The environmental cost to restore beach ecoservices

Authors analyzed a beach restoration project performed in Liguria region, NW of Italy.Main purpose was to evaluate the environmental cost associated with project fulfillment to (1) evaluate if they are correctly estimated by economy and (2) provide a valid tool to managers to consider them in cost benefits analysis or in overall evaluation of environmental projects.To this aim authors applied to case study Emergy analysis, a system evaluation method able to convert all employed items in a sole unit of measure.Results proved that environmental cost is largely greater than economic cost (two orders of magnitude). This cost, limited, in the specific case, by an effective good planning of the intervention, is principally ascribable to material (riverine removed, material from other existing hard structures destroyed and re-employed and quarry material) used to replenish beach. This testifies that, humans are imposing a double pressure to the environment: first by worsening, with their activities, littoral erosion, that implies the loss of natural habitat and the decay of beach ecosystem; second when, to manage negative outcomes caused by erosion to nature and human settlements, humans draw natural materials subtracting them to other possible uses by ecosystems.As a consequence a particular attention should be devoted to ecosystem preserving rather than to ecosystem restoring.