Agricultural impact of lake Maggiore management

Abstract

Lake Maggiore was transformed into a regulated reservoir in 1943. The impact of its regulation to the downstream agricultural regions and power plants is analysed. An optimization model is set up in order to determine the optimal management policy which maximizes downstream users’ benefits. The comparison of the optimal solution of the model with the present situation allows a forecast of 70 per cent reduction of the losses in crop and power production. A sensitivity analysis of the most critical parameters confirms the reliability of the results obtained.