Holocene landscape evolution and geoarchaeology

The  search and analysis of  shallow depth stratigraphic settings in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy) wants to increase and/or re-examine the basic knowledge concerning mechanisms and development dynamics of  this territory in a time lapse longer than that usually taken into account by the engineering and land-planning practices.

The river network being the main effective agent in shaping this regional area, the focusing on the related landforms development and evolution (i.e. the present day and ancient river network) must be the first aim of the research. This can be achieved defining  the chronological and stratigraphic setting of each landform.

The differences existing in the long period development of  natural and man-controlled  river courses must be further understood and clearly highlighted in a geographic domain where rivers were at some extent embanked during the last two thousand years. This is a must when the research aims at clarifying the role of man, climate and tectonics on such a morphogenetic environment.

The interplay between areas experiencing a prevailing erosion (mountain catchment) and sedimentation (foreland alluvial plain) –i.e., the macroscale connectivity- are still difficult to analyze due to the lacking of new, reliable data. This lack in particular  characterizes the mountain areas where the field surveys and the present day human settlement do not allow an easy data record. But also in the low alluvial plain the high sedimentary suite thickness makes it difficult the dating of paleoriver courses birth and death chronology.

For these reasons the study of the still outcropping geomorphological units always requires a correct correlation with the related buried deposits.

Geoarchaeology and its stratigraphic reading are a powerfull analytical tool for inspecting

the riverbed kinds and related channel and out-of channel processes and evolution. This tool contributes both questions and considerations concerning: i) the human society impact – ancient and modern as well- on the coeval natural environment; ii) the ways of human settlement through time; iii) the resilience of settlement (in particular, the urban sites); iv) the climatic forcing influence both on the environmental setting and the human settlement.

Furthermore, the geoarchaeological inspection can also contribute new archaeoseismological evidences able to improve/update the available historical seismicity data-base of the region well beyond its actual lower limit.

Thus such a kind of research is an important tool for the environmental geomorphology and geology towards the regional land planning.