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Abstract
This paper presents the results of a monitoring programme of the littoral of the town of Levanto (La Spezia) to evaluate the efficiency of a nourishment project carried out on a gravel beach. The study was carried out with a webcam, one of the most innovative techniques for monitoring coastal evolution. This technique makes it possible to automatically obtain a continuous, real-time set of images of high quality that can then be processed with dedicated software to provide information on the morphodynamic conditions of the beach. The image processing technique, [based on the studies carried out by the Coastal Imaging Laboratory of Oregon State University to develop the Argus System], was developed by the Dipartimento per lo Studio del Territorio e delle sue Risorse (Dip.Te.Ris.) and the Dipartimento di Matematica (Di.Ma.) of the University of Genoa. The research was focused on studying the variations in the shoreline following a nourishment programme as revealed by a comparison of the processed images, which made it possible to reconstruct the evolution of the beach in the short- and medium-term and thereby evaluate the efficiency of the intervention.