Piave River Research Articles

Waterway e sviluppo del territorio: nuova mobilità e turismo sostenibile

In most cases origin of first urban settlements, waterways have been the main source for human life and the tool for the exchange of goods and cultures. Thanks for their crossing the territory, they have always been places of intersection of different aspects of the urban life bringing together environment, planning, architecture, transport but also art, culture, education and tourism. Due to this aspect, waterways have a great potentiality for the development of a territory with regard to both, mobility – of people and goods – and sustainable tourism. Their regeneration allows to recover a role of public space as rural, urban and tourism landscape of great quality; at the same time, as places for tourism, cultural, gastronomic and leisure uses, they generally induce quality of life. After decades of neglect and indifference, a renewed interest toward the valorization of waterways for culture and tourism is emerging in Italy – particularly in the Nord part of the Country – encouraged also by European directives. Even if with a delay comparing to other European Countries that, since many years, are developing different ways of using waterways, Italy is now showing a new sensibility and approach to look at waterways as an important tool for environmentally sustainable development and to reconnect with a forgotten cultural identity. A selection of projects and initiatives are presented, mostly devoted to the re-launch of water transport for leisure activities and to the rediscover of waterways with a ‘slow’ and ‘soft’ approach. The valorization of architecture, nature and local culture and the proposal of alternative itineraries combining different modalities of transportation are the core of North Italian proposals along the rivers Po, Mincio, Adda, Piave, Limena and the canals network of the Venice lagoon. In particular, the project referred to the Po river, includes the navigation for leisure from Locarno, Switzerland, to Venice, through Milan and the Navigli network. This spectacular trip, every two years realized as a demonstration by the promoting bodies, could be a mid-term goal – at least for part of its length – in view of the Milan Expo 2015: an alternative way of transportation and connection and a tool for the discovery of a less known cultural heritage. Furthermore, the Piave river, in the past main way of communication and witness of many event of the First World War, needs now serious interventions to become more accessible and to be protected from energy production uses. Thanks to the applications of innovative technologies and of new sources of energy, waterways can also act as the best laboratory for sustainable development, at urban and environmental scale. Waterways can represents the chance for a new understanding of urban and natural landscape, in the balance between safeguard and innovation.

Channel adjustments and vegetation cover dynamics in a large gravel bed river over the last 200 years

The timing and extent of the morphological changes that occurred in the last 200 years in a large gravel bed river (the Piave River, eastern Italian Alps) that was heavily impacted by human activities (training structures, hydropower schemes, and gravel mining) have been analyzed by historical maps, aerial photos, repeated topographic measurements, and geomorphological surveys. Results show that the channel underwent a strong narrowing during the twentieth century, but with a faster pace during the 1970s–1990s and with an associated shift from a dominant braided pattern to a wandering morphology. Bed incision up to 2 m — mostly from gravel mining — has been documented for this period. Large areas of the former active channel were colonized by riparian forests, both as islands and as marginal woodlands. The ceasing of gravel extraction in the late 1990s seems to have determined a reversal in the evolutionary trend, with evidence of vegetation erosion/channel widening even though a significant aggradation phase is not present. We conclude that alteration of sediment regime has played a major role on the long-term channel evolution. However, only relevant flood events ( RI > 10–15 years) appear to determine substantial island erosion, and therefore the proportion of island vs. channel area fluctuates depending on flood history.

Natural streamflow regime alterations: Damming of the Piave river basin (Italy)

A novel approach is proposed to estimate the natural streamflow regime of a river and to assess the extent of the alterations induced by dam operation related to anthropogenic (e.g., agricultural, hydropower) water uses in engineered river basins. The method consists in the comparison between the seasonal probability density function (pdf) of observed streamflows and the purportedly natural streamflow pdf obtained by a recently proposed and validated probabilistic model. The model employs a minimum of landscape and climate parameters and unequivocally separates the effects of anthropogenic regulations from those produced by hydroclimatic fluctuations. The approach is applied to evaluate the extent of the alterations of intra‐annual streamflow variability in a highly engineered alpine catchment of north‐eastern Italy, the Piave river. Streamflows observed downstream of the regulation devices in the Piave catchment are found to exhibit smaller means/modes, larger coefficients of variation, and more pronounced peaks than the flows that would be observed in the absence of anthropogenic regulation, suggesting that the anthropogenic disturbance leads to remarkable reductions of river flows, with an increase of the streamflow variability and of the frequency of preferential states far from the mean. Some structural limitations of management approaches based on minimum streamflow requirements (widely used to guide water policies) as opposed to criteria based on whole distributions are also discussed.

