Coastal cliff behaviour in five sites along the Slovenian coast, in the North-eastern Adriatic Sea, has been studied through the comparison of 2515 images collected at the sites and more than 4500 additional pictures collected since 1998. Moreover, a detailed characterization of the geomechanical properties and the quality of rock masses, the susceptibility to rockfalls have been used in order to determine the geomechanical properties of the studied sites.
Significant modifications of the cliff face are located in particular in correspondence of the sites showing poor or very poor rock mass quality. Moreover, photographic surveying suggests that cliffs are affected by a complex behaviour with respect to coastal retreat: during long stable-weather periods, cliff modifications are very low, while major changes in the cliff face occur after great storm events owing to the interaction of both marine and non-marine factors.
