Bollettino della Comunità Scientifica in Australasia

Ambasciata d’Italia CANBERRA Agosto 2005

Italo-Australian cooperation: Politecnico di Torino – Melbourne University Elena Comino

In 2002 Land, Environmental and Geo-Engineering Department of Politecnico di Torino and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Melbourne University (Victoria) start co-operation on water management. Students and researchers has been exchanged between both Institution. This cooperation it is still in developing. In december 2004 Prof. Hector Malano, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Melbourne University (Victoria), has been invited at Politecnico di Torino. During his permanence many academic activities and technical visit has been carried out. Undergraduate, graduate and PhD students in Ecologic and River Hydrolic has been involved. Land, Environmental and Geo-Engineering Department and Hydraulic, Transport and civil Infrastructure Department Valley Region has been involve. A number of responsible of Agricoltural Centre Region, have participate with interest and active cooperation, especially concerning the Technical visit.

Workshop on “Water Management in Irrigation System. Water Allocation and Water Trade” Workshop aim has been firstly to present water resource management, conservation and saving in Australia, focused on Murray- Darling Basing, Victoria State, secondary to present case history and to supply suggestion on reality geographically so different with ours, but similar on environmental topics. We have summarised some information carried out from the debate. The lecture started with a brief presentation of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of Melbourne University (Victoria), it’s researches topics, the international cooperation and then on the recent and innovative water management techniques.

Water resourches: availability and localisation In Australia the rainfall is quite low (469 mm/year)1 and the distribution is not homogeneous and no foreseeable both in the space and in the time. For that reason is very important to rationalize the water use. In the East part of Australia, superficial soil is very permeable so in the subsoil there is a big underground basin: the Artesian Basin which extension is 2 million of km2. Unfortunately a big part of this water has got a high salt concentration so is not exploitable. The Australian rivers are short, the flow is low and in the northern part there is an high tropical evaporation. The water quality got worse when the water demand increased because of the population growth. In the last 20 years climatic condition are changed. As a consequence the natural resources, water and soil, have suffered modification and alteration. Besides water resourches it is not available where it is necessary and sometime if available , it’s not good quality.

Environmental problems 48 Bollettino della Comunità Scientifica in Australasia

Ambasciata d’Italia CANBERRA Agosto 2005

Salinity, dryness and esondations non predictable: are the primary environmental aspects involve in water resource. Soil erosion and increase in water request, can cause conseguence on use and management. Solution could be activate to promote the use of more efficient systems of irrigation, that means to substitute the flood irrigation with the drip where it is possible and the sprinkler in the other cases (pasture for example). In this way it would be possible to save between 12% and 22% of water that also means an increase economically value. The % water use is distributed: % pasture 35 crop 27 civil 12 orticolture 10 rural 8 industry 3 mining 2 other 3

Water management and Murray Darling Basing The current policy is to use in the best way both the existing infrastructures and the available water resources. In Australia, States and Territories manage natural resources, water resources too, and the COAG (Council of Australian Governments) is the coordinator. Water management and distribution in Australian Territory it’s done with “water trade”: each farmers has some right and licence on water use. With the water market, rights and licences can be sold separately from lands so every farmer can choose if use, sell or buy volumes of water. This choice is regulated by the comparison between economical advantage that would be possible to obtain selling or using the water ( referred to agricultural production). Nowadays this “market” it’s in developing with great results and benefit, not only economica but even environmental.

Murray Darling Basin2 The studied irrigated area is the Goulburn-Murray, located in the Victoria State (south-east Australia) and belonging the Murray-Darling Basin. The Murray Darling Basin is situated in the south-east Australia, covers 1061469 km2, that is about 14% of total Australia area. The Basin area is mostly flat, but include the Great Dividing Range and the Kosciusko, the Australian highest point (Fig. 1).

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Ambasciata d’Italia CANBERRA Agosto 2005

Figure 1 Murray-Darling Basin

The Basin occupy 1/7 of the entire Continent, the population is 2 million3. It occupies ¾ of New South Wales, ½ of Victoria, a part of Queensland and South Australia and the Capital Territory (Canberra). The Basin is so wide that even the climate changes: from the deserter at West to the sub-tropical in the north-east. In the Murray-Darling Basin flow the two main Australian rivers: the Murray (2530 km), the Darling (2740 km) and effluents like the Murrumbidgee (1690 km). A big part of the Big Artesian Basin correspond with the Murray-Darling Basin, but the groundwater is not used very much because of the high salt concentration that is not good in agriculture field. The water resources of Murray-Darling Basin are very important for Australian rural activities: in this Basin is produced the 40% of the total Australian revenue. In the last 100 years the Basin changed very much because of dams construction. Water is now stored during the wet season and distributed during the dry season or during dry period in the States of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. The Basin is very important under an environmental point of view; here there are 30000 wet areas, someone important at a world level. Dams changed the natural flows so the ecosystem changed too: now there is a little water during the wet season because the water is in the dam and many water during the dry season because the water is traded to irrigated areas. The flow change, vary the natural habitat so many native animal and plants can’t survive.

Technical visit The objective of the technical visit was to show to the Australian guest the water resource management in a small mountainous Italian region. In particular the group visited: the Aosta functional centre, the Place Moulin dam, the “f.lli Ronc” hydroelectric central and two medieval bridge-channels.

