Negotiating Resettlements: The Power of Experts in Building Dams and Displacing Alpine Communities in Switzerland and Italy, 1940–1970

De Pretto, Sebastian (18 April 2023). Negotiating Resettlements: The Power of Experts in Building Dams and Displacing Alpine Communities in Switzerland and Italy, 1940–1970 (Unpublished). In: Dam scientists: exploring the role of hard sciences in framing the environmental impact of dams. Trient. 17.-18.04.2023.

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The construction and maintenance of a dam require many different experts. First, geologists decide whether a terrain is sufficiently stable. Afterwards, engineers and statisticians determine the appropriate construction design, and later hydrologists monitor the water quality above and below the reservoir. However, when a reservoir is to be built in an inhabited valley, experts are also needed to manage the planned resettlement. This involves assessing the value of properties, negotiating with villagers over indemnities, dismantling houses and, in some cases, building new settlements. In my presentation, I would like to discuss the importance of experts in resettlements due to reservoir construction in Switzerland and Italy that took place after 1945, when dam building in the Alps increased on an unseen scale until the 1970s. For what purposes did energy companies engage experts to organise resettlements? What was the function of expert evaluations to justify controversial reservoir projects in public? How differently did energy companies proceed in federal Switzerland compared to central-state Italy? I will explore such questions using selected case studies from the Alps that have barely been researched so far (e.g., the Lago di Vernago in South Tyrol, the Lago di Stramentizzo in Trentino, the Lai da Marmorera in Grisons, or the Göscheneralpsee in the canton of Uri).

The sources I refer to are expert reports, project documents from energy companies and articles on resettlements in newspapers and scientific journals. Generally, the paper asks how reservoirs affected societies living in and around their catchment areas, thus taking a socio-historical look at the history of hydraulic engineering in the Alps. With this topic, I address the first two questions of the conference, that is, the role of experts in dealing with civil society and how they strengthen state authority over peripheral regions through dam schemes.

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