Features of Italian large dams and their upstream catchments

Abstract

In Italy, a complete and updated database including the most relevant structural information regarding reservoirs and characteristics of their upstream watersheds is currently missing. This paper tackles this gap by presenting the first comprehensive dataset of 528 large dams in Italy. Alongside structural details of the dams, such as coordinates, reservoir surface area and volume, the dataset also encompasses a range of geomorphological, climatological, extreme rainfall, land cover and soil-related attributes of their upstream catchments. The data used to create this dataset are partially sourced from the General Department of Dams and Hydro-Electrical Infrastructures as well as from the processing of updated and standardized grid data. These include a DEM from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, national-scale monthly maps of hydrological budget components, land cover and vegetation index data from the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service as well as high-resolution maps of soil particle size fractions. This dataset (Evangelista et al., 2024a; 10.5281/zenodo.12818297), which contains information not easily available in other similar global or national data collections, is expected to be of great help for a broad spectrum of hydrological applications, particularly those related to floods.