Lago di Lei is a
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
in the
Valle di Lei, powering the Hinterrhein
storage power stations. The reservoir is almost entirely in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, but the barrage was built on territory ceded by Italy to
Switzerland (municipality of
Ferrera,
Grisons) in 1955 after diplomatic talks, while an equivalent sized territory further north of the lake was ceded to Italy in the exchange.
The dam is operated by
Kraftwerke Hinterrhein.
The waters of the lake are the only waters in Italian territory that drain to the North Sea, being part of the Rhine's drainage basin. Other waters of Italy that do not flow to the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
are found in the valley of
Livigno
Livigno (; local lmo, Livígn ; german: Luwin) is a town, ''comune'' and a special-administered territory in the province of Sondrio, in the region of Lombardy, Italy, located in the Italian Alps, near the Swiss border.
History
Livigno's firs ...
, valley of
Sexten,
Puster Valley
The Puster Valley ( it, Val Pusteria ; german: Pustertal, ) is one of the largest longitudinal valleys in the Alps that runs in an east-west direction between Lienz in East Tyrol, Austria, and Mühlbach near Brixen in South Tyrol, Italy. The S ...
east of
Innichen, and most of the waters of the municipality of
Tarvisio
Tarvisio (German and fur, Tarvis, sl, Trbiž) is a comune in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Italy.
Geography
The town is in the Canal Valley (''Val Canale'') between the Carnic Alps and Karawanks rang ...
east of Sella Nevea: all these waters flow to the Black Sea through the basin of the Danube.
See also
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List of lakes of Switzerland
This article contains a sortable table listing all major lakes of Switzerland. The table includes all still water bodies, natural or artificial, that have a surface area of at least , regardless of water volume, maximum depth or other metric. The ...
*
List of mountain lakes of Switzerland
This is a list of high-altitude lakes in Switzerland. It includes all significant lakes, natural or artificial, with an area over 4 hectares and a height over 800 metres above sea level. This height approximately corresponds to the transiti ...
References
External links
Hinterrhein storage power stationsKraftwerke Hinterrhein increase efficiency thanks to modern technology article about renovation of power plant that included drainage of the Lago di Lei reservoir.
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ttp://www.khr.ch/portrait/anlagen/valle-di-lei.html&lang=2 KHR: ''Valle di Lei: il Reno è anche un po' italiano''
Lei
Lei
Lei
Lei
Lei
Province of Sondrio
Italy–Switzerland border
Lei
Ferrera
{{Sondrio-geo-stub