Po
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The Po river
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Country
| Italy
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Source
|
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- location
| Cottian Alps
,
Italy
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- elevation
| 3,700 m (12,100 ft)
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Mouth
| Adriatic Sea
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- elevation
| 0 m (0 ft)
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Length
| 652 km (405 mi)
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Basin size
| 71,000 km
2
(27,000 sq mi)
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Discharge
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- average
| 1540 m³/s
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The
Po
(
Latin
:
Padus
,
Italian
:
Po
, ancient "Eridanus") is a river that flows 652 kilometers (405 miles) eastward across northern
Italy
, from
Monviso
(in the
Cottian Alps
) to the
Adriatic Sea
near
Venice
. It has a drainage area of 71,000 km² and is the longest river in Italy.
It goes through many important Italian towns, including
Turin
(Torino) and (indirectly)
Milan
(Milano), in
Lombardy
. It is connected to Milan through a net of
channels
called
navigli
, which
Leonardo da Vinci
helped design. Near the end of its course, it creates a wide
delta
(with hundreds of small channels and five main ones, called
Po di Maestra
,
Po della Pila
,
Po delle Tolle
,
Po di Gnocca
and
Po di Goro
) at the southern part of which is
Comacchio
, an area famous for
eels
. The Po valley corresponds to the Roman
Cisalpine Gaul
, divided in Cispadane Gaul (South of the Po) and Transpadane Gaul (North of the Po).
The vast valley around the Po is called
Pianura Padana
and is so efficiently connected by the river that the whole valley became the main industrial area of the country. This river is subject to the authority of a special authority, the
Magistrato delle Acque
.
Roman poets sometimes referred to the Po river as
Eridanus
, which also has other meanings.
The main products of the farms around the river are cereals.
In 2005, water from the Po was found to contain "staggering" amounts of
benzoylecgonine
, which is
excreted
by
cocaine
users in
urine
. Based on these figures, cocaine consumption was estimated to be about 4 kg daily, or 27 doses per day per thousand young adults in areas that feed into the river?a number nearly three times higher than previous estimates.
[1]
On 4 May 2007, the river dried up in spots completely. Italy declared a state of emergency in the northern and central regions. The Alps had reduced snowfall the previous winter. It was the Alps's warmest winter in 1300 years. Experts said this could have been part of
global warming
.
[1]
There was some discussion about filling the river up by diverting water flows from large lakes and reservoirs in the Alps.
The Po showed the effects of drought again in 2017. By then, experts were even surer it was part of global warming, then called
climate change
.
[2]
Tributaries
include (R from the right side, L from the left, looking
downstream
):
- Saltini Antonio,
Dove l'uomo separo la terra dalle acque. Storia delle bonifiche in Emilia Romagna
, Diabasis, Reggio Emilia 2004
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Po river
.
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