Is Venice doomed?

[silenus]

@Bear_Nenno

Many people! It’s filthy; covered in algae and dog feces the local pet owners can’t be bothered to pick up. Speaking of locals, they are spiteful, rude and unappreciative of the visitors who actually sustain their existance. I can’t stand Venice. No one who has ever spent any amount of time in that city actually likes it. “Huge dissapointment” is a common description.

I won’t miss it.

Seconded in all ways. Won’t miss it a bit.

[md2000]

@Colophon

Don’t worry; it doesn’t.

As for Venice, the Moses barrier is due to be completed next year, although quite where the money to finish it will come from, given Italy’s current finances, I don’t know. That combined with building up quaysides should help matters somewhat.

The last time I saw aqua alta starting, almost a decade ago, the water was oozing out the drains in St. Marks square too. They need more than higher quays. Oddly, the water in the square was clear, even where it was over a foot deep. The canals are also a nice bright green, from algae I assume, and although Ive heard comments about the smell, even in 30-degree heat (85C or more) I didnt see it. There is floating garbage in some canals, since a lot of modern gabage, like plastic bottles and foam containers, floats. The only dog I saw was standing on the front of the owner`s kayak being paddled through the backstreet canals.

They do have the problem that it is a very trendy and in-demand tourist location. As a result, rich tourists are squeezing out locals. The population is aging rapidly as younger people seek other careers on the mainland; its expensive to raise a family. Rich foreigners and Hollywood stars own the most expensive properties and often leave them empty much of the time.

The biggest problem was land subsiding due to water being pumped out of the aquifer from the mainland. Since they banned this, the sinking has pretty much stopped. Whether it will rebound if or when the aquifer fills, and how fast, is anyone`s guess. The real question is whether global warning will raise sea levels enough to flood most waterfronts around the globe.

IIRC, Venice does not even experience significant tides, being in a lagoon at the end of a very narrow sea on the not-very-tidy mediterranean. Thus, unlike many atlantic ports, you do not have that 6-foot plus difference.

The barriers, when done, are supposed to only be raised when it is extreme tides - around full an new moon in the spring and fall. The rest of the time, the lagoon ecology is supposed to work as it always has. The problem is that misguided attempts to landfill parts of the lagoon by the shore may have disrupted the natural flow which flushes the lagoon regularly. Time will tell. Nobody expects Venice to be gone in short order.