Author(s): Sara Venturi
Email (s): sara.venturi@unipg.it
Institution or organization of origin: University of Perugia
Country: Italy
Abstract
The study of large shallow lakes involves many perspectives, including climatology and hydrology, water resource management, environmental and socio-economic point of view. In shallow water bodies, the balance between water supplies, evaporation losses and use of water resource is often extremely delicate and unstable and, therefore, the variability of the climate and the related hydrological parameters have a significant impact on the water body, in particular on the water level of the lake. Trasimeno lake (Umbria region, Italy) is a shallow lake with very important environmental and socio-economic characteristics, but it is also significant for physical characteristics that make it extremely sensitive to the climate and its variability. In this general framework, Trasimeno lake presents some critical problems in the management of hydrological extreme events, both drought and flood. If the latter, since Roman times, has been addressed with the construction of hydraulically regulated artificial emissaries, the consequences of drought, with the resulting decrease of the lake level, still represent a reason for study and analysis, especially from a perspective future sustainability of the current configuration of the lake’s overall drainage basin. This basin, after a first expansion in 1962, has not undergone any further structural intervention to increase the water volume flowing into the lake. Therefore, the present study aims to outline the future scenarios for the management of the lake levels and the possible governance actions to mitigate the critical impacts of the drought.