PO RIVER BASIN (ITALY)

Hydrology

The basin has the densely hydro-meteorological station network. There are 1123 rainfall gauging stations and 131 water level and discharge gauging stations. There are also 1080 stations measuring water tables (Artina, 1990).

The Po River has 141 main tributaries and the related river network has a total length of about 6,750 km. The hydrological network extends from the Southern Alps to northern Apennines of Emilia-Romagna. The Po River is snow melt driven and is characterized by a mixed discharge regime: part alpine with spring/summer floods and winter droughts, and part Apennine with spring/autumn floods and summer droughts (Water2Adapt). The average annual flow rate at Pontelagoscuro is 1,510 m3/s (PRBA, 2007).  The highest streamflow occurs in springs due to precipitation and snow melting. Another streamflow peak can be observed in autumn due to precipitation. The Maritime and Ligurian Alpine area is characterized by lower specific discharge and by higher value of evapotranspiration that limits river flow (Ravazzani, 2015).

References and further reading:

Artina et al. (1990) Water resources planning of the River Po basin: a surface and groundwater hydrology study, in: The Hydrological Basis for Water Resources Management 197: 427-437.

Mysiak et al. (2013) Economic impacts of drought on agriculture, in Research Papers, Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici.

Montanari (2012) Hydrology of the Po River: looking for changing patterns in river discharge, in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 16: 3739-3747.

Ravazzani et al. (2015) An integrated Hydrological Model for Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources of the Upper Po River Basin, in Water Resources Management 29: 1193-1215.

Turco et al. (2013) Variation in discharge, precipitation and temperature in Po River and tributaries basins, Impacts on Soil and Coasts Division.

PRBA (Po River Basin Authority) (2007) Introduction of Po River Basin Authority.

Po River Basin Authority (2013) Vulnerability to drought of  the Po River Basin: Issues and Challenges, www.abdpo.it