Save Venice: the revolutionary project to raise the city up

Venice under threat

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Venice is one of the most iconic cities in the world and among the most visited in Italy. However, it is constantly threatened by the phenomenon of rising sea levels and subsidence, or the lowering of the land. The two phenomena combined significantly increase the risk of flooding in the city.

The phenomenon of subsidence

Venice under threat, The phenomenon of subsidence, The climate change factor, Mission: Save Venice, Pietro Teatini's proposal, Injecting water into the subsoil, A revolutionary idea, A simulation, A huge rise in 10 years, Caution required, Injections up to 1,000 meters deep, Addressing the problem elsewhere, A temporary solution, Risk of collapse, Project duration and cost

In the 20th century, Venice experienced the ground subsiding by about 30 cm, according to official information reported on the website of the city council.

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The climate change factor

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Among the various reasons for the sea level rise is climate change, a phenomenon that threatens not only Venice but also other cities around the world, including New York and Amsterdam.

Mission: Save Venice

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In a bid to try to "limit the damage", innovative technological proposals have been put forward in recent years. One of them is that of Engineer Pietro Teatini, professor of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering at the University of Padua.

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Pietro Teatini's proposal

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To counteract the effects of subsidence and rising sea levels, Teatini made a bold proposal: inject salt water underground to raise the city up.

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Injecting water into the subsoil

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In an interview with Wired, Teatini explained his idea, describing it as the opposite of what happened between the 1950s and 1960s, when a large quantity of water was extracted from a depth of about 300 meters in the port area of Marghera for industrial purposes.

A revolutionary idea

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Considering that extracting salt water caused the ground to subside, over the last 30 years, experts have realized that reversing the process by injecting water back into the ground could save Venice.

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A simulation

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“We simulated what would happen if we tried to inject salt water 500 meters deep, where it already exists, into a dozen wells, distributed along a 12-kilometer circumference with the center in Venice,” Teatini explained to Wired.

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A huge rise in 10 years

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According to Teatini, the city could rise up to 25-30 centimeters (about 9.8 to 11.8 inches) in 10 years. To accomplish this, it would be necessary to "accurately modulate the pressures to lift the inhabited area uniformly: but this can be done satisfactorily. In this way, we would go back half a century, canceling the damage of the water withdrawals of the past decades", Teatini told Wired.

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Caution required

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According to Teatini, low-pressure injection would avoid rock fracturing, and the uniform distribution of wells would ensure homogeneous lifting, minimizing the risk of structural damage to buildings.

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Injections up to 1,000 meters deep

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According to the Pragmatika web portal, the project involves the construction of about 12 wells arranged in a ring of 10 km in diameter, exclusively inside the lagoon. The injection of water at a depth of 600 to 1,000 meters (1968 to 3280 feet) will allow engineers to gradually and uniformly raise the ground.

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Addressing the problem elsewhere

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Venice is not the only region that would benefit from this project; the smaller islands of the lagoon and part of the mainland would also gain and thereby receive greater protection in the event of floods.

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A temporary solution

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According to the engineer, this project, although effective, has limitations regarding duration. Once the maximum lift is reached (about 30 centimeters), further injections may not bring benefits.

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Risk of collapse

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Furthermore, Teatini recognizes that interrupting the process could cause ongoing problems, which further emphasizes that this is an entirely temporary solution.

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Project duration and cost

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According to Pragmatika, the experimental phase will last two to three years, with an estimated cost of €30 to €40 million ($34-$45 million). The full-scale implementation would be three times cheaper than the MOSE system (a network of mobile dams to protect Venice), whose total cost has already exceeded €6 billion ($6.8 billion).

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