The main goal of this study is to investigate the anthropic influence on benthic habitats in the Punta Campanella Marine Protected Area (MPA). This area is located at the western end of the Sorrento Peninsula in the Bay of Naples, southern Italy. It is a rocky coast consisting of vertical or near vertical limestone cliffs of structural control, with marine areas characterized by suboutcropping rocky substrate. Seabed sediments are mainly coarse and biogenic in origin with skeletal grains and coralligenous bioconstructions occurring widely [1]. The Punta Campanella seabed habitats have been characterized and mapped on the base of geophysical and sedimentological data together with results from benthic communities. In addition, several environmental components both marine and terrestrial have been analysed in order to evaluate the anthropic influence on the recognized benthic habitats. Such environmental components include foraminiferal assemblages, water column features and inorganic pollutants (heavy metals) as well as terrestrial biota, fresh water supply and quality, land use and natural hazard. First results indicate 1) anomalous values of specific heavy metals (Ni, Hg) in the marine sediments, 2) the presence of benthic foraminiferal assemblages distinctive of human-impacted environmental conditions, and 3) the occurrence of morphological deformities affecting some foraminiferal species. At present, as next step of this study, we are applying a methodology based on the Environmental Functional Analysis (EFA) in order to combine and analyse terrestrial and marine environmental components together with territorial data and selected socio-economic components of the coastal zone (i.e. human pressure, land use, etc.) [2]. This method was originally developed by Cendrero and Fischer (1997) [3] and successively employed as management tool and monitoring technique for coastal areas [4] and terrestrial protected areas [5]. Such a holistic-based approach can be used to evaluate the anthropic disturbance in the Punta Campanella MPA and to compare the potential for conservation and the potential for use of the study area.

This study allowed to identify several land-use conflicts in the Volturno River Coastal Zone area which extends for about 50 km2 on-land and seaward. The study area was analysed via Environmental Function Analysis involving assessment of specific environmental and socio-economic indicators. These were allocated scores from field surveys, interviews and extensive desktop studies, which included literature data and public territorial geo-databases. Normalised scores allowed production of a conservation/development matrix, enabling to evaluate the potential for conservation, development or conflict fields. The main conflicts were strictly related to urbanization, land reclamation and conservation of pristine areas with increasing anthropic pressure. The study site resulted to be in the conservation/development full conflict field of the matrix, signifying a tendency to high conflict rather than conservation as one might expect. This demonstrated that despite the strong attempt to preserve a pristine environment, the presence of different conflicts of use can hinder both the potential of development and the conservation of the area preventing either to take place. This important result leads to suggest that Environmental Function Analysis may be a potential tool for forthcoming adaptive management strategies in the study area.

A substantial amount of prehistoric and historic cultural landscapes is now submerged. Sea levels have fluctuated throughout geological time, periodically encroaching or retreating across coastal plains. These now-submerged zones were important for prehistoric and historic humans, allowing access to marine and terrestrial resources and to transportation and migration routes.The principal process contributing to sea-level changes is the exchange of water between the continental ice sheets and the oceans (glacio-eustatic sea-level changes). Eustatic sea-level changes occur on an oceanic to worldwide scale. They also result from a change in the size of the ocean basin following tectonic seafloor spreading (tectono-eustasy) or sedimentation (sedimento-eustasy). In addition, sea level changes can be driven by local changes of the land with respect to the sea surface due to tectonic deformations, sediment compaction, and human activity. Inundated terrestrial archaeological sites, however, can result from a number of other natural processes, as well as sea-level changes, including earthquakes (such as Port Royal in Jamaica), volcanic processes (such as the ports of Misenum and Baiae, and Portus Julius and Nisida in the Bay of Naples) and flooding event (such as Herakleion and Eastern Canopus in Egypt).

We developed a new non-destructive procedure for quantitatively describing morphological features in benthic foraminiferal tests. The proposed approach is based on nanometric three-dimensional analysis of test outlines under an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The AFM provided us a useful tool to analyse some new morphometric features that cannot be investigated with other methods. Specifically, pore density, pore diameter, pore depth, pore surface area, porosity and roughness can be easily estimated in Ammonia tepida tests. In respect to all the far-field microscopy optical methods the AFM characterization allows a high spatial resolution analysis (?nanometres) in the definition of the pore characteristics especially regarding their vertical extent (i.e. 3D). The proposed approach, tailored for Ammonia tepida, could be used to further explore the potential of pores as an environmental proxy.

