Wow, what a whirl wind of a weekend in Venice! It didn’t take us long to understand why the beautiful city has been nicknamed the “City of Water.” We spent the last three days exploring the city, getting lost in the labyrinth of city walls and canals, and learning about the challenges presented by maintaining the lagoon and its resources. In particular, the issue that I was focused on was water levels within the lagoon and how the city has addressed the issue in the past and the unfortunate struggle ahead that it faces. It is important to understand that the lagoon water is considered public good, as well as the ports, channels and sandbanks; therefore its maintenance is in the hands of the public and publicly elected government.

Although the Magistrarto alle Acque, or the Water Department that still exists today, was officially created in 1501, water levels in Venice have been a problem since the beginning of the 14^th century. The Water Department, comprising of six elected authorities, is the highest institutional authority for the control and management of the water as a public good. One of the largest components of the rising water levels in Venice is soil erosion. To address this problem and protect the coasts of the lagoon, the Venetian Water Department created the Officiali ai Lidi, or Surveyors on the Littorals. Almost from the beginning, there have been conflicting ideas on how to deal with these issues and protect the lagoon. One particularly noteworthy consult engineer of the Water Department, Cristoforo Sabbadino, was chiefly concerned with safeguarding the lagoon and not compromising its natural equilibrium, while another engineer, Alvise Cornaro, was more focused on land reclamation for urban expansion and in hydraulic re-definition of the lagoon.

On our second morning in Venice, our group had the opportunity to meet with a representative of the World Wildlife Federation’s office in Venice who was able to speak with us about the modern day approach and current projects of the Water Department in combating the rising water levels and soil erosion around the City of Water. Currently, the largest investment the Water Department has made in addressing water levels is a $1.7 billion dam which will be fully operational by 2016 whose purpose is to prevent extremely high tidal waters from flooding the city. The iron dam will rest on the bed of the lagoon on a sort of hinge. When high tidal waters are predicted, air will be pumped into the dam, forcing the water out and allowing the mechanism to float to the surface, creating a barrier between the mouth of the lagoon and the rest of the sea. 

The WWF representative also explained how large cruise ships are quite literally deepening the problem by docking so close to the city. The large waves created in their wake displace soil and sediment below the city and carry it out to sea. As a response to this issue, the Water Department has considered forcing the ships to dock outside the lagoon. However, in order to do this, it would be necessary to dig deeper into the channels of the lagoon originally dug out for nautical navigation and industrial ships in order to allow the ships to pass. Unfortunately, this would increase soil erosion by widening the mouth of the lagoon to sea, allowing for more sediment to be carried away.

Water issues in Venice, though ancient, are no things of the past. The Water Department is continually presenting ideas and researching possibilities in order to save their city from rising water levels and soil erosion. With few viable options, and much skepticism over the true potential of current projects, our class wondered if the government should consider Venice a “sunk cost” and begin spending resources on evacuating the city and moving things elsewhere.