Bridge Structural Optimization Through Step-by-Step Evolutionary Process

In this paper, the structural optimization process aiming to reduce the weight of the superstructure of a five span arch bridge, built in the Province of Venice, Italy, and spanning the Piave River in the town of San Donà, is presented. The original project, with a pre-stressed concrete superstructure, was re-considered during construction because of the following two unexpected events. First, the approved new seismic national regulation became effective when the bridge was already partially built. As a result, existing foundations became unable to withstand the prescribed new seismic action. Furthermore, the Venice Water Authority, responsible for the management of the river spanned by the bridge, declared that erection phases without any provisional supports and scaffolding resting on the riverbed, as foreseen by the original project, should be preferred. Between the two possible identified design strategies able to deal with the mentioned problems, namely, the strengthening of the foundations or the lightening of the superstructure, the second option was chosen, on the basis of engineering judgement concerning the simplification of construction procedures, timing and budget. The search for the lightest possible solution, with the restraint given by the approved aesthetics of the original design and the need of keeping within the former budget, brought to the conclusion that an evolutionary structural optimization (ESO) process could be suitably applied to a composite steel and concrete superstructure.

Geomorphological evolution and sediment transfer in the Piave River system (northeastern Italy) since the Last Glacial Maximum

The study deals with sediment production, transfer and deposition in the Piave River basin from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the Present. It aims at defining the temporal relationships between the late Pleistocene and Holocene glacial phases and sedimentary phases in the Piave hydrosystem, and analyzing modes and timing of sediment transfer within the system. The highest sediment production was at the peak of LGM; immediately after deglaciation, until about 8 ka 14C BP, alluvial sediments were mostly trapped in the terminal tracts of the Alpine valleys and in the Vallone Bellunese. The whole alluvial plain experienced a severe erosive phase between Lateglacial and early Holocene; downcutting in the Vallone Bellunese, after ca. 8 ka 14C BP, re-mobilized the alluvial sediments and contributed to delta formationon the Adriatic coast since 6 ka 14C BP. Post-glacial aggradation in the distal tract of the Nervesa megafan started only at about 4-3 ka 14C BP. In Roman times the fluvial system was rather stable, while between the 5th and 10th century AD there were several major avulsions in the distal Nervesa megafan. The last 100 years are characterized by a dramatic decrease of sediment transport due to a range of human activities (e.g. sediment mining and dams). The transition from a glacial to a non-glacial period controlled both sediment production in the catchment and sea-level change but local factors, i.e. large landslides and valley topography, had a major impact on sediment transfer, while the impact of human activities on the fluvial system has increased through time.

The Priabonian platform of the Venetian Prealps in the «flessura pedemontana» (southern Altopiano di Asiago and southern Monte Grappa Massif, Northern Italy): a case history of confused lithostratigraphic nomenclature

The Italian Stratigraphic Commission of the Societa Geologica Italiana is currently working to clarify and simplify the rather confused lithostratigraphic nomenclature of Italy, by publishing the «Quaderni CARG», devoted to a new catalogue of the lithostratigraphic units. Referring to this effort, the Priabonian limestones of the Pradelgiglio Fm. and Santa Giustina Limestone Fm. (both formalized lithostratigraphic units) represent a clear example of the proliferation of formation names during last decades. The examination and description of a new stratigraphic succession near Crespano del Grappa, located just midway between the small outcrop of the Santa Giustina Limestone Fm. (close to Possagno, Treviso province) and the easternmost outcrops of the Pradelgiglio Fm. (neighbouring of Bassano del Grappa, Vicenza province), allowed to confirm the hypothesis that these two formational names refer indeed to a single Priabonian carbonate platform extending throughout the whole area between the Astico Creek and the Piave River. Therefore, we suggest abandoning the name «Santa Giustina Limestone», which is a junior partial synonym of the older «Pradelgiglio Formation».

