Open Check Dams in the Italian Alps

Sedimentation in mountain streams is one of the major causes of devastating floods in the valleys of the Italian Alps. In recent years, numerous "selective" or "filtering" open check dams have been built in the Province of Trento. These new dams have been based on the concept of functional classes, with works customised to individual rivers and streams and their specific modalities of sediment transport. Given the dynamic nature of rivers and streams, basic designs that can be adapted to the features of a particular stream have been developed. The new open deck dams described in this paper variously combine two or more performance classes, with the final structure depending on the purpose the check dam must serve.