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Acqua alta: what is it and how can we deal with it ?

11/23/2019

5 Comments

 
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It’s time to discuss the recent events in Venice. I am writing this post with some delay, but I wanted to try and have a ‘cold mind’ about it (it’s colder than it was, but maybe I am still a little fresh out of it so please bear with me).
For those who might not have followed, last week Venice experienced some extreme high water events . Extreme, as the word says, means something out of the ordinary. High water events come due to spring high tides combined to winds from a direction that push water inside the lagoon, making the water level higher than expected. High water is in fact quite common in winter, and especially in November and March. This is because the ‘astronomical’ tide is already high in this period, due to the position of planets. During these particular periods, just a little bit of wind can push the water levels above the 90-100 cm levels, these are the levels with which some of the lowest areas experience some flooding (The iconic San Marco square is one of those low lying places).
So in these typical high water periods the water levels reach 100, 105, 110 cm.. but last week at its highest peak it reached 187. I hope it can give you some sense of what this may mean. Imagine getting out of the house and having to swim...

Now. This can be deemed as a natural disaster. Combination of water levels and very strong winds. Seems 'natural' enough. Climate change, however, is not helping the case, because sea level is rising and storm events are becoming more violent and more frequent (remember this ?). And as a matter of facts, the exponential increase in frequency of these natural disasters (predicted and mentioned by climate scientists)  is obviously visible in the graph below, depicting the number of extreme high water events by decades. So, this might have been in primis avoidable if we had started acting against climate change earlier, avoiding such strong storms..
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​but the real question is
whether the effects could have been avoided. I am not blaming the predictions, which were predicting quite high levels anyway, but I am blaming the management of the natural environment. Yes, because it was not just a high tide, but the speed with which the tide came in. It seems that the lagoon is losing some of its embayment properties and becoming more similar to the open sea, fact that is likely happening due to the narrowing and deepening of the inlets (‘''funny''’ enough, this is something that was done to allow the construction of the ‘''protective''’ barriers - the MOSE-that are not yet and likely never will be functioning). Already in the 1966  record high water event the blame was partially given to the deepening of the channel that was done to allow merchant ships in. I don’t want to get in the merits as to whether something that happened 24 years before I was born is true or not, but still I think it should be taken into consideration.. I for sure think that a better managed lagoon would have lessened the impacts. I would like to think that if back in the old old days the Serenissima had death penalties in place for those who mistreated the lagoon, there were some good reasons for it.. should we put those in place ? Maybe not, but at least reinstate some high level of respect for that environment that directly surround us.. 
in the meantime ‘duri I banchi’ (batten the hatches) as the predictions are not looking positive for the weekend....If you would like to follow you can check tide forecast here. Or, if you happen to be around Venice and wanting to see whether high water will affect you, you can download this easy to use app ( hi!tide Venice ) 
5 Comments
Kristína Danková link
11/24/2019 05:08:08 pm

Hey, this is a super interesting post. I was very sorry when I heard about what happened in Venice, it's crazy. But what do you suggest then that what could we do about it?

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Holistic Fish link
11/24/2019 06:55:34 pm

Hey! thanks for your comment
1) stop the mose, now. it is making more damages than good

2) fill some of the channels with sediments again. this means stopping cruise ships

3) doing some interventions that can be useful, putting valves and keeping the holes in the ground cleared to allow deflux of water. And do some targeted interventions for the lowest parts that can elevate the city

4) allow natural equilibrium of the lagoon. this means reinstating saltmarshes, seagrass beds and reefs..

Hope I have answered your questions, and thanks again for the interest :) I hope they will listen to us!

Reply
Addie link
11/26/2019 01:53:18 pm

Oh wow, it is so interesting that there used to be a death penalty for abusing the lagoon! There definitely should be stricter laws about abusing the planet no matter where you are. We have to take this more seriously. Like you said, scientists have been predicting this, and we see it all coming true. It’s too late to debate the validity. We have to make some serious changes and take better care of this planet!

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Hanna link
11/26/2019 03:28:28 pm

Thanks for the background information, I didn't know a lot of it! However, one conclusion almost always stays the same: we would have needed to start taking action to prevent climate change a long time ago...

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Gabriela Agape link
11/27/2019 03:08:04 am

I agree with all the comments here. Climate change is obvious, and so should be the need to take action. While I love seeing our community so committed to the cause, the biggest question remains: how do we convince the greedy millionaires who protect their personal interests over those of the planet? Sharing information certainly helps us grow the cause at the grassroots level - now how do we infiltrate those with the power to make a big change?

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