An expanded Cretaceous−Tertiary transition in a pelagic setting of the Southern Alps (central-western Tethys)

An integrated micropalaeontological (planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils), mineralogical and stable isotope investigation was carried out across the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary in a previously undescribed hemipelagic section (Forada section) cropping out in the Piave River Valley (Southern Alps, Belluno Province, NE Italy). Our results suggest that an apparently complete K/T transition with an expanded basal Danian is preserved in the Forada section. The K/T boundary is marked by a ca. 1.5-cm-thick clay interval intercalated in the pelagic carbonates of the Scaglia Rossa Formation. The boundary clay, characterised by an iridium anomaly, is constituted by a basal 1–2 mm-thick “green layer” and an overlying “red layer”. Below the boundary clay, the calcareous nannofossil Micula murus Zone and the planktonic foraminiferal Plummerita hankteninoides Zone, that characterise the terminal Maastrichtian in complete sections, have been identified. Virtually all the calcareous plankton biohorizons normally utilised in the early Danian have been recognised. Interestingly, the ranking of the various biohorizons is the same observed elsewhere if considering the single plankton groups separately, while several inconsistencies emerge if considering the relative succession of the two calcareous plankton groups simultaneously. We caution to infer hiatuses on a section based only on the spacing of the biohorizons of a single group because of the risk of diachroneities in the stressed early Danian environment. By comparing the “distance” of the key biohorizons (i.e. the First Occurrence (FO) of Cruciplacolithus primus and the Last Occurrence (LO) of Parvularugoglobigerina eugubina) from the boundary clay at Forada and in other complete classical sections, we have inferred that the early Danian is expanded in the Forada section. The section seems ideally suited for studying the recovery pattern of the pelagic ecosystem and calcareous plankton communities in the aftermath of the K/T catastrophe in a pelagic setting of the western central Tethys. The adaptive radiation of planktonic foraminifera was very rapid in contrast with the delayed diversification of coccolithophores. The latter show a ca. 21-cm-thick “dead zone” that is followed by a long-lasting survival interval (ca. 180-cm-thick, that might represent some 200 kyr) dominated by persistent Cretaceous coccolithophores and calcareous dinoflagellate Thoracosphaera spp. The temporal pattern in recovery of the coccolithophore and planktonic foraminiferal communities is decoupled as well pointing to their varying sensitivities to the K/T perturbation. It appears that the ecospace occupied by coccolithophores in the terminal Maastrichtian was occupied in the initial Danian by the calcareous dinoflagellates ( Thoracosphaera spp.), that remained a significant component of the assemblage up to the base of the Prinsius dimorphosus Zone of Romein [Romein, A.J.T., 1979. Lineages in Early Paleogene calcareous nannoplankton. Utrecht Micropaleontological Bulletins, 22. 231 pp.], probably in the early Chron C29n. On the contrary, planktonic foraminifera seem to reach stable conditions earlier, in the late Cruciplacolithus primus Zone. The early Danian interval considered is also characterised by low Sr/Ca ratio of the biogenic carbonates that would suggest dramatically low coccolithophore productivity conditions, in agreement with previous flux studies. We speculate that the altered ecological structure of phytoplankton community and the low productivity of coccolithophores severely affected the efficiency of the transfer of organic carbon from the photic zone to the deep ocean, thus supporting the early Danian “living ocean” model of D'Hondt et al. [D'Hondt, S., Donaghay, P., Zachos, J.C., Luttenberg, D., Lindinger, M., 1998. Organic carbon fluxes and ecological recovery from the Cretaceous–Tertiary mass extinction. Science 282, 276–279].

