Environment

Venice thinks of ways to prevent flooding in their streets

by Amy Judd | January 23, 2009 at 03:06 pm

1103 views | 22 Recommendations | 8 comments

As Venice readies for the Carnival next month, they now have something else to contend with; the possibility of more floods. One of the most famous architecural sites in the world is slowly slipping away beneath the sea.

Due to rising sea levels and subsidence, Vencie has sunk 23 centimeters in the past 100 years and now its world famous palaces, churches and bridges are threatened by floods more than 50 times a year.

Last month, the worst flooding in 22 years caused the lagoon to rise more than 5 feet above normal, forcing tourists to bunker down in hotels and shopkeepers to put up sandbag barricades. One wakeboarder streaked across the waters that swamped St. Mark's Square.

It also rekindled controversy over a multimillion-dollar scheme to save Venice's art and architecture. Known as Project Moses, it entails the construction of 78 giant steel gates across the three inlets through which water from the Adriatic flows into Venice's lagoon.

The panels will be about 92 feet wide and 65 feet high and will be fixed to concrete in the sea bed. They will rise up out of the sea when the water levels rise.
It has been called 'Project Moses' and is expected to be completed by 2014.

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Pythiian1

at 17:55 on January 23rd, 2009

I certainly hope Project Moses will be successful as the artworks need to be protected and preserved....

Amy Judd

at 18:47 on January 23rd, 2009

I agree, some of the oldest and most beautiful in the world are there. Thanks for the recommend!

sfredrick

at 21:02 on January 23rd, 2009

Hi thank's for the request.. i think it's a nice site.

With my shot, I'd like to underline a positive point of view of the venice flood. It reminds us what a unique city it is as well as churches 'n stones.

actually media are promoting the moses system, but the local population know it is only an old (netherland did discard it years ago), expansive and more useless then useful tecnology.

think about history... since the beginning of his life venice have seen thousand's of floods in his "calli" and it made of it one of the most clean city of the past

sfredrick has contributed a photo to this story.

RAYANDBEE

at 00:38 on January 24th, 2009

Thanks for the request.

I have been visiting Venice on regular basis for about 20 years. Flooding has always been a problem that the city just accepts, until very high waters, then all the people in the know come out with "what we should do". The most obvious solution would be to join the 2 ends of the Lido to the main land, with tidal gates.Still in the end it is all down to money and politics. I would like to add that the decay of Venice does add the unique charm of the city.

rocketrobyn

at 01:26 on January 24th, 2009

This photo was taken the 28th of December, not long after the floods. During our visit there were few signs of the flood, and tourism seemed to resume without affect.

rocketrobyn has contributed a photo to this story.

generaldecay

at 04:58 on January 24th, 2009

Oh no! This is bad news indeed.

Jamie.Harris

at 06:42 on January 25th, 2009

I have no idea whether Venice is sinking or not, although when I was there last year St Marks was completely flooded and people were walking on boardwalks just to get across the square. Venice is one of the most beautiful places I have been and it would be a tragedy just to give it to the sea.

Jamie.Harris has contributed a photo to this story.

samj09

at 14:29 on January 31st, 2009

This photo was taken 3 days before the flood in 2008. Flooding has been a problem ever since, and will remain a problem, unless something clever will be done about it.

samj09 has contributed a photo to this story.