The effects of water management on annual maximum floods of Lake Como and River Adda at Lecco (Italy)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an analysis aimed to assess the impact exerted on the flood regime of Lake Como and its emissary by different kinds of waterworks in the Adda basin (Italy). This includes construction of reservoirs in the Alps, increase in flow capacity of the exutory and regulation of Lake Como. The assessment of the management effect on peak floods is of particular interest as flood damages could be particularly heavy in densely populated areas along the lake banks and in the river flood plain downstream of the lake. The analysis is carried out by comparing the annual maxima of Lake Como levels and the river Adda discharges at Lecco, at the lake exutory, in different real and hypothetical situations. Both the construction of alpine reservoirs and the improvement of flow capacity of the exutory decrease lake levels and flood discharges, while lake regulation (for irrigation and power production) increases them. The overall effect is a generalised reduction of the flood levels and a slight increase in the discharges with return periods lower than 10 years. The discharges with higher return periods, instead, remain unchanged. The difference between peak and mean daily discharges negligible in all cases disappears altogether for return periods higher than 10 years.

Keywords:

• water resources management
• lake regulation
• floods
• flood management

Acknowledgements

The authors warmly thank Dr Luigi Bertoli, Director of the Adda Consortium, for the valuable help in the search for hydrological data and publications on the subject. The authors are also heavily indebted to the anonymous reviewers for providing their highly appreciated criticisms and suggestions.