Air quality monitoring is traditionally performed using fixed monitoring stations in controlled environments. The instrumentation used in these stations, is often complex, bulky, very expensive, and it requires frequent maintenance works. Recently, the advancements in the field of digital technology and network communication made it possible to imagine a new paradigm of monitoring based on low-cost gas sensors. This latter is a very emerging technological area that offers considerable practical application. In this work, the performance evaluation of a low-cost O-3 outdoor gas sensor was analysed by means of a comparative in-field test. At this scope, we collected data in a strongly urbanized coastal zone, using both a commercial O-3 monitoring station and a prototype station based on low-cost metal-oxide-semiconductors (MOX) gas sensors. Finally, the performance and reliability of the low-cost prototype sensor versus the commercial one was evaluated through direct comparison between the acquired data.

The study area is located at the western end of the Sorrento Peninsula in the Bay of Naples, southern Italy. It is a rocky coast consisting of vertical or near vertical limestone cliffs of structural control, with marine areas characterized by suboutcropping rocky substrate. Seabed sediments are mainly coarse and biogenic in origin with skeletal grains and coralligenous bioconstructions occurring widely. The main goal of this study is to investigate the anthropic influence on benthic habitats in the Punta Campanella Marine Protected Area (MPA). For this aim, several environmental components including benthic habitat characters and distribution, foraminifera assemblages, water column features and inorganic pollutants (heavy metals) have been analysed in two sampling areas within the MPA. In addition, other environmental components such as terrestrial biota, fresh water supply and quality, land use and natural hazard have been taken into account. At present, marine geophysical and sedimentological data together with results from benthic communities allowed us to characterize and map benthic habitats of the study area. At the same time, the presence of specific heavy metals (Ni, Hg) in seabed sediments resulting from geochemical analyses suggest a human-made disturbance of the benthic environments. Anthropic influence is also confirmed by the structure and composition of the benthic foraminiferal assemblages and by morphological deformities that characterize some species. As a next step of this study, we aim to analyse the Punta Campanella MPA with a holistic-based approach that includes territorial data and selected socio-economic components of the coastal zone (i.e. human pressure, land use, etc.). For this purpose, we propose a methodology based on the Environmental Functional Analysis (EFA), a technique originally developed by Cendrero and Fischer (1997) as a procedure for assessing the quality of coastal areas. This method has been successful employed as management tool and monitoring technique for coastal areas and terrestrial protected areas and may be used to evaluate the anthropic disturbance in the Punta Campanella MPA. In addition, the proposed methodology may be employed to compare the potential for conservation and the potential for use of the study area.

This paper describes the development of multidisciplinary simulation tools based on a system approach, and its contribution to local political debate on sustainable shellfish farming in a Mediterranean coastal site (Mar Piccolo of Taranto, Ionian Sea). Remote sensing images were used for the first time to count mussel culture plants and to validate information provided by stakeholders and farmers. The data obtained were even more important considering the lack of reliable official statistics. Further, a model was developed to simulate exploratory scenarios. In the modeling platform, the ecosystem and individual mussel growth models (built in the frame of the EU Integrated Project SPICOSA, Science and Policy Integration for Coastal System Assessment) are combined with the Mussel Farm Model (MFM). The simulated scenarios suggested that: 1. farming is unsustainable, because it exceeds the system carrying capacity; 2. plant overloading is exacerbated by the negative effects of recurrent heatwaves; 3. sustainable management measures should be applied to obtain individuals of good quality as well as to extend the juveniles sale period and cope with climate crises. The results show that the described tools may help in the design of viable policies based on operational objectives and feasible technical options. Since until now, production trends cannot be determined based on natural and social factors alone, once applied, this tool will allow for a more exemplary production system. It could also become a good practice example towards a more sustainable development of coastal zones.

