Water resource management in karstic catchments: the case of the Asso Torrent basin (Southern Italy)

The Recent Floods in the Asso Torrent Basin (Apulia, Italy): An Investigation to Improve the Stormwater Management

“…The Asso Torrent is a network of natural and artificial channels crossing urban and rural areas, flowing towards six swallow karst holes, locally named "vore" (singular vora, from Latin, means swallow or whirlpool ). The karst holes are connected to a regional karst aquifer, affected by seawater intrusion, providing about 75% of the local water supply (the hydrogeological setting is described in [10,19]). The basin is endorheic (i.e., it retains runoff within the watershed) and extends over 220 km 2 , excluding the area drained by an artificial sea channel (Figure 1).…”

“…This station was built in 2009 and was used until 2012 in the context of the urban stormwater management. During the huge flood of 2 November 2010 [10], a peak of 1.7 m was measured. After the construction of the new channel, the Canale Asso hydrometric station seems to have lost significance for the urban flood defense.…”

“…Besides the direct economic and social damage due to the floods, a further consequence of the persisting hydraulic disorder affecting the Asso Torrent basin (especially around Vora Manieri hole) regards the deterioration of the underground water quality and the harm to the public health. In fact, given that the STPs are undersized, the water flowing out of the channels may contain dangerous pollutants not filtrated by the karst vadose zone on top of the aquifer [10]. Also for this reason is it therefore necessary to find new effective and sustainable solutions to improve the stormwater management of the basin.…”

“…The dataset of the main floods affecting the lower course of the Asso Torrent before 2013 was described in previous works [10,11]. Even in consideration of the modifications of the course for the last hydraulic works, the past flood events can be compared to the ones described herein.…”

“…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]. Since the first works dated back to the 1920s, one of the main objectives was to prevent the floods.…”