The role of the hillside in determining the morphometric characteristics of “calanchi”: the example of Adriatic Central Italy

A typical example of badlands in the Italian peninsula is the “calanchi” (plural of “calanco”), which may be defined as rapidly evolving, very dense and hierarchical drainage systems whose genesis is controlled by mineralogical characteristics, the granulometric composition of local lithotypes, structural conditions, hillside gradient and climate. In this work some of the morphometric characteristics of the hillside were compared on a statistical basis with those of the drainage network of the calanchi, for two large sample areas in Adriatic central Italy. It was possible to demonstrate how the hillside environment strongly affects the activation of the process and the characteristics of the calanchi, depending on their morphometric morphometric characteristics. In particular, the length/inclination ratio of the hillside conditions the hydrographic pattern of the calanco system.