Global aquaculture production in increasing over the last years, but official statistics frequently under-report the real data due to the illegal farming and the unregulated market. Recent advances in remote sensing technology allow us to view aquaculture and fishery practices from space. Here, we used remote sensing to count mussel culture plans in the First Inlet of Mar Piccolo of Taranto from 1988 to 2015. The results evidenced the unreliability of officially reported statistics and provide the first example of mussel culture production

Living benthic foraminiferal assemblages were investigated at 22 marine stations in front of the Volturno River mouth (Gulf of Gaeta, central Tyrrhenian Sea), during 3-years survey (2012-2014). The results were compared with the oceanographic data recorded at the same sites, to highlight the ecology of the main dominant species and the relationship between the community structures and the environmental variables (turbidity, dissolved oxygen content, salinity, temperature, and runoff). The living assemblage, analyzed in the top 1 cm of sea floor, was characterized by three dominant species (Ammonia tepida, Bulimina elongata, and Rectuvigerina phlegeri ) during all the sampling periods. Correlation analysis identified turbidity, runoff, and oxygen as the main environmental factors influencing living foraminiferal assemblages. Ammonia tepida and Rectuvigerina phlegeri showed opportunistic behaviour in response to turbidity, oxygen, and salinity values. No significant correlation was recorded between Bulimina elongata and the environmental parameters, testifying the capability of this species to adapt to different environmental conditions. The occurrence and distribution of these species provided useful information about coastal dynamics and sediment transport, and our results confirmed them as reliable proxies of coastal water column turbidity and Volturno river basin runoff.

L'articolo sintetizza il progetto e lo sviluppo di nuove tecnologie Unmanned per il rilevamento e il monitoraggio avanzato di parametri geofisici ed ambientali in aree marino-costiere. Tali tecnologie sono state realizzate presso l'Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IAMC-CNR), nell'ambito del progetto PON (Programma Operativo Nazionale) "Sistemi e Tecnologie Integrate per il rilevamento e monitoraggio avanzato di parametri geofisici ed ambientali in aree marino-costiere (STIGEAC)". L'aspetto innovativo di tale sistema tecnologico riguarda lo sviluppo di un'architettura che integra due Unmanned Marine Vehicles di superficie con un Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Le principali attività hanno riguardato l'ingegnerizzazione dei veicoli unmanned, con la messa a punto e gestione di carichi strumentali a bordo per operazioni di rilevamento e monitoraggio ambientale. Contestualmente, sono stati implementati algoritmi di data processing per operare in real-time su immagini, video e dati scientifici catturati dai veicoli.

L'Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero (IAMC) di Napoli ha prodotto negli ultimi anni, attraverso una costellazione di progetti, un notevole avanzamento tecnologico a supporto della ricerca scientifica e del know-how nello studio dell'ambiente marino-costiero. L'attività di Ricerca e Sviluppo è stata finalizzata alla realizzazione di un sistema integrato costituito da unità navali, piattaforme tecnologiche e blocchi funzionali, ovvero laboratori mobili per la ricerca in mare. In particolare attraverso i progetti PiTAM (Piattaforma Tecnologica Avanzata per rilievi di parametri geofisici ed ambientali in Mare) e STIGEAC (Sistemi e Tecnologie Integrate per il rilevamento e monitoraggio avanzato di parametri Geofisici e Ambientali in aree marino Costiere), finanziati nell'ambito del Programma Operativo Nazionale "R&C2007-2013" a cura del MIUR, sono stati realizzati sistemi integrati per studi in ambiente marino-costiero, con particolare riguardo alla valorizzazione dei beni culturali e agli interventi di emergenza legati a crisi ambientali. Il sistema integrato di piattaforme tecnologiche, con caratteristiche nautiche, costruttive e funzionali altamente innovative finalizzate al miglioramento della produttività e alla riduzione del consumo energetico, ha la possibilità di supportare blocchi funzionali dedicati a: 1) installare strumenti scientifici inclusi di attrezzature innovative, 2) acquisire dati scientifici tramite sistemi allocati sia in laboratori funzionali che in aree tecniche innovative di controllo, gestione e supporto, 3) ospitare ed alloggiare operatori specializzati e personale tecnico- scientifico. La piattaforma può operare ricerche di varia natura (geofisica, geotecnica, geochimica, misure di parametri per la colonna d'acqua, ecc.), secondo l'assemblaggio di laboratori mobili specifici e modulari, ospitati in particolari moduli container costruiti ad hoc.

