Levane Dam was built in 1955 on the Arno River (Italy) for the purpose of power generation. With the aim to reduce the downstream hydraulic risk in the Arno valley including the city of Florence, in 2000 the Water Authority proposed the heightening of the dam for increasing its flood storage volume. In 2015, the  Electricity Company ENEL carried out the design of  dam heightening whose reliability had  to be assessed through physical model experimentation.  The University of Florence was charged of designing  the laboratory hydraulic model and carrying out the experimental tests  aimed  at verifying  the discharge capability  and the length of the existing stilling basin for energy dissipation. Tests have been conducted on 1:60 scale  hydraulic model reproducing the dam structure and the surrounding  topographies  including  150 meters  of the downstream reach of the Arno river. The obtained results are in a very good  agreement with  full scale data available as in the present conditions and provide  a sound verification of the heightening design.

(by Prof.Luca Solari)