Dam failures in the 20th century: nearly 1,000 avoidable victims in Italy alone

The frequency of large dam failures all over the world, with a high toll of lives lost, pinpoints the still unsolved problems of risk resulting from the presence of large dams in built-up areas. Some of these failures and other related incidents took place in Italy in the past century. This paper discusses the three worst cases of dam failures occurring in Italy, analyzing the causes which led to collapse. They are the dams of Gleno (1923), Molare (1935) and Stava (1985)