Italian water lakes and Lakes of Alban & Central Italy

The lakes system of Central Italy, consisting of five medium-sized lakes (Trasimeno, Bolsena, Bracciano, Vico and Albano) and eight other smaller ones, collects a total volume of water equal to 15.6 km³, approximately 11% of italian hydro-lakes resource, and it is the second, in Italy, after the Alpine lakes disctrict of Lombardia region.

The water balance for lake Bracciano, Albano and Nemi was resolved in the period between 2000 and 2005, the works highligth various criticality, but essentially, a decrease of the hydrometric levels for all three lakes. At the same time, the quality of the surface waters was studied and a widespread state of pollution was detected, especially in the summer period and in areas characterzed by a greater anthropogenic pressure.

The work also highligth that the loss of the level of the lakes is essentially due, for lake Bracciano, to exasperated water withdrawals which were particularly intense in 2007, while for lake Albano to a decrease of groundwater recharge.

It is therefore necessary to deepen the level of hydrogeological investigation to evaluate the recharge of the aquifer, at this regard, in the context of the nascent “Contract of lake Albano, Nemi and Incastro river”, some sholars have given their willngness to contribute to the study of the problem with the aim of proposing solutions to what that appears to be as an “irreversibile swamping” of the lakes of Central Italy.