The evaluation of the coastal hazard and vulnerability caused by storm conditions is an important issue related to coastal flooding and erosion. Although these topics have been widely tackled by past research, they cannot be avoided, but need to be carefully managed by local authorities in order to limit damage to coastal infrastructure, to protect human life, habitats and sensitive species. Usually, this issue is tackled through common approaches at the regional scale. This paper illustrates the first steps of a research project aimed at assessing coastal hazard and vulnerability to wave-induced flooding at the national scale. In order to apply the method to the national scale, it is necessary to select a suitable dataset. This has to be consistent with the whole application area, concerning its spatial distribution, reliability and availability. Thus, one of the aims of this project is to perform a comparative analysis using data available at the national and local scale. The analysis was performed for the area of Montalto di Castro (Tyrrhenian Sea) by using datasets with different spatial resolutions. The results revealed that the use of low resolution data does not significantly affect the estimated nearshore wave features, while the wave runup in underestimated by about 25%. This underestimation influences also the vulnerability and hazard assessments. In particular, the vulnerability is conservatively assessed if low resolution data are used. On the other hand, the hazard is conservatively assessed when low resolution data are used only if the wave runup is amplified by considering the 25% underestimation. The results presented herein can be extended to other sites with the same general features (i.e., microtidal and dissipative coastal stretches).

The land transformation process in the last decades produced the urbanization growth in flat and coastal areas all over the world. The combination of natural phenomena and human pressure is likely one of the main factors that enhance coastal dynamics. These factors lead to an increase in coastal risk (considered as the product of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability) also in view of future climate change scenarios. Although each of these factors has been intensively studied separately, a comprehensive analysis of the mutual relationship of these elements is an open task. Therefore, this work aims to assess the possible mutual interaction of land transformation and coastal management zones, studying the possible impact on local coastal communities. The idea is to merge the techniques coming from urban planning with data and methodology coming from the coastal engineering within the frame of a holistic approach. The main idea is to relate urban and land changes to coastal management. Then, the study aims to identify if stakeholders’ pressure motivated the deployment of rigid structures instead of shoreline variations related to energetic and sedimentary balances. The influence of coastal protection (described by an indicator taking into account the linear density of the rigid protection extension alongshore) measures have been considered. Finally, the economical performances in the period just after the land transformation have been studied by means of a dimensionless index based on the concept of the local unit. The method has been applied to the case study of the Abruzzo Region. Results reveal a large urbanization growth and a generalized over-protection of the coast with a resulting spatial alternation of shoreline retreat and advance. On the other hand, the analysis of the local economy reveals that the presence of tourism activities does not necessarily lead to an increase in the local economy. Indeed, the most important improvement in local economies in the region can be associated with coastal stretches characterized by a high environmental value.