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Figure 3. Air photo of Naples showing the extent of the city walls. The red line shows the approximate extent of Naples during the fifth century B.C.; the blue line
encloses the enlargement of the city during the fourth century A.D.; the green line shows the wall added during the Angevin period; the violet line shows the
extension of the wall during the Aragonese period; the orange line shows the extent of the wall during the Viceroy period (modified from Amato et al., 2009).
GSA TODAY | MAY 2015 sloped terrain frequently wreaked havoc throughout the city. In
spite of these problems, Naples was always an important port city,
well connected with Greece and Greek culture. On one hand, this
was a fortunate situation, but on the other, it caused rapid over-
crowding of a city without the necessary local resources. Urban
overgrowth and substantial increases in the population were
always followed by economic crises and the rapid development of
epidemics that resulted in decimation of the population at various
points in its history.
Geological knowledge is therefore essential for the sustainable
development of a city. The fortune of Rome until Republican
times was sourced in the abundance of local resources and in the
practical management of the land that ensured reduction of
natural risks. With more geological hazards and limited resources,
Naples was less fortunate in comparison.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work benefited from a three month senior fellowship from the Rachel
Carson Center of Munich (2012) to D. de Rita. Particular thanks are due to
Prof. Don Dingwell. A warm thank-you goes to our colleague Neil Thomas
Ellwood for the careful review of the final version of the English text. Finally, de’ Gennaro, M., Calcaterra, D., Cappelletti, P., Langella, A., and Morra, V.,
we are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions and criti-
cisms have helped to improve the text.
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