Numerical model application for the restoration of the Racconigi Royal Park (CN, Italy)

After years of neglect and an almost complete lack of maintenance, the Racconigi Royal Park was in an inevitable and widespread state of decay. This decay also involved the waterways that were designed in the nineteenth-century by Xavier Kurten (1811–1840). The seasonal lack of water and the agricultural needs of the farms around the Park made it necessary, during the planning stage of the restoration project, to consider the practicability and the effectiveness of some measures that were conceived to optimize the operation of the restored waterways, without altering the historical structure of the system. The realization of a hydraulic numerical model of the system, which is briefly illustrated in the first part of this case study, resulted to be the most suitable tool to study different possible solutions of the problem. The model simulations in fact helped the restorers put into effect the right remedies to favour the correct flow of the water, to make the whole historical system more efficient and to make its future maintenance easier.