Mode and tempo of the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum in an expanded section from the Venetian pre-Alps

Mode and tempo of an expanded Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum section in the Venetian Pre-Alps

A Stochastic Multiple Players Multi-Issues Bargaining Model for the Piave River Basin

The objective of this paper is to investigate the usefulness of non-cooperative bargaining theory for the analysis of negotiations on water allocation and management. We explore the impacts of different economic incentives, a stochastic environment and varying individual preferences on players’ strategies and equilibrium outcomes through numerical simulations of a multilateral, multiple issues, non-cooperative bargaining model of water allocation in the Piave River Basin, in the North East of Italy. Players negotiate in an alternating-offer manner over the sharing of water resources (quantity and quality). Exogenous uncertainty over the size of the negotiated amount of water is introduced to capture the fact that water availability is not known with certainty to negotiating players. We construct the players’ objective function with their direct input. We then test the applicability of our multiple players, multi-issues, stochastic framework to a specific water allocation problem and conduct comparative static analyses to assess sources of bargaining power. Finally, we explore the implications of different attitudes and beliefs over water availability.

Downstream variation in grain size along an Alpine river: analysis of controls and processes

Downstream variation in bed material size was studied along a 115-km reach of the Piave River (Eastern Alps, Italy). This river drains a region producing high sediment yields and has a braided pattern along half of its length. During the last century, the river system has been affected by several human impacts (hydroelectric dams, diversions, gravel mining) which have strongly altered flow regime and sediment dynamics. The aim of the study is to analyse the changes of bed material size in the downstream direction and to explain these changes in the light of both natural and anthropogenic factors. Surface material was sampled at 35 sites using the grid-by-number method. The collected data give a detailed picture of the downstream variation in sediment size, which is characterised by a complex pattern rather than by a simple decreasing trend. An explanation of this variation was found through identification of discontinuities (significant steps in the downstream trend) and factors which can determine changes in sediment texture. Both natural (lateral sediment sources) and anthropogenic factors (e.g. barrages) are significant in this river system, and they provide an explanation for most of the observed discontinuities (seven out of eight discontinuities). Few tributaries disrupt downstream fining, while, as expected, the barrages produce important changes in sediment texture. Fining processes were investigated in the lower part of the study reach where the lateral sediment sources and the barrages have minor effects on the bed material. Exponential models provide acceptable explanations of the downstream variations and give fining coefficients equal to 0.027 and 0.028 km −1, respectively, for D 50 and D 84. Evidence suggests that both abrasion and sorting are important in determining the downstream fining observed, but it is likely that sorting is the dominant process.

