Birgi River
The Birgi is a river in the Province of Trapani, which debouches in the Strait of Sicily between Marsala and Trapani.
Course
The river arises in the territory of the comune of Buseto Palizzolo, where it is called the "Fittasi" river. It flows through the territory of the comune of Trapani and a small part of the comune of Paceco. On its way to the sea, it is joined from the left by the Cuddia river, which provides the majority of its annual water supply and is dammed to provide a water reservoir, called Lake Rubino, which has a capacity of 11.5 million cubic metres of water and a surface area of 1.57 km2.
Further on, the river receives another tributary, the Chitarra River. Subsequently, the name of the river changes to the Mercanzotto, then the Chinisia, and finally the Birgi. In total the river is about 40 km long and its hydraulic basin covers an area of 330 km2
Altered course
The natural mouth of the river was in the frazione of Marausa.[1] The construction of Trapani Airport in 1961 required the course of the river to be moved two kilometres south and an artificial channel was built which now forms the final section of the river.[2][3] The new course of the Birgi with its new levees was built long before the airport itself - the airport was built at the end of the 1950s, while the channel was built before 1940. The new channel is made of concrete and can be seen already in military aerial photographs from 1955.[4]
References
- ↑ IGM Map with the natural course of the river before the canal.
- ↑ IGM Map with the modern course.
- ↑ Istituto per l'Ambiente Marino Costiero, Unità fisiografica-paesaggistica n. 1 “Stagnone”: Il nuovo estuario artificiale è stato realizzato, per motivi di pubblica utilità (realizzazione di strutture aeroportuali), 2 km più a sud
- ↑ IGM Aerial Photographs
External links
- "Osservatorio delle acque" (PDF).