Warta, Vistula, Narew, and Bug) located in the European Lowland, in the landscape of old (Pleistocene, Saalian) glacial high plains extending between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) moraines on the North and the Upland on the South. The Upland was slightly folded and up-faulted during Alpine orogeny together with the thrust of Carpathian nappes and the uplift of Tatra Mts. and Sudetes. The found pattern is an alluvial river with broad Holocene floodplain and the channel developed atop the protrusion of bedrock (Jurassic, Cretaceous limestones, marlstones, sandstones) or non-alluvial, cohesive, overconsolidated sediments resistant to erosion (glacial tills, lacustrine or "ice-dammed lake" clays) of Cenozoic (Paleogene, Neogene, Quaternary—Elsterian). We regard the sub-alluvial protrusion as the limit of river incision and scour. It cannot be determined why the river flows atop these protrusions, in opposition to "differential erosion", a geomorphology principle. We assume it is evidence of geological flood control. We propose an environmental and geomorphological framework for the hydrotechnical design of instream river training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The investigation of Pleistocene fluvial terraces in the small river valley of the Pescogrosso Stream and surrounding areas has shown a complex and positive location for the study of a fluvial catchment development. The Pescogrosso Stream is a left tributary of the Sinni River and is placed on the eastern front of the fold-and-thrust belt of the southern Apennine chain of Italy. Sedimentological and geomorphological analyses of eight fluvial terraced units revealed that their formation and evolution were strictly controlled by regional tectonic uplift of the Ionian arc, by climatic changes, and by sea-level variations. In particular, the Ionian sea-level oscillations, as a factor in controlling the short-term fluvial terrace development, was the main factor responsible for the three older terraces' evolutions. Conversely, the evolution of the five younger terraces seems to have been controlled by the base-level variations of the Sinni River. Finally, the matching of much information derived from regional and local tectonics, the plot of longitudinal terrace profiles, and the application of a sequence-stratigraphic approach to fluvial depositional sequences allowed the recognition of three evolutionary stages of development in the Pescogrosso fluvial incised-valley system during Pleistocene times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]