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The smart city develops on geology: Comparing Rome
                      and Naples

GSA TODAY | MAY 2015  Donatella de Rita, geologist, Dipartimento di Scienze, Università      BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT ROME AND NAPLES
                      Roma Tre, Largo San Leonardo Murialdo 1-00146, Roma, Italy,
                      donatella.derita@uniroma3.it; and Chrystina Häuber, classical            Rome and Naples are considered to be cities that developed by
                      archaeologist, Department für Geographie, Ludwig-Maximilians-          the unification of small villages in the eighth century B.C. Both
                      Universität München, Luisenstraße 37, 80333 München, Germany,          cities have been shown to have existed for more than 2,500 years,
                      c.haeuber@lmu.de                                                       during which time they experienced alternating periods of
                                                                                             growth and decline. Rome originated from a small village in the
                      ABSTRACT                                                               ninth century B.C. to become, over centuries, the center of the
                                                                                             civilization of the Mediterranean region (Soprintendenza
                        A smart city is one that harmonizes with the geology of its terri-   Archeologica di Roma, 2000). The origin of Naples is connected
                      tory and uses technology to develop sustainably. Until the             to early Greek settlements established in the Bay of Naples
                      Republican Times, Rome was a smart city. The ancient settlement        around the second millennium B.C. The establishment of a
                      of Rome benefitted from abundant natural resources. City expan-        larger mainland colony (Parthenope) occurred around the ninth
                      sion took place in such a way as to not substantially alter the        to eighth century B.C. and was then re-founded as Naples
                      morphological and geological features of the area; natural             (Neapolis) in the sixth century B.C. (Lombardo and Frisone,
                      resources were managed so as to minimize the risks. The geology,       2006; Giampaola and Longobardo, 2000).
                      together with prudent management, ensured Rome’s fortune.
                      Naples, which developed in a similar geological context and at           Rome and Naples are located along the Tyrrhenian coast of
                      almost the same time, was exposed to more geological hazards           central-southern Italy in a very young orogenic area (Fig. 1).
                      and had access to fewer natural resources. This was fatal for the      Both cities lie on recent volcanic deposits (0.8 Ma to present)
                      city that, while remaining one of the most important of the            and on fluvial or coastal sediments, and are not far from the
                      Mediterranean, did not become the capital of an empire as Rome         Apennine mountain chain (30–60 km). The geological evolution
                      did. The histories of Rome and Naples highlight the important          of the Tyrrhenian margin of Italy generated the natural
                      role of geology in the development of a city and the making of its     resources and hazards that would affect the development of
                      fortune. Over time, fast urban expansion, rapid population             these two cities. The geological history of central Italy is driven
                      growth, and the overuse of resources led to increased hazards for      by the collision between the African and European plates. After
                      both cities. As a result, the cities became unstable and fragile, and  the formation of the Alps, part of the European plate containing
                      several natural processes resulted in disasters.                       the Corsica-Sardinia micro-plate broke away and started to
                                                                                             migrate eastward, progressively colliding with the western
                      INTRODUCTION                                                           margin of Adria (Apulia) and resulting in the formation of the
                                                                                             Apennines (22–19 Ma; Vai and Martini, 2001). At ca. 10 Ma,
                        For a city to become smarter means improving the manage-             rollback of the west-dipping subducting slab led to crustal thin-
                      ment of its infrastructure and resources to meet the present and       ning west of the Apennines, which created the Tyrrhenian Sea
                      future needs of its citizens and businesses. Smart cities are          (Faccenna et al., 2001). Extensional faulting lowered the western
                      generally considered to be those that are able to invest increas-      margin of the Apennines and facilitated the development of
                      ingly in technology with the belief that this will ensure sustain-     volcanic activity in Latium (including the Sabatini and the
                      able prosperity. Nevertheless, many past examples have shown           Alban Hills volcanoes) and the Campania (Phlegrean Fields,
                      how the indiscriminate use of technology in response to a              Vesuvius, Ischia) (Peccerillo, 2005).
                      natural hazard–induced risk, instead of generating security, can
                      lead to higher risk and danger (Egner, 2012). We propose that a        COMPARING THE RESOURCES AND RISKS OF ROME
                      smart city is one that harmonizes with the geology of its terri-       AND NAPLES
                      tory and uses technology to reduce economic costs and resource
                      consumption. In Europe, understanding how cities were born               From a historical-analytical perspective, Rome had more favor-
                      several thousand years ago may help us plan better for the             able geology and fewer risks than Naples. Rome developed on
                      future. We compare the diverse historical pasts of Rome and            small hilltops that were favorable for defense and communication,
                      Naples to highlight the importance of geology in determining           and its position on the Tiber alluvial plain at the point where the
                      the fortune of one city compared to the other.                         Tiberina islet was located provided easy communication between
                                                                                             the river banks (Häuber, 2013). The hills were also healthy places

     GSA Today, v. 25, no. 5, doi: 10.1130/GSATG222A.1

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