Matthew Carroll
History of Art & Architecture 213
Professor Schmitter
April 24, 2020
Venice has of course endured a long history of flooded streets and high water, christening the tragic phenomenon “Acqua Alta,” but the most intense floods have been those that occurred most recently. Of the ten highest tides in recorded Venetian history, five have been in the last twenty years. The most recent tide, measuring six feet above sea level, the highest since 1966, occurred in 2019.1
Venice’s greatest feat of environmental engineering was supposed to have been the MOSE project, whose construction began in 2003, set for completion in 2011, then 2018, and now 2022. And, while officials say that if MOSE had been completed on time the city might have been spared the consequences of the deadly flooding event of 20192, there is yet to have been any proof of the gate’s eventual effectiveness. Now seventeen years old, the gates are lightyears behind the modern coastline prevention technology trends of the 21st century. According to Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli, an oceanographer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Venice’s problem-solving panel, “We have evidence that Venetian engineers drafted mechanical contraptions to hold back the sea as long ago as in the 18th century.”3
MOSE’s aim may not even be ambitious enough to prevent against newer, higher estimates for sea level rise over the next hundred years - the gates were meant to defend against 2 feet of rise. Since then, climatologists have been grappling with a much wider range of scenarios, though, some far beyond the expected 24 inches of gain.
Civil and environmental engineers have made some advances in the last twenty years towards finding better, more effective mechanical solutions for mitigating the effects of climate change, including improvements to levees, dams, super dikes, and sea walls. Effectively either serving as barriers to keep a city dry from high water, or moats to hold that water in place. These simple solutions, as well as more complex, mechanical ones, like the MOSE gates, are all considered gray infrastructure.
“Gray infrastructure” is a catch-all term for any man-made, mechanical solutions to environmental engineering problems, and Venice is not the only city to have implemented it on a massive scale. Following New York City’s flood damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the city implemented its $10 billion ‘Big U’ plan in order to keep stormwater from hitting critical neighborhoods like lower Manhattan.4
New Orleans levees failed spectacularly during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but have since been rebuilt to much more advanced standards, especially considering the heightened expectations for storms in the near future.5 In terms of climate change mitigation, gray infrastructure has been compared to putting a bandaid on a gaping wound: the general consensus among engineers is that gray solutions are not sustainable long term. Often large-scale gray solutions, like MOSE, take years of planning, building, and billions of taxpayer dollars to complete.6
Green infrastructure is the 21st century alternative to concrete walls and dirt levees, trading intentionally designed. In most situations that would pertain to the Italian coastline, including Venice (tip: an island archipelago is effectively nothing but coastline), this means physically extending the coast, which can be accomplished by either adding sediment onto the edges of coastal areas (as was done in New Orleans) or replacing existing human developments with naturally resilient alternatives.
It’s important to note that unlike gray infrastructure, the primary purpose of green infrastructure is not to keep floodwaters away from populated areas but rather to make cities more resilient to it. Floodplains, coastal forests, and marshes are being designed in many locations worldwide, specifically to absorb floodwater and give it a safe place to go. The idea is that even if the waters cannot be kept at bay, their impact can be mitigated.7
As an immediate response to Venice’s catastrophic Acqua Alta in 2019, minister of education Lorenzo Fioramonti announced in November that Italy would be the first country to mandate climate change and sustainability education as for every one of the nation’s public schools, coming out to about 33 hours per year, or one hour a week. The state has also told teachers specializing in science and technology to try to study their subjects from the “perspective of sustainable development.”16
Environmental scientist Dr. Valerie Trouet and archeologists have suggested that the most effective way for Venetians to protect their city may not be through any particular engineering solution at all, but rather a slow, intentional resettlement process; an “ecological urbanism” approach that will allow residents to better understand what parts of the city they may need to let go.17