Benefits of best management practice measures in flood management

Infrastructure and agricultural production are extensively damaged by extreme flooding in many countries. Many international aids are involved in the short-term problems due to excessive floods. Instead, long term solutions and investments are required to get more durable protection of agricultural lands and infrastructure. BMP (Best Management Practice) is a holistic approach that aims to minimise negative impacts on the natural water cycle and protect the health of aquatic ecosystems. Among the BMP key principles are to protect existing natural features and ecological processes, to maintain the natural hydrologic behaviour of catchments and to preserve the quality of surface and ground waters. Although BMP are mainly employed in the design of urban development, resort to this kind of measure is possible also in agricultural lands. In this work the concept of BMP was applied to the experimental catchment of Mostacciano in Rome, Italy. To perform the analysis the software SWMM 5.0 (Storm Water Management Model) was used. The model was calibrated by available rainfall and discharge data. Different scenarios were built and evaluated in terms of flood peak and volume reduction.