Physical environment and flooding in Venice: flooding

factsheet
Images, charts, and the sources follow the tabulated information
QUESTIONS THAT KEY POINTS PARAGRAPHS
PARAGRAPHS ANSWER
How has the frequency of >Venice’s worst Compiled by Carlotta Dagnino, Eleonora
flooding changed in Venice? flooding Baldan, Francesco Barbato, Asia Colmagro,
th
occurred on 4 Arianna Semenzato
November 1966
What problems is this causing? In recent decades, floods (acqua alta) have
>smaller floods become even more frequent and intense due
are a regular to a simultaneous rise in sea level and drop in
occurrence land level. Today the lagoon area is more than
which cause ever at risk of a catastrophic event such as
serious that of 4 November 1966 when an
inconvenience exceptionally high tide of 194cm completely
and structural overwhelmed Venice, Chioggia, towns and
problems villages in the lagoon and the islands. In this
event, inundation by sea water severely
damaged agriculture on the lagoon islands.

Every year, while not reaching such a high

level as 1966, dozens of floods, nevertheless,
cause serious inconvenience to citizens and
lead to the slow deterioration of buildings and
the lagoon ecosystem as a whole.

Of the 10 exceptionally high tides (+140cm

from 1897 reference point) recorded in the
past hundred years, at least 8 occurred after
1960. Moderately high water (over 80cm
above the 1897 reference) is now a much
more frequent occurrence. In the early 20th
century this typically occurred less than 20
times a year. From the 1990s onwards it has
often been 80 to 100 times a year.

The increased frequency of flooding means

that the impermeable Istrian stone foundations
of canal-side buildings are more often over-
topped causing damp to penetrate and
corrode masonry.

There is also an economic cost associated

with loss of business during times of acqua
alta and the cleanup costs afterwards.

What are the causes of more >Venice has For reasons detailed in the Lagoon
frequent flooding? dropped about environment factsheet, Venice is subsiding
 30cm relative to and sea level is rising. Since a reference point
sea level since for mean water level was established in 1897,
1897 Venice has dropped about 30cm relative to
sea level.
>High tides of a
given level now Therefore high tides that in the past wouldn’t
flood a greater have caused widespread flooding, are now
% of the city able to do so.
than used to be
the case An acqua alta (high water flooding) is defined
as the tide reaching a level of at least 80cm
above the 1897 reference point at Punta della
Salute (which is in fact just 50cm above
today’s mean water level).

Normal high tide reaches up to 80cm above

the Punta della Salute reference. ‘Intense’
high tide reaches up to 110cm above, ‘very
intense’ is up to 140cm above, and
‘exceptional’ is over 140cm.

St Mark’s Square and Basilica start to flood

when the high tide reaches about 70cm. Very
intense high tides (+110cm) flood over 14%
Venice and now it is not unusual for this to
happen ten times in a year.

About 90% of the city is flooded by an acqua

alta that reaches 140cm.

What is the municipality of >The MOSE Compiled by Carlotta Dagnino, Eleonora

Venice doing in order to system is a Baldan, Francesco Barbato and Flavia Pozza
prevent exceptional tides? major hard and researched by Pascal Tchen, Max
engineering Vaughan, Francesca Drago, Catalina Josanu,
project Eva Mariotto, Charlie Broad, Alex Carruthers,
Francesco Bellati
How does the MOSE work?
The MOSE project is a hard engineering,
>The MOSE is preventative measure. It is a mobile tidal
due to be barrier scheme designed to close (to isolate
operational by the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea) when high
In what ways is the MOSE 2018 water of 110cm or greater is forecast.
controversial?
4,000 people are employed directly and
>The MOSE is indirectly in the construction of MOSE,
not designed to including about 1,000 in the worksites at the
prevent all flood lagoon inlets.
occurrences in
Venice. It will It is made up of 4 mobile barriers and 78 flap
only be used to gates. It is an integrated system consisting of
protect against rows of mobile gates installed at the Lido,
the large events Malamocco and Chioggia inlets that are
designed to withstand up to a 3 metre high
 tide. The work has required about 5,500
>The MOSE million euro and they started building it in
system has 2003. It is expected to be completed in 2018,
both economic but might be later than this.
and
environmental The cost in building the MOSE system has
impacts been large (around €5.5 billion) and there
have been setbacks to its construction.
Corruption with the funds provided has also
been a problem.