Marine coastal environments are areas of naturalistic relevance, unfortunately very often modified by the anthropogenic pressure. The investigated coastal-marine area, adjacent to the Volturno River mouth (Gulf of Gaeta - central Tyrrhenian Sea), is characterized by land/sea interacting processes and tangled water column/surface sediment dynamics. The coastline shape as well as the bottom depth, the chemical-physical water column characteristics, the river mouths discharge and the anthropogenic impact, strongly control the marine-coastal zone system. The implementation of a suitable monitoring program is a priority choice in order to obtain a proper development of management policies directed towards conservation and sustainable management of natural system. One of the most interesting challenges is to propose an integrated monitoring plan able to estimate quantitatively, in space and time, by using appropriate environmental proxies, the natural and/or anthropic factors which have significant impact on marine environment. For this purpose, a reliable group of organisms to use must be benthic, abundant, widely distributed, hard shelled (to leave a post-mortem record), short live cycle (to quickly record changes in environmental parameters). Benthic foraminifera perfectly fit all these requirements (Bresler and Yanko, 2000). They are single celled organism living in different marine habitat, from the deep-sea environments to the upper limits of the transitional zones. Recent studies have shown that these organism can be used to identify different ecological provinces, to detect environmental stress conditions and to monitor successfully the health of coastal and deep marine ecosystems (e.g., Mojtahid et al., 2006; Alve et al., 2009; Schönfeld et al., 2012; Barras et al., 2014; Ferraro et al. 2006; Zeppilli et al., 2015; Yanko et al., 2017). We present the first investigations of live benthic foraminiferal assemblages, carried out in a neritic environment adjacent to the Volturno River mouth (Gulf of Gaeta - central Tyrrhenian Sea) during 3-year of monitoring cruises. The aim of this study was to compare the spatial distribution patterns of living faunas with environmental parameters (salinity, dissolved oxygen and turbidity). The research was carried out in the frame of the PONa3_00363 I-AMICA Project (http://www.i-amica.it), an Italian National Operative Program (PON), financed by the Italian Ministry of Research (MIUR).

This paper describes the results of the activities performed during the project PONa3_00363 I-AMICA (High Technology Infrastructure for Climate and Environment Monitoring; www.i-amica.it), as part of the activities of Development Objective 4.4 (Processes of the biosphere-hydrosphere interface and features of coastal ecosystems). Through the strengthening of scientific-technological infrastructure and equipment, I-AMICA was planned to increase the observational capacity of the monitoring of marine coastal ecosystems, particularly vulnerable in the sensitive Mediterranean area and strictly connected to the natural and anthropic continental system. For this reason research activities were mainly focused on the neritic environment adjacent to the shelf area of the Volturno River mouth (Gulf of Gaeta - central part of the Tyrrhenian Sea). Advanced knowledge on the dynamics in time of marine coastal ecosystems, in relation to the physical, chemical and biological processes that characterize their habitat, were acquired while new methods of integrated monitoring, in relation to the specific characteristics of the study area, were tested. Particular attention was given to the identification of bio-indicators in water column and sediment at sea floor. The monitoring was also integrated by studies on the shoreline changes, seismic stratigraphy of deltaic deposits and by sedimentology and morpho-bathymetry of the seabed.

This technical report describes an innovative and integrated prototype system of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) for advanced environmental monitoring; the water platform's is developed at the Coastal Marine Environmental Institute - National Research Council (Italy), within the Project: Integrated Systems and Technologies for Geophysical and Environmental Monitoring in coastal-marine areas (STIGEAC), in the framework of the National Operational Programs 2007-2013. The project concerns in the research of new technologies and the design of vehicles, for the surveys of the coastal marine environment, understood as a "multipurpose" laboratory for sea research with characteristics of modularity and portability. The goal involves not only the execution of scientific and technological research but also for the valorization of marine cultural heritage, for industrial activity and for emergency interventions related to environmental crises. Major innovations concern the design of a new architecture of the control system and/or to allow the cooperation between heterogeneous unmanned vehicles, the integration of distributed sensing techniques and real-time image processing capabilities [Marsella et al., 2015].

This technical report describes several recent innovation that have enabled the design and development of an innovative UAV-based platform, with the goal to create an integrated system consisting of a semi-autonomous Unmanned Aerial System prototype equipped with a scientific payload managed by a Ground Control Station (GCS) and dedicated to advanced geo-environmental monitoring in marine-coastal areas (e.g. photogrammetry, thermography, pollutant detection, visual census, etc.). The prototype system herein presented, consisting of an UAV carrier, scientific payload and GCS customized for coastal monitoring purposes, is an outcome of the two synergic projects PITAM (Advanced Technology Platform for geophysical and environmental parameters monitoring at the sea -PON01_02812 - http://www.pitam-stigeac.eu/it/) and STIGEAC (Systems and Integrated Technologies for detection and advanced monitoring of geophysical and environmental parameters in marine coastal areas - PON01_02812 - http://www.pitam-stigeac.eu/it/) both funded by the Italian National Operative Programme PON R&C 2007-2013 .

