Modelling the Subsidence at Sybaris (Southern Italy): Geological nad Geotechnical Problems

An interdisciplinary research has been carried on for several years by CNR IRPI and Politecnico di Bari about the geological, tectonical, morphological and geotechnical aspects connected to the land subsidence of the Sibari alluvial coastal plain. Historical subsidence in this area is made evident by the vertical stacking of three ancient towns along the Crati river. In order to investigate the evolution and the disappearance of the archaeological site, the results of the research defined the causes of the settlements affecting the area since ancient times, while recent studies have focused on a recent component of the subsidence and addressed to the interpretation of the causes of the current subsidence rates logged in the plain by PS-INSAR monitoring . Geotechnical modeling has been developed to investigate whether these rates are due to both water withdrawal from deep aquifers, identified in previous studies, and pumping of shallow water through a well-point system still active in a few areas at the archeological site The paper is specially addressed to assess the geotechnical modeling that has been developed to interpret the source of the current settlement rates. The model is based on an extensive set of geotechnical profiles and laboratory data. The calculation results are compared to the recent data collected by remote sensing and allow to forecast the possible evolution of the subsidence.