The MOSE scheme should also prevent the

erosion of the seashore that faces into the
Lagoon of Venice by preventing waves coming
from the Adriatic Sea.

The running and maintenance costs of the

scheme may exceed 10 million euro a year.

Environmental issues include the physical

impact on the lagoon ecosystem of the
materials used in the MOSE construction, and
(when the gates are closed) prevention of
lagoon/sea exchanges which are important for
the lagoon ecosystem.

Closure of the MOSE gates interferes with

shipping, which is one of the reasons the
system will only be used to protect Venice
against very intense high tides

With sea level set to continue rising, MOSE

will play a role protecting Venice from the
worst effects of this. But this does not, by
itself, solve the root cause of the problem.

What other potential solutions >Other With research by Tom Austen, Laith
exist besides MOSE? solutions exist Belkacem, Marta D’Este, Johnny Wallace,
to mitigate the Gaia Schiavon, Francesca Colpo
flood risk, each
with various It has been suggested that billions of gallons
pros cons of seawater could be pumped into the ground
to "inflate" porous sediments under the canal-
crossed city, theoretically raising it to offset
previous subsidence. This would be
technically difficult and very expensive.
>A multi- Other hard engineering such as sea walls
faceted could be constructed to defend certain areas
approach to
managing the Forbid access to the lagoon of the largest
Lagoon of ships and bring numbers of ships below the
Venice is current level of 300 p/a. This would reduce
 necessary
bank erosion and the scouring of the lagoon
bed, therefore returning the lagoon to
>There are both something closer to its natural bathymetry,
large scale, and thereby also slowing tidal flows. To achieve
more local this, a shipping terminal could be built on the
scale measures seaward side of the lagoon and visitors could
to mitigate be shuttled into the lagoon on smaller boats.
flooding
The lagoon could also be brought back to a
more natural state by replanting saltmarsh
vegetation to hold sediment in place (soft
engineering).

Managed retreat could occur in mainland

areas bordering the lagoon to turn them into
flood relief systems, or areas where water can
collect to stop the lagoon water level
becoming too high; but this would require loss
of agricultural land and the resettlement of
people.

The ground level of Venice could be raised,

but this would impact negatively on the
architectural heritage of the city (i.e. raising of
floor level causes burial of steps and the base
of doorways, thereby damaging the
architectural proportions of buildings).

More money for various flood mitigation

measures could be raised through a tourist tax
(e.g. as exists at Palau).

Continue investment in community

preparedness, e.g. flood warnings, and
temporary raised walkways (duckboards) of
which Venice can install about 4km length of
these.

SOURCES

The Science of Saving Venice (Fletcher & Da Mosto)

Acqua in Piazza: water levels in Venice, trends and adaptations (Da Mosto and Mencini)
http://www.venicethefuture.com/schede/uk/358?aliusid=358
https://www.mosevenezia.eu/?lang=en
http://93.62.201.235/maree/DOCUMENTI/
D_Alpaos_ICPSM_L_evoluzione_morfologica_della_laguna_di_Venezia_2010.pdf
http://www.silvenezia.it/?q=node/56
GRAPHICS

● Diagram showing the dates and heights of ‘exceptional’ acqua alta (high water at or above
140cm) on the right hand side, and the numbers of ‘very intense’ acqua alta (over 110cm)
per decade:

Instances of acqua alta per decade © Venice the Future

http://www.venicethefuture.com/schede/uk/358?aliusid=358

● Chart showing the number of very intense (110cm and above) acqua alta that have
occurred from 1872 to 2015 plotted by month:

Monthly distribution of high tides © Venezia

http://www.comune.venezia.it/archivio/2973