Author(s): F. Miotto; P. Claps; F. Laio; D. Poggi

Linked Author(s): Davide Poggi, Claps Pierluigi

Keywords: Flood attenuation; Artificial reservoirs; Synthetic index

Abstract: Progress on practical problems such as quantifying flood impact on piedmont regions demands increased understanding of how artificial and natural reservoirs modulates the properties of wave propagation. In particular, how dams embedded into the river network impact the peak attenuation of the flood wave remains a problem that received surprisingly little attention. In fact, although an appropriate setting and management of the dams network may offer one of the most promising tools to control flood waves propagation on mountain regions, progress on this topic is hindered by the lack of hydrology data and adequate management policy. Here, we investigate analytically how the main features of a single dam, such as the lake surface and the width of the spillways, along with the basic characteristics of the river basin upstream and of the meteorological event, impact the flood peak attenuation. From this analysis a new synthetic index for flood attenuation, SFA, is derived. To test the reliability and the robustness of the new index, we apply the SFA to a number of artificial reservoirs constituting a complex river network system in the Toce basin (North Italy).

DOI:

Year: 2007