Integrated modelling to support a multifunctional management of the network of canals in the city of Padua

Integrated modelling to support a multifunctional management of the network of canals in the city of Padua

In several cities across the world, restoration efforts are targeting degraded urban water bodies, which are starting to be perceived as valuable blue-green infrastructures supporting biodiversity and human well-being through the provision of socio-economic benefits. Based on this perspective, urban water bodies require proper multifunctional management plans which account for the multiple functions and benefits they can provide. The development of integrated management plans remains however a challenge due to the complexity of urban water bodies, an issue also reflected by the scarce availability of operational model-based decision support tools, which are needed to achieve the ambitious goal of multifunctionality. The urban canals of Padua, representing the case study for the project, are a complex system, of profound historical, cultural, social and ecological significance. After decades of degradation and neglection, the citizens and authorities of Padua are rediscovering the value of its internal water courses. However, a proper restoration and regeneration of the canals must face the problems with their water quality, which is seriously affected by the inadequacy of the sewer and drainage system of the city resulting from the quick demographic expansion and soil waterproofing, which determine the frequent discharge of organic matter, nutrients and pollutants carried by wet-weather flows directly in the canals, especially through combined sewer overflows. These issues are exacerbated by changing climatic extremes, as demonstrated by the drought crisis of summer 2022. A better understanding of water flows and water quality dynamics in the canals, and their relationship with the human activities and weather, would be crucial to design the structural interventions to reshape the sewer network of the city which would be needed to solve these water quality issues permanently, as well as to inform a careful management of the canals system and its hydraulic structures which could mitigate these issues to a significant extent in the meanwhile.

The goal of the project is to explore quantitative trade-off solutions in urban river management satisfying both hydraulic safety and environmental quality requirements, which typically demand contrasting measures, to support a multifunctional management of urban water systems and foster the rehabilitation and the valorization of such environments in terms of ecosystem services provision.

The core activity of the project is the gradual development of an integrated model for simulating water levels and flows and water quality indicators in the network of canals of Padua. This main activity is by a series of activities that run in parallel with the modelling effort, comprising: monitoring activities to extend the scientific knowledge about the studied system (e.g., topographic and hydraulic surveys, dry-weather and wet-weather water sampling and analysis, hydraulic tracer experiments); exchanges of information with local water-related stakeholders.