The Environmental Function Analysis: a promising tool to evaluate the coastal zone conservation potential

In recent years, we have become aware of the concept that the complex dynamics that characterize coastal zone systems impose a close balance with the anthropogenic environment. Particularly, human activities and environmental resource exploitation are often responsible of changing the vocation of a coastal area. Moreover, recent studies demonstrated that coastal zones have a capacity to provide ecosystem goods and services; this capacity can be heavily modified by uncontrolled human activities. In the framework of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), a multidisciplinary and issue-oriented system analysis can be helpful to understand the ecological and socio-economic system functioning, while a complete assessment of the environmental quality of the coastal area can be performed by means of Environmental Function Analysis (EFA) employing physical and biogeochemical indicators coupled with socioeconomic indicators. This study reports and compares the application and usefulness of the EFA tool to discover the potential for conservation of two very different coastal areas located along the Campania Region (Southern Italy). The first EFA site is located in the Volturno River Coastal Zone while the second EFA study site is located at the western end of the Sorrento Peninsula in the Bay of Naples. Results demonstrated that EFA permits to effectively synthetize the information on coastal system functioning and on their potential for conservation or development.