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The Cavour canal is an artificial canal built to support agriculture (especially rice cultivation) which originates from the Po in Chivasso and ends by discharging into the Ticino in the municipality of Galliate.

Its total length is almost 83 km; among the Italian artificial waterways it is the third in length, after the Emiliano Romagna canal and the Villoresi canal.
The inlet of the canal (the structure for taking the water from the Po river) is located 200 meters east of the Chivasso bridge
After 600 meters it come to the entrance sewer, i.e. the building that houses the sluice gates intended to regulate the flow of the canal. A short spillway channel located upstream of the sluice gates allows the excess water to be returned to the Po.
After a few kilometers in an easterly direction, the Cavour canal crosses the Dora Baltea with a canal bridge and receives the water supply shortly thereafter thanks to the Farini canal, which in turn captures the waters of the Dora near Saluggia. The water supply of the Dora Baltea, which has a hydrological regime characterized by summer floods and low winters (the exact opposite of the Po), is essential above all in the summer as it compensates for the serious flow deficiencies of the Po in that season. The Cavour canal then heads decisively towards the north-east and in the Lamporo area it enters the rice-growing area of the lower Vercelli area.
After having crossed the Elvo and Cervo torrents, its main direction returns to being towards the east. After crossing the Sesia, it enters the province of Novara where, near Recetto, it receives the water from the Alto Novarese branch. The canal then passes north of the capital, where in the locality of Veveri it receives the Regina Elena canal and immediately afterwards originates the Quintino Sella branch. After passing the Terdoppio, it heads towards Galliate, where it divides further into the Vigevano branch and finally flows into the Ticino 85 km away from its entrance

The work was entrusted in 1852 to the engineer Carlo Noè by the then president of the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Count Camillo Benso di Cavour.

Carlo Noè's project was approved by the Italian Parliament in 1862. Its actual construction took place between 1863 and 1866, and cost approximately 45,000,000 lire

The Cavour canal is a work that arouses wonder both for the speed of construction and for the constructive perfection obtained using only bricks and stones. Today, despite the technological evolution, a similar work would certainly require longer times: just think that as many as 101 bridges, 210 siphons and 62 canal bridges were built to cross roads and waterways
It can be said that for several decades the Cavour canal was the flagship of Italian and European hydraulic engineering, so much so that it is still considered the greatest hydraulic engineering work ever accomplished in Italy.

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