SortAlvare Venice has been an appeal that has resonated for decadesshared by experts of different training, scientists and humanists. Moreover, the Republic of Venice already dealt with this problem in 1501, when he established the figure of Water magistrates, in charge of the creation of large works of hydraulic engineeringso Murazzi were built over the centuries and the rivers diverted from the lagoon, to prevent the excessive transport of sediments.
The climatic crisis has made this chronic challenge an emergency. According to the study published by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in March 2025, for example, today it is expected that the faster increase in the waters, combined with the structural lowering of the soil, will multiply the power and number of floods so much from make the Mose ineffective (the system of mobile barriers that protects Venice from high water) By 2100 and to send 139 square km in 2150.
Like all threatening forecasts, this also induces the temptation to ignore it. “Instead, it is now that you have to work on the future scenarios of Venice, form the people who will take care of it and find the solutions to guarantee the physical and cultural survival of the city” he says Andrea Rinaldo, hydrologist engineer which taught in Padua and Lausanne. Is the only Italian ad Having won the Stockholm Water Prize in 2023, the so -called water Nobelfor studies on water networks and the transmission of diseases in them. Is also scientific advisor of the Iuav, The university that forms architects, designers and urban planners in Venice, as far as the sea is able to.
Just the IUAV “will activate from October 2025 new courses to give headquarters and a project to the need to rethink the future of the city” he explains Anna Saetta, Vicaria proretrice of the IUAV University of Venice, full professor of construction technique at the University.
Anna Saetta, prores of the Iuav University of Venice, with Andrea Rinaldo, engineer and hydrologist, scientific advisor.
Professor Rinaldo, the climatic crisis causes extreme events, floods, the sinking of islands and coasts. What role does Venice play in this context?
The lagoon city, in over 900 years of life, has had to manipulate the environment that surrounds it to arrange the spaces, some also extraordinary, which constitute it. But Venice cannot be considered the avant -garde of what is happening in coastal areas around the world, from which you can imagine moving inhabitants and settlements elsewhere. Here we must preserve an environment that is not replicable, both the built and the natural one, and an economic and social model suitable for the city. While paying attention to itself, however, this approach can make the city an example, of how one should behave in the face of the damage caused by climate change, using good science and good design.
IUAV headquarters of Tolentini (Luca Pilot)
But isn’t the city now protected by Mose?
The Mose (acronym for an electromechanical experimental module) is a bargaining system designed to temporarily separate the lagoon from the sea and defend Venice from exceptional tides. And not only. With climatic warming – which multiplies extreme events – and the natural gradual lowering of the city, the risk of flooding is increasing. It is true that the bulkheads block an increase of three meters of water and that this could guarantee for a few decades the effective operation of the system, also taking into account the laying of the seas. But using too often the Mose or even using it without interruption could affect the ecological and geological diversity of the lagoon and also have consequences on the present fauna.
Why is the climatic crisis so tied to water?
There are those who argue that temperatures are already comparable with today’s history in the history of the planet. But the problem is how quickly the progression of independent indicators accelerates. The diagrams that are obtained from the data are the so -called “to hockey bats”, that is, they show the almost vertical climb of values, that relating to the increase in global temperatures, but also those of an economic and social type. This situation suggests that he has reached the point of no return everywhere. And at the center of these, ecological and social upheavals, there is water.
Anna Saetta, IUAV university proretrice of Venice
What to work on, to report a balance?
There are three issues to deal with: full, drought, and the right redistribution of water. All important but for the experience I have also gained on the field, also taking care of the health emergencies, and for which I was rewarded, I would focus on the third. With a premise: today the per capita wealth, a fact that underlies great migration, is measured on the availability of drinking water. In Italy it is believed that each individual consumes 260 liters per day, in sub-Saharan Africa the quantity per family is often the one contained in the 25/30 liter plastic bussolotti that women bring to shoulders drawing in well of water water wells where there is inside everything. That is, unless women, more travel per day.
In the face of this, both in Africa and in Haiti, the poorest country in the world, where I have been to the outbreak of a cholera epidemic conveyed by infected waters, access to safe drinking water is for a few, and it is the certain sign of wealth, but a mobile phone really have it. Is it not scandalous that the infrastructure has been built with the investments of third countries to use a mobile phone and not to guarantee sewers, water transport systems or waste disposal? That’s why I believe that the question of water and its access has become a filter that measures how much the policy is willing to pass the scientific proposals.
IUAV CA Tron (Luca Pilot) headquarters
Science and politics. Who will save Venice?
When there is a problem with many possible solutions, which involves many interests, which activates many conflicts, the method of international consultation is used to identify proposals. It was made by the urban planners for the great Paris, for Geneva, for Brussels. Among those who apply, seven groups are trained, each of which deals with a specific question. Each work team receives conspicuous funds, and a year to present their ideas. The theme to be proposed in this case? “Imagine a lively and vital Venice at the end of this century, given the more seaside meter with which to deal.” It means guaranteeing a transition ecosystem, a life to the lagoon, at the 15 thousand homes of the historic city open to navigation. The material produced could be converted into a large exhibition and deposited available to politics, which may, indeed, will have to choose the projects to deal with. The important thing is to start dealing with it: it took 60 years to create a work that had no alternatives like Mose, and now it is essential not because it is the solution of a chronic problem but because it gives time to understand what to do in 70 years. What is missing? The money, five million euros. That will come. From private individuals, entities, institutional and no, of high international profile, by those who really have Venice to heart.
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