Efficiency and susceptibility to failure of torrent control works in the Autonomous Province of Trento (northern Italy)

In the territory of the Autonomous Province of Trento, requent and widespread floods, debris floods and debris flows have urged the construction of control works, especially check dams. The performance of these structures is usually good, however the ageing of the check dams built in the past decades requires expensive maintenance works. Moreover, the failure of check dams may substantially increase hazard and risk, as it was demonstrated by a recent debris-flow disaster (Rotiano creek, 29 October 2018). Establishing the priority for field inspection and possible repair of check dams requires an approach suitable for application at the regional scale. To perform this task, a simple index, which takes into account both variables related to the check dam (age, height, material) and to the site where the check dam is located (landslides, geolithology) has been developed and it is currently under evaluation.