This paper shows an example of 3D high-resolution seismic tomography that implements an acquisition geometry, which provides for the housing of sensors in the sub-vertical discontinuities of a tuff cliff. The site test was located in the Sorrento Peninsula, a major Quaternary morphostructural unit of the western flank of Southern Apennines, consisting of a narrow and elevated mountain, that separates two major embayment of the eastern Tyrrhenian margin. The overall geological setting is characterized by a carbonate bedrock, covered by pyroclastic deposits (i.e. "Campania Ignimbrite"), originated from the Campi Flegrei volcanic district. The occurrence of steep slopes and the high relief area, along with the marine erosion at the base of the coastal cliff, creates favorable conditions for the occurrence of a generalized instability of the slopes characterized by tuff rock falls as prevailing landslide phenomena. An accurate prediction of these mass movements is difficult if not accompanied by an intensive hydrogeological and geotechnical monitoring and hazard assessment; the instability phenomena, in fact, can be caused by the presence of pervasive fracturing and cavities in the tuff rock. Due to logistical reasons, it is not possible to perform seismic surveys using typical acquisition setup, therefore we utilized a particular experimental procedure, characterized by an acquisition geometry which included the installation of the sensors on the tuff cliff and energize along concentric semicircles to obtain the maximum of the seismic resolution. A non linear seismic inversion was used to obtain 3D High-resolution seismic tomography in terms of P-wave velocity and S-wave velocity. The interpretation of the experimental results in terms of 3D Vp/Vs ratio showed anomaly zones in the investigated rock. We identified an area with a low Vp/Vs value that we ascribed to a medium porosity or in dry condition with respect to the surrounding rock mass.

A modified version of the GEOWAVE (Watts, 2009) model is used, taking properly into account the decreasing nearshore tsunami wavelength through a system of nested grids. GEOWAVE simulates tsunami waves generation, propagation, and inundation using a fourth order fully nonlinear equations, fully dispersive Boussinesq wave model with multiple wave dissipation mechanisms, wave breaking, and dry land overflow. In the numerical simulation, the Tsunami Open and Progressive Initial Conditions System (TOPICS) is adopted to produce 3D tsunami source for tsunamis generated by submarine slides and slumps, while a 25 m uniform spacing grid is derived from the bathymetric dataset of the Naples Bay. Interesting results of tsunami simulation, in the above-mentioned areas, show that the amplitude of wave run-up ranges from 0.90 m near to Procida Island and up to 1.90m nearness of Naples Port. This difference in run-up is ascribed to a different coastal morphology. In fact, the port of Naples offshore has a slope of 3-4 degrees while the Procida Island offshore of 25-30 degrees.

Sea state knowledge has a key role in evaluation of coastal erosion, the assessment of vulnerability and potential in coastal zone utilization, and development of numerical models to predict its evolution. X-band radar measurements were conducted to observe the spatial and temporal variation of the sea-state parameters along a 3 km long sandy-gravelly pocket beaches forming a littoral cell on Bagnara Calabra. We produced a sequence of 1000 images of the sea state extending offshore up to 1 mile. The survey has allowed monitoring the coastline, the directional wave spectra, the sea surface current fields, and the significant wave heights and detecting strong rip currents which cause scours around the open inlets and affect the stability of the submerged reef-type breakwaters. The possibility to validate the data acquired with other datasets (e.g., LaMMA Consortium) demonstrates the potential of the X-band radar technology as a monitoring tool to advance the understanding of the linkages between sea conditions, nearshore sediment dynamics, and coastal change. This work proves the possibility to obtain relevant information (e.g., wave number, period, and direction) for evaluation of local erosion phenomena and of morphological changes in the nearshore and surf zone.