“Scared sick looking at it”: A Reading of Nick Adams in the Published Stories

Adams, like Huck Finn, Jay Gatsby, or any other major character in American literature, is entitled to a life of his own, but is seldom allowed such imaginative separation from Ernest Hemingway. Autobiographical assumption is virtually automatic among those who write about Nick. On other hand, those who read stories generally become caught up in his experience, and eschew vast Hemingway scholarship, for time, to respond to as his own person. This, of course, is Adams that Hemingway, with his disdain for academics, wanted to present to us. [1] Hemingway's future readers will surely remember him for his short stories, whose style of writing and subject matter won him his initial fame and played such a large part in development of modern short story. Although Hemingway has a thriving society of scholars to celebrate his achievements, he must ultimately depend on general readers for his fame. This latter group is far less likely than scholars to remember his work after 1945, whose structural flaws, intrusive ego, and swollen prose at times make it seem antithesis of early great fiction. The short stories centering on have often been seen as loose configuration of a novel: creative writers from D. H. Lawrence to Joyce Carol Oates have so viewed them. Further, Philip Young's collection, The Adams Stories, though fleshed out with unpublished narratives, offered most of published Nick materials in one volume. A popular college textbook, it has prompted many readers to treat stories as stages of a novel. That is general approach taken here. Camp, with devastating trauma of its Caesarian section and suicide of Indian father, not only scarred Adams for life but also provided Hemingway with framework of his metaphor in developing Nick. The stark realism of first story was not something he used once and discarded. It went a long way toward explaining Nick, and Hemingway was not about to pass over it. What appears at first to be Hemingway's realistic detail in describing Caesarian is in fact basis for an extended system of metaphor, running through all of stories and contributing greatly to their unity. Hemingway returned to details, supplying new ones and integrating those of 1927 (Men Without Women) and 1933 (Winner Take Nothing) with original ones of 1922-25 (In Our Time). He took each important detail of Caesarian and began a sequence of images with it, story by story, in what Frank O'Connor called elegant repetition (159), a series of leitmotifs, of incremental metonymies, whose context s he juxtaposed and superimposed, in ever-complicating patterns, with always true center of experience but never escaping Indian camp. The night of horror inflicted the that never healed; physical wound at Fossalta came too late for such effects. The girl watching a childbirth on Karagatch Road (71) [2] at least got to cry, and might well have recovered, but appears never to have done so. The boy Nick's first sight of a naked woman involved, in rapid succession, full form with its burgeoning abdomen, pubes (resembling a beard), and confusing absence of a penis; then, piercing cut and explosion of blood, laying bare of internal organs, and tissue placed in his basin (68-69). Later, wounded by shrapnel at Piave River (276), he identified with Indian woman being held down for penetration by steel of his father's knife. The Caesarian had to be severely damaging, intensifying his natural fear of castration. Followed immediately by Indian father's gory throat-slashing, Caesarian fixed Nick's association of blood and death with sex, and his obsession with separation of body and soul, particularly at night. While life had come into world from mother's body in birth, it had gone out of father's in suicide. …

Growth folding and active thrusting in the Montello region, Veneto, northern Italy

The Montello is an elongated hill about 15 km long and 5 km wide located south of the Venetian Alps front and ∼100 km southwest of Gemona, site of the destructive Ms ∼6, 1976 earthquake sequence. Mio‐Pliocene strata in the core of the hill are folded. Seven Quaternary terraces across the western termination of the anticline have also been folded and uplifted. The terraces flank the abandoned Biadene valley, a former course of the Piave river which now flows eastwards along the north side of the hill. Topographic profiles along and transverse to the valley and terraces are used to measure the progressive development of the anticline. Fossil remains and archaeological sites dated with 14C suggest that the Biadene paleovalley was abandoned between 14 and 8 ka (11±3 ka). The successive terraces appear to have been emplaced at the onset of interglacials and interstadials, since about 350 ka. The best fitting terrace ages suggest vertical uplift rates of about 0.5 mm/yr before 172 ka and of about 1 mm/yr after 121 ka. The Montello thus appears to be a growing ramp anticline on top of an active, north dipping thrust that has migrated south of the mountain into the foreland. Modeling the deformation of the terraces as a result of motion on such a thrust ramp requires that it propagated both south and upwards with time but with a constant slip rate (1.8–2 mm/yr). For at least 300 kyr the lateral growth of the anticline kept pushing the course of the Piave river southwestwards, at a rate at first of 10 mm/yr, and then 20 mm/yr. Though the growth rate doubled more than 120 kyr ago, the anticline kept a constant height/length growth ratio (≃20) implying self‐similar depth/length growth of the thrust underneath. The clustering of historical earthquakes north of Treviso suggests that the thrust responsible for ongoing folding of the Montello slipped seismically three times (778, 1268, 1859 A.D.; intensity I ≥ VIII) in the last 2000 years, with events of maximum magnitude close to 6 and with average recurrence time between 500 and 1000 years. NW shortening on NE‐SW trending thrusts along the Venetian Alps front is compatible with the direction of convergence between Africa and Europe but does not suffice to absorb this convergence.

