In about 100 years even the entrance ticket to the city of will no longer be enough Venice. The famous “Venice is beautiful, but I wouldn’t live there” could become reality much sooner than we imagine.
A new study byNational Institute of Geology and Volcanology puts us in front of a reality that we have known for a long time, but we pretend that it doesn’t happen: by 2150 several areas of the city of Venice will end up under The level of sea. Among these, also the symbolic place of the city: Piazza San Marco. If you still don’t believe it, know that researchers have seen how “Sea level rise, particularly if this is accelerated locally by subsidence, is causing increasingly severe and widespread coastal erosion, beach retreat and marine flooding with very significant environmental and socio-economic impacts on coastal populations.” What are the solutions to take then?
The solutions
According to the study, there is a need for greater participation from all actors involved (citizens, institutions, scientists, engineers, architects, companies etc.) to find together a series of solutions that concern both adaptation to climate change: such as building a city at a higher level, the construction of embankments or, in the most extreme cases, the implementation of policies to relocate citizens towards more inland areas. Solutions must be taken gradually, based on the criticality of the situation. The MOSE is one of the latest examples of how structures can help man coexist with nature in some specific areas. Even if, as Umgiesser explained to us, the MOSE is able to withstand the current storm surges and not those that could occur with a higher sea level due to the increase in temperature above the threshold of 1.5°C.
Another solution, perhaps the most extreme, is the thesis put forward by some scientists according to which it should be necessary close the Strait of Messina and the Suez Canal.
Meanwhile, the authors of the INGV study showed what had already been anticipated by the IPCC: the effects of sea level rise will increase in the coming decades, and by 2150 will reach about 1.5 meters. This means that Piazza San Marco could sink approximately 70 centimeters below sea level, due to subsidence, a phenomenon whereby, also due to anthropic causes, the ground could sink compared to its current level.