Nell'ambito del progetto PONa3_00363 I-AMICA (Infrastruttura di Alta tecnologia per il Monitoraggio Integrato Climatico-Ambientale), fondato sull'attivazione di interventi di adeguamento e rafforzamento infrastrutturale nelle Regioni di Convergenza, al fine di promuovere e sviluppare strutture ed attrezzature utili per il monitoraggio del clima e dell'ambiente nella Regione del Mediterraneo e in altre aree sensibili del Pianeta, l'Obiettivo Realizzativo 4.4 (Processi di interfaccia biosfera-idrosfera e funzionalità degli ecosistemi costieri) ha avuto come scopo l'acquisizione di conoscenze avanzate sulle dinamiche e/o variazioni nel tempo degli ecosistemi marino-costieri in relazione ai processi fisici, chimici e biologici che caratterizzano il loro habitat per identificare e definire nuove metodologie di monitoraggio in relazione alle specifiche caratteristiche dell'area di studio indagata, sia dal punto di vista tecnico che scientifico. L'attività svolta, nei tre anni del progetto (OR4.4), ha rappresentato una base per lo studio integrato multidisciplinare dell'area marino-costiera prospicente la foce del fiume Volturno (Golfo di Gaeta), fornendo un quadro esaustivo dello stato ambientale del sistema costiero in oggetto al fine di proporre un protocollo di indagine integrato sul monitoraggio marino-costiero in un territorio dove la gestione ambientale si è fino ad ora basata su approcci scientifici e metodologici diversi tra loro. Lo studio è stato svolto secondo le seguenti fasi: - raccolta di tutte le informazioni e dei dati disponibili in letteratura e presso gli enti preposti; - pianificazione e realizzazione di 7 campagne oceanografiche di monitoraggio stagionale; - monitoraggio dell'area marino-costiera, raccolta ed analisi dei dati; - creazione del database georiferito denominato "I_AMICA_db". L'esperienza svolta si è principalmente focalizzata, oltre che sulle tecniche di monitoraggio classiche, sulla sperimentazione di nuove tecniche di acquisizione ed interpretazione di dati (ambientali e geofisici) sia in colonna d'acqua che nei sedimenti a fondo mare. Particolare attenzione è stata data alla identificazione di specie e/o associazioni di specie significative (bio-indicatori) da un punto di vista ambientale ed indicative dello stato di salute del sistema costiero. Poiché il sistema costiero rappresenta una struttura naturale complessa e delicata, la cui evoluzione è il risultato di delicati equilibri fisici, chimici e biologici, fortemente condizionabili dagli interventi antropici, l'attività di monitoraggio è stata integrata sia da studi sulla variazione della linea di costa (Capitolo 3), sia da studi sismostratigrafici della piana deltizia (Capitolo 4 e 5). La variazione della linea di costa rappresenta uno degli aspetti più evidenti dell'instabilità ambientale costiera, infatti l'arretramento della linea di riva può essere legato all'incremento demografico e al processo di industrializzazione che si sono verificati negli ultimi cinquanta anni; mentre la conoscenza della stratigrafia del sottofondo, in particolare le piane deltizie è di notevole importanza, perché il sistema di piattaforma interna rappresenta un archivio ad alto potenziale di conservazione di livelli da evento (tempestiti, livelli vulcanoclastici, depositi da flussi di piena fluviale, superfici erosive, etc.) e registra le migrazioni dei litosomi di spiaggia, consentendo pertanto una ricostruzione degli eventi geologici che hanno impattato lungo le fasce costiere.

High resolution seismic stratigraphy of the Gulf of Pozzuoli has been studied to discuss volcanological implications on geological evolution of the Phlegrean Fields volcanic complex. A new seismo-stratigraphic framework of the Gulf of Pozzuoli is provided based on the geological interpretation of Sparker profiles, showing thirteen seismic units. The seismo-stratigraphic analysis has evidenced that the marine units prevail in the eastern Pozzuoli offshore (Baia town) while the volcanic units prevail in the western Pozzuoli offshore (Pozzuoli town). Two deep volcaniclastic units appear to be related to the northern margin of the Pentapalummo Bank, a relict volcanic edifice located in the outer Pozzuoli shelf. The Pozzuoli basin filling is made up of five seismic units, marine in origin, whose internal configuration is mostly characterized by parallel reflectors. The marine units are overlain by three volcanic units, whose origin is probably pyroclastic, both due to their seismic facies and to their deposition in palaeo-morphological depressions. A wedge-shaped seismic unit, acoustically transparent, has been interpreted in the Gulf of Pozzuoli as the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff deposits. Lowstand and highstand deposits, pertaining to the Late Quaternary depositional sequence are respectively characterized by progradational and parallel seismic reflectors, located in the Gulf of Pozzuoli. Different models on the geological structure of the Phlegrean caldera and its present-day unrest state have been taken into account to improve the discussion of the volcanological aspects related with the seismo-stratigraphic setting of the Gulf of Pozzuoli, representing the submerged border of the caldera itself.