Channel changes due to river regulation: the case of the Piave River, Italy

Channel changes due to river regulation: the case of the Piave River, Italy

Channel changes due to river regulation: the case of the Piave River, Italy

This paper deals with the channel changes of the Piave River in the Eastern Alps, Italy, which have occurred during this century in response to human interventions in the fluvial system. The flow regime and the sediment supply of the river have been considerably altered by hydroelectric dams, flow diversions and gravel mining. In addition, river dynamics have been affected by the construction of streambank protection structures. To document these changes, a historical analysis was performed using maps and aerial photographs. Morphological features that were examined included planform configuration, channel width, braiding index and bed elevation. The results indicate that as a consequence of decreases in the flows and sediment supply, remarkable channel changes have occurred in the river during this century, especially during recent decades. The channel has undergone a general narrowing with a decrease in average width to 35 per cent of its initial value, while the braiding index has decreased from about 3 to 1·5. In several reaches the planform pattern has changed from braided to wandering. The observed trends of channel change suggest that the river has not yet reached a new equilibrium condition and it may, therefore, be predicted that reductions in width and braiding intensity are likely to continue in the immediate future. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Geomorphological study of the Fadalto landslide, Venetian Prealps, Italy

This research deals with the Fadalto landslide (Lapisina Valley, Venetian Prealps), which took place in the Lateglacial and has continued its activity until today. Our aim is to recognize how the landslide failed, the causes of such failure and the activity of this landslide. The study of this landslide is important not only to understand the geomorphological history of this alpine area, and why the Piave River modified its course in the Late Pleistocene, but also the links with human activities, and specifically with the road and rail network. The geomorphological study, carried out by the interpretation of aerial photos and by a detailed field survey, has been integrated with a geological survey, geophysical investigations and a morphometric analysis (DTM). The Fadalto landslide is considered to be a rockslide reactivated in various phases, with different dimensions and with different characters (slides, slumps and flows). The landslides have been provoked by natural causes, both external and internal; the fundamental external causes are the retreat of the Würmian glacier and tectonic activity; the internal factors that decrease the shear resistance are the bedding planes and joints of the bedrock, the attitude of the rocks dipping towards the valley bottom and, as regards more recent failures, the presence of glacial deposits underlying the landslide debris. Besides, in recent times, we must also consider human activity as a cause of slope instability. As to the activity, the Fadalto landslide is defined “dormant”. This means that in this area there is a geomorphological risk connected with the important road and rail network of the Lapisina Valley.

The Middle Triassic magmatic-tectonic arc development in the Southern Alps

The geodynamic meaning of the Middle Triassic magmatic and tectonic events in the Southern Alps is still uncertain. The main problem is the significance of the compressional tectonic structures recognized in the central Dolomites. In fact these structures are incompatible with the extensional geodynamic interpretation (crustal rifting) assumed by several authors. Therefore the compressional tectonic elements of the Dolomites have been mostly ignored or not seriously taken into account, or considered as local phenomena due to the volcanic-tectonic interplay. Other more modern interpretations are founded on regional transcurrent and/or transpressive tectonics. Recent discovery of a Middle Triassic thrust system located in the Piave River area (some tens of kilometres east of the central Dolomites) lends more credence to the compressional Middle Triassic event. The magmatic series of volcanic and plutonic Middle Triassic rocks display an “orogenic” character, with typical calc-alkaline trends recognized across the whole Southern Alps as well as in the Dinaric and Hellenic domains. Such a character is rather uncommon in the crustal evolution by rifting but is more in accord with a compressional geodynamic setting. Furthermore the time-space distribution of the South Alpine magmatic rocks, coupled with their petrochemical affinity, are close to the modern volcanic arcs. Nevertheless the general geodynamic context of the Southern Alps, owing to their pronounced ensialic character, does not fit the oceanic model.

Factor VII Padua defect: the heterozygote population.

14 heterozygote patients, belonging to three families with factor VII Padua defect were investigated. All patients were asymptomatic but presented a mild prolongation of prothrombin time. Factor VII activity varied between 45 and 61% of normal and no overlap was found with the homozygous or the normal populations. On the contrary, factor VII cross-reacting material was normal. A good negative correlation was found between factor VII level and prothrombin times. All patients came from the same valley of northeastern Italy. This valley, the Piave river valley, is not far from the valley where the factor X Friuli defect was found. The significance of this peculiar geographical distribution of the two abnormalities is unknown.