BELLO

SPAIN (see also List of Individuals)

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1.11.1866 Madrid/E - 8.5.1940 Madrid/E

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Severino Bello graduated in 1889 from the Escuela de Ingenieros de Canales y Puertos, Madrid to join the civil engineering Corps. He was first active in the Huesca Province along the French border, where he took over in 1903 the direction of the Pantano de la Peña Dam. Bello was asked to direct in 1915 the dam schemes of the Alto Aragón Region north of the capital, from where he joined in 1924 for nearly ten years the Consejo de Administración del Canal de Isabel II for Madrid's water supply. Around 1930, Bello had important positions in the Spanish Public Works Organisation, including presidency of the Spanish Energy Council, and membership of the Ministerio de Fomento. He was also the chairman of the first Spanish National Congress in 1913 on hydraulic structures, taking place in Zaragoza.

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Spain, a country where water is rare, accepted in 1902 the canals and barrage scheme consisting of 256 projects that included nearly 200 dams. Despite most of these were then at a preliminary planning stage, this scheme boosted dam construction, absorbing a busy generation of young engineers. During the first decade of the 20th century several dams were completed, including the important La Peña Dam built by Bello. Then, dams were generally medium-high of gravity type; the most important role was played by the engineer in charge of its construction. In 1913, Bello prepared a useful list of Spanish dams with a detailed analysis of cost. From 1924 to 1932 he managed Madrid's water supply system and finished the Puentes Viejas Dam on the Lozoya River.

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_{Anonymous (1940). Excmo. Sr. D. Severino Bello. Revista de Obras Públicas 88(2): 108. Bello, S. (1910). Un triunfo de la ingeniería. Revista de Obras Públicas 58(21): 389-395. Bello, S. (1925). Canal de Isabel II. Talleres Voluntad: Madrid.}

_{Bello, S. (1933). Memoria de canales del Lozoya, antes Canal de Isabel II. Consejo de Administración: Madrid.}

_{Castro-Orgaz, O. (2007). Severino Bello Poeyusán. Personal communication.}

_{González Quijano, P.M., Bello, S. (1932). Consejo de la energía hidráulica de España. Madrid. Gutiérrez Andrés, J., López-Camacho, B. (2004). A long-standing environmental problem of Madrid's water supply: The cloudy waters of Lozoya. Revista de Obras Públicas 151(3447): 39-52.}

_{Harris, R. (1969). Canals and their architecture. Evelyn: London.}

_{Sáenz Ridruejo, F. (2006). Dam engineers in Spain. Dams in Spain: 416-417. Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos: Madrid. P}