F.Marabini *, A. Galvani **, M. Angeli ***.,P.Gasparetto ****. F. Pontoni *****, 2012, Environmental Protection and Economic Development, ITALY-CHINA - AN ANCIENT CULTURAL HERITAGE AND THE CHALLENGE FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT, Bologna (Italy), 22-24 October 2012,
URL: http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/203392

The huge territorial-economic-demographic dimensions of China would be an exemplary field in order to study the global issues of sustainable development and the the future of our world. Because China has to face the most extraordinary problems of the world , more than all other countries, studying their solutions would provide suggestions for our country and we will help it with our proposals. China should balance habited and lands, fertile and arid soils, to face climate change, pollution, spreading urbanisation, strong differences of urbanisation between coasts and inland, impacts on coastal zones. Furthermore ot seems necessary to manage greater revenue, new wellness and new leisure exigenses. The natural and antropic evolution of Italy and China territories share a long term historical record, since the two countries where cradle for highly-civilized populations, that produced documental material during the last two millennia, at least. They also share the presence in their territories of intensively industrialized and populated areas along the major rivers , the deltaic zones and the coastal zones. These deltaic apparatus and the adjacent coastal areas are characterized by a geomorphological trend controlled by natural (climate and environment) and antropic (deforestation and industrialization) changes. The increasing urbanisation of coastal cities leads to the modification of anemological patterns of the local circulation because of the formation of the urban heat island. This phenomenon is mainly produced by alteration of the land coverage usage in terms of both optical and conductive properties of new materials deployed ( buildings, flooring , etc.) and by production of heat generated by anthropogenic activities. The increased energetic of the planetary boundary layer over the urban canopy can strongly alter the local winds and, consequently, the precitative patterns as well as the recirculation of pollutants and their deposition pathways causing impacts on the human health and marine environment. The rate of these changes has not been constant during the last millennia, being mainly controlled by antropogenic variables at regional and global scales. We propose to compare and to define ,in the selected chinese and italian coastal zones, the effect of the the global and regional changes in the past times. On the basis of these studies we can understand the future evolutional trend of the selected areas. Our work will focus the comparison of the italian plain industrialization history, wich date back to the beginning of the last century, and the effects of the newly booming chinese economy which is in a huge expanding phase. We will also compare those recent changes to that occurred in the past , i.e., the beginning of intensive agricolture and farming, the alternating periods of wet and dry climate which induced important changes in the characteristics and rate of sediment supply in both natural systems. We also propose to recover and organize already collected geological, geophisical and environmental data in key selected location in chinese and italian coastal zones. A particular attention to the collection, elaboration and comparison of the geomorphological and cartographic data of the studied areas. The study of the variations of the bathymetry in shallow water to understand when the situation evolves to a dangerous state for the coastal equilibrium. The comparison of these data with the bathymetric data of the past times provides indications about the evolutional trend of the studied areas. The study of the surficial sediment distribution, with special attention to grain size parameters to provide sediments maps following both the Shepard and Nota classifications to evidence the variations of the energetic level in the coastal zone. The goal of the project is to give significantly contribute to enhancement of management plans of protected areas from floodplains, wetlands and coastal areas, by comprehensive consideration of geological diversity. Benefiting from the high italian experience, a geoturism strategy will be promoted in order to ensure long term development of the protected area through sustainable and quality tourism and to attenuate disparities between protected areas from the italian and the chinese seas. Finally_ researches from a comparative point of view of the national and the local legislations on environmental protection. Comparison between Italy and China with regard to the rules for the environmental protection. All the results of the studied chinese and italian selected areas will be used to try to answer to the following questions_ 1) are there differences in the geomorphological and sedimentological records of corresponding sectors of the selected natural systems at different times scale from the past times up to the present time? 2) Are these differences mainly controlled by local factors, such a different industrialization history, or by global forcing (global changes) ? 3) What is the environmental present-day status of these delicate environments under different anthropogenic pressures? 4) At the light of the italian experience , could we forecast the effect of intensive use of the territory under similar conditions in the present day China for the next future ? 5) Could we offer some warnings ? This is only a first attempt to face the same economical and environmental problems interesting the italian and chinese coastal zones.

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