Venice is composed of 118 islands situated in the lagoon of the Gulf of Venice. This shallow, enclosed bay spans 550 square kilometres in the northern Adriatic Sea and surrounds Venice and its islands. The city is approximately four kilometres from the mainland and two kilometres from the open sea. Renowned as one of the most famous tourist attractions in the world, Venice has been grappling with increasing flooding for decades.

Venice has become a symbol of the effects of global warming and the climate crisis. It is widely known that the city will soon be underwater if negative trends are not reversed. A new study by experts from Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) analysed data on rising tidal levels. The results showed that part of Venice will become submerged by 2150.

Scientists predict that parts of Piazza San Marco, the heart of Venice and one of its most famous locations, could be permanently submerged under 70 cm of water. The western part of the city is expected to be one of the first to sink. This area has already experienced 58 instances of flooding between 2019 and 2023.

INGV researcher Marco Anzidei warns, "Sea level increase, particularly if accelerated locally by subsidence, is leading to increasingly severe and widespread coastal erosion, beach retreat, and marine flooding with very significant environmental and socioeconomic impacts for populations."

Venice will not give up without a fight. MOSE, a system of mobile barriers at the entrances to the lagoon, is already operational and will reach full functionality by 2025. The gates are raised during high tides to prevent water from entering the lagoon and the city. However, Euronews reports that this 'miracle solution' is only a short-term fix.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2021 report predicts an increase in mean regional sea level by 2100 of 28-55 centimetres in the most optimistic scenario of the effects of global warming. In the most pessimistic scenario, the rise will be 63-101 cm. At this water level, the mobile barriers would have to be raised so often that Venice's port industry would lose its purpose, and the lagoon itself—normally refreshed by the tides—would become a fetid swamp.

A group of environmental scientists from the University of Padua advocates for greater protection of the lagoon's salt marshes. These marshes are crucial for flood protection as they act as buffers, shielding the city from high tides. They are also a powerful carbon sink.

Source: euronews.com