Abstract
Stormwater management is of concern to public institutions and academies. In the Asso Torrent endorheic basin (Salento peninsula, Southern Italy), a network of natural and artificial channels crossing urban and rural areas and flowing towards six swallow karst holes, several floods occurred in the last six years, after the end of extensive hydraulic works. In this paper, the results of an observational study on the meteorological and hydrological factors concurring to these floods are reported. It was inferred that soil saturation, cumulative precipitation anticipating the events, and clogging of the swallow holes are of relevance and must be considered in the definition of new criteria in decision-making procedure. The adoption of both innovative modeling techniques and real-time control should be an efficient solution to properly regulate the flow control devices before and during the precipitation events. With a view to providing solutions for a sustainable management of the water resources, easy-to-implement measures are suggested, such as the selection of flood-tolerant crops and construction of harvesting systems for alternative water uses.
Highlights
Because of climate change, increase of population and improper land use, stormwater management is of paramount importance in many regions of the world [1,2] and the relative solutions are of concern to public institutions and academies [3,4]
With reference to the Apulia region (Southern Italy, central Mediterranean), previous studies highlighted the unpleasant effects of significant precipitation events at the basin scale [7,8,9]
For the Asso Torrent basin (Salento peninsula, Southern Apulia), stormwater management is a critical issue for the frequent occurrence of damaging floods, even though maintenance works on the channels of the basin have been accomplished for long [10]
Summary
Because of climate change, increase of population and improper land use, stormwater management is of paramount importance in many regions of the world [1,2] and the relative solutions are of concern to public institutions and academies [3,4]. Semi-arid areas of the Mediterranean are involved for the adverse effects of the current climate trend [5,6] In this respect, in accordance with the EU Floods Directive 2007/60/EC, several EU state members, including Italy, have promulgated national plans to mitigate the risk of flood caused by stormwaters. Detrimental to the agricultural activities was the flood in March 2015, which occurred after only moderate precipitation in the previous days It was not predicted by the competent authority, questions on the efficacy of the alert system raised. The results of an investigation about the meteorological and hydrological causes generating the hydraulic disorder in the Asso Torrent basin are reported with the aim to furnish a contribution to the solution of the problems concerning the stormwater management before and during precipitation events.
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