What is the current situation in the water city of Venice?

Haha, maybe that’s a bit wrong

China Daily website news: When mentioning the water city of Venice, one can’t help but think of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and the famous traveler Marco Polo. This world-famous town is located in northeastern Italy, 160 miles east of Milan, and is known as the "Pearl of the Adriatic". However, Venice, as gorgeous as glass and as fragile as cicada wings, continues to sink at an alarming speed in the eyes of people all over the world. In order to save the city from being submerged by seawater, scientists have proposed two rescue methods: building flood control gates and injecting seawater underground to raise the entire city of Venice.

***The sinking "Pearl of the Sea" Venice, the world-famous water city, is composed of 117 islands in the center of the Venetian Lagoon, which eventually flows into the Adriatic Sea. The origins of the city of Venice can be traced back to AD 452, when people came to the islands of the lagoon to escape the invasion of Arati, the Hun king. From then on, water, this natural barrier, protected them from thriving safely on the island for generations.

Water was once Venice’s patron saint, but now it has become Venice’s biggest enemy. Many factors such as the drift of continental plates, rising sea levels due to global warming, and massive exploitation of groundwater have caused the entire city to sink by 23 centimeters in the past century. Experts predict that this rate of sinking will continue to intensify, and it will only take as little as 50 years for another 23 centimeters to sink. Now, Piazza San Marco, the center of Venetian life, is only 30 centimeters above the warning water level. Every winter, the area is hit by about 60 floods, and the flood rate is six times what it was 100 years ago.

***Flood control gates and seawater injected into the ground

In order to prevent this gorgeous ancient city from completely sinking into the water, the Venetians launched the construction code-named "Moses" in 2003 Plans for flood control gates. They will build 79 floating locks at the entrance to the lagoon. When the water level is normal, the 300-ton sluice is filled with water and remains still at the bottom. Once the water level exceeds the warning line by 1 meter, air is injected into the sluice, the water is discharged, and the sluice rises. The entire project is expected to be completed in 2011. But this measure alone is far from enough to stop Venice from sinking.

For this reason, Gamborati, a scientist from the University of Padua in Italy, proposed a bold plan: to use technology commonly used in the oil industry to inject seawater into the ground and raise the entire city of Venice. According to a report in The Times on July 23, Gamborati expects that the project will inject 18 million cubic meters of seawater into the ground every year over the next ten years, thereby raising the entire city by approximately 30 centimeters.

According to Gamborati's plan, seawater will be injected into the sand and gravel layer 600-800 meters below the lagoon, thickening this layer by 40-50 meters. Since the sand and gravel layers are protected by impermeable clay layers above and below, seawater will only drain laterally, which is why Gamborati insisted on continuous water injection for 10 years.

At present, this plan has gained widespread attention. The Venice authorities will allocate funds next week to conduct a feasibility study on the plan. An engineer involved in the discussions said that if the plan is feasible, then "it will greatly reduce the impact of sea level rise on the city of Venice in the coming years."