In the history of navigation, ship canals have been constructed for a number of reasons, for example to create a shortcut and avoid lengthy detours, to create a navigable shipping link between two land-locked seas or lakes, to provide inland cities with a direct shipping link to the sea or to provide an economical alternative to other options. A ship canal is especially intended to accommodate ships used on the oceans, seas, rivers or lakes to which it is connected. Ship canals may be especially constructed from the start to accommodate ships, or less frequently, they may be enlarged barge canals, or canalized or channelized rivers. Surely, among the international strategic ship canals, we must consider the Panama Canal, which links the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, creating a critical shortcut. After many years of functioning and non-stop service, the existing locks became small for new vessels, which number of units is increasing. There is a growing demand that the existing locks could not take care of due to the dimensions of the locks. Therefore, the necessity of a new, wider and larger set of locks arose and Italian building firms are involved in the construction of the new canal. The paper presents a brief history of the Panama Canal and its new recent development. The operation of the Panama Canal involves a variety of hydroenvironmental and legislative issues, such as water resources management, navigation, municipal and industrial use of water, flood control, climate prediction and ecological conservation of bodies of water. The paper presents also this aspect of the Panama Canal construction.

La storia ha evidenziato l’importanza della navigazione come sistema di trasporto di uomini e merci. Ovviamente con tali presupposti da sempre il sistema dei trasporti, in particolare quello marittimo, ha richiesto attenzione in termini di efficienza sia per quanto attiene alle questioni di costi e sicurezza sia per i tempi della navigazione. Storicamente i canali sono stati costruiti per creare un collegamento tra due mari o laghi al fine di evitare lunghe deviazioni, o tra due mari o laghi senza sbocco, o per rifornire le città dell’entroterra via mare, o, ancora, per fornire un’alternativa economica ad altre opzioni. Il Canale di Panama, che collega il Mar dei Caraibi all’Oceano Pacifico, rappresenta certamente uno dei canali di navigazione più strategici a livello internazionale. In questo articolo viene presentata brevemente la storia del Canale e i suoi recenti sviluppi di ampliamento, resisi necessari per l’utilizzo delle più grandi navi portacontainer e portagrani, che vedono ancora in prima linea alcune imprese italiane. La realizzazione del Canale di Panama ha richiesto una serie di soluzioni ingegneristiche estreme e di avanguardia, che certo hanno comportato diverse problematiche di carattere idraulico, ambientale e legislativo, quali la gestione delle risorse idriche, la navigazione, l’uso civile e industriale delle acque, il controllo delle inondazioni, le questioni climatiche, la conservazione ecologica dei corpi d’acqua, di cui si dà cenno nella memoria.

Un dente di squalo come souvenir del Canale di Panama / Calvo Gobetti, L. E.; Mossa, Michele. - In: L'ACQUA. - ISSN 1125-1255. - 2015:1(2015), pp. 27-35.

Un dente di squalo come souvenir del Canale di Panama

MOSSA, Michele
2015-01-01

Abstract

In the history of navigation, ship canals have been constructed for a number of reasons, for example to create a shortcut and avoid lengthy detours, to create a navigable shipping link between two land-locked seas or lakes, to provide inland cities with a direct shipping link to the sea or to provide an economical alternative to other options. A ship canal is especially intended to accommodate ships used on the oceans, seas, rivers or lakes to which it is connected. Ship canals may be especially constructed from the start to accommodate ships, or less frequently, they may be enlarged barge canals, or canalized or channelized rivers. Surely, among the international strategic ship canals, we must consider the Panama Canal, which links the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, creating a critical shortcut. After many years of functioning and non-stop service, the existing locks became small for new vessels, which number of units is increasing. There is a growing demand that the existing locks could not take care of due to the dimensions of the locks. Therefore, the necessity of a new, wider and larger set of locks arose and Italian building firms are involved in the construction of the new canal. The paper presents a brief history of the Panama Canal and its new recent development. The operation of the Panama Canal involves a variety of hydroenvironmental and legislative issues, such as water resources management, navigation, municipal and industrial use of water, flood control, climate prediction and ecological conservation of bodies of water. The paper presents also this aspect of the Panama Canal construction.
2015
Un dente di squalo come souvenir del Canale di Panama / Calvo Gobetti, L. E.; Mossa, Michele. - In: L'ACQUA. - ISSN 1125-1255. - 2015:1(2015), pp. 27-35.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11589/5941
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