- Functional centre

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Ambasciata d’Italia CANBERRA Agosto 2005

The national function centre system aim is to realize a national network of operative centers for the “alert system”; the functional centre activities (forecasting, monitoring and survey in real time of events and consequent effects on the territory) represent a support in: -decision of alert responsible authorities of different components of National Service of Civil protection; -actuation of communal and provincial “emergency and civil protection plans” in different phases of emergency management. -The Functional centre network task is to meet, to concentrate and to integrate: -qualitative and quantitative data noticed by: meteo-hydro-pluviometric network, national radar-meteorological network and satellite platforms available for the Earth observation; -territorial hydrologic, geologic, geomorphologic data and the data followed by monitoring system of landslip; -meteorological, hydrological, hydro-geological and hydraulic models.

The aim is to supply a continuative service during the whole year, even during 24 hours a day when it is the case, in order to support the responsible authorities in alert decision and in emergency management, such a to sustain the operative necessities of civil protection systems. The national alert system is composed by: -forecasting phase composed by: meteorological, snow, hydrological, hydraulic and geomorphologic situation evaluation and effects of this situation on life, goods, settlements and environment; -monitoring and surveillance phase divided in: i) quantitative and qualitative observation, direct and by instruments, of meteo-hydrological and idro-geological in action events, ii) short forecasting of effects through meteorological now casting and/or flow-outflow models based on measure collected in real time.

During the visit a technician of Territory, Environment and Public works Department, showed the Autonomous Region functional centre: it was possible to observe the instruments and methodologies available and used by technicians. Finally we analyzed, from available data, some recent flood events that affected the Region.

Visit to the functional centre of Aosta Valley Autonomous Region at the Territory, Environment and Public works Department offices

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Ambasciata d’Italia CANBERRA Agosto 2005

Place Moulin Dam () The dam that form the Place Moulin lake is an arch-gravity structure in concrete and is located in Bionaz Municipality. The stream intercepted by the dam is the Buthier that belongs to the hydrographical Basin; works begun in 1961 and finished in 1965. The complex supply the hydroelectric central. The main dam data are: -height from the more depressed point of foundation: 155,00 m; -maximum thickness at the base: 41,94 m; -thickness coronamento: 6,44 m; -volume of the dam: 1.510.000 m3; -maximum level of the storage capacity: 1.968,00; -minimum level of the storage capacity: 1831,00; -useful storage capacity 105.000.000 m3; -catchment basin surface 137,00 km2. During the technical visit a technician of “Compagnia Valdostana delle Acque” showed the main characteristics of the structure and the internal visit allowed observing all the elements of the structure.

Place Moulin (Bionaz)

Internal visit of Place Moulin dam

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Ambasciata d’Italia CANBERRA Agosto 2005

F.lli Ronc hydroelectric small central () The “F.lli Ronc” hydroelectric small central, located in Oyace Municipality, is part of a project for the electric energy production by insertion, on the main part of the waterworks, of small whirlwind. In the same time the whirl winded waters are controlled in order to verify the portability of waters that will be exploited for human use. In the structure both the analysis and the conditioning treatment are done in an automatic way and the measured data are transmitted in real time to the waterworks manager (in the Introd Municipality). The electricity production at this level could be considered important, mostly if we consider that the tele-conduction centre, that use people available 24 h, control flow, portability and energy production: the saving is directly connected with the improvement of the service. During the visit, a “F.lli Ronc” technician, showed and described all the technologies working in the small central.

Control room-hydroelectric central of “F.lli Ronc”

Medieval bridge-channels Grand Arvou and Petit Arvou (Aosta)

In Aosta Valley irrigation channels from the construction period till the beginning of Nineteen, did not evolved very much from a technological point of view. From a technical point of view, irrigation channel can be defined a practical means, a 53 Bollettino della Comunità Scientifica in Australasia

Ambasciata d’Italia CANBERRA Agosto 2005 constructional work, that canalize waters from streams and sources, in order to carry waters in the cultivated areas. The old irrigation systems were generally composed by: water intake, feed channel witch way was mostly in quota, and a variable number of secondary derivation and discharge channels that brought waters in the cultivated areas and overcame the extra waters. Furthermore, channels normally had, along all the way, an inspection path, used by the channel guard and by irrigation users. In order to overtake natural obstacles was necessary build load-bearing arch structure in heap of stones and mortar of lime, on or in witch there was the channel bed. Grand Arvou and Petit Arvou, both build in Neyves and Serrod of Porossan, in the Aosta Municipality, are among the few examples of this kind of medieval architecture still in function. They guaranteed the waters conveyance- of Ru Prévôt and Ru Champapon – in the stream Parléaz, through two adjacent crossings. During the technical visit, a technician of Agriculture, Natural resources and Civil protection Department explained the Aosta Valley irrigation system history; after that was possible visit the bridge-channels structures inside. The collaboration with Melbourne University such as the activities done during the Prof. Malano visit, allowed to the Politecnico students to know the main aspects related with water resources management in a territory so far away from them but comparable in many aspects. Not only, it was also a reflection moment for teaching staff about the importance of increase collaboration and exchange with Professor of international repute. For that reason we wish that collaborations between different Athenaeum can continue and increase in terms of opportunities and activities, also in accordance with the Internationalization project that Politecnico di Torino started some years ago.

1 Data from the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology (http://www.bom.gov.au/) 2 Information about Murray Darling Basin from the official website (http://www.mdbc.gov.au/) 3 Data about Murray Darling Basin and about Australia from Australian Natural Resources Atlas (http://audit.ea.gov.au/)

Prof Elena Comino Dipartimento di Ingegneria del Territorio, dell’Ambiente e delle Geotecnologie Politecnico di Torino - C.so Duca degli Abruzzi, 24- 10129 Torino (I) Email: [email protected] Tel. +39 011 564 7647

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