The Venice case study in Powerful Geography 1 addresses the "People, patterns and processes" topic in the preliminary course. It has been written to address Study 1: Human resilience in diverse environments. Spatial patterns and characteristics of the environment This case explores the location of the Venetian Lagoon, the characteristics that attracted a settlement to the area, the challenges of natural tides, flushing and flooding and the way Venice was formed. Human ingenuity and resilience Venice is a very complex site and throughout its history its residents have had to use ingenuity to address a range of challenges. Tides, lack of fresh water, unstable and insufficient land, natural hazards and transportation all posed challenges to building the city. Venice’s construction is an example of ingenious workmanship and an engineering marvel. Construction on the islands of Venice required (and requires) a lot of draining of water, digging and dangerous, hard work even for basic construction. Another challenge is mass tourism and its impacts such as environmental and cultural issues, closure of local businesses, increased cost of living, overcrowding from tourists and population decline. Impacts and responses to change
Venice’s physical geography and location in Venice lagoon contributes to its susceptibility to flooding. The worst flood in Venice’s history occurred in November 1966 and in 2019 a tide of water over 1.8 metres hit the city of Venice. The daily tides impact on sea levels by around 50cm, but can be more extreme. Most flooding in Venice is caused by the Acqua Alta, or “high water”, a very high tide combined with significant winds such as the Scirocco or the Bora. In addition, the city of Venice is slowly sinking due to subsidence. The frequency and severity of floods is increasing as a result of climate change. Sea water expands as a result of the heating of the water from higher atmospheric temperatures. As well, sea level rise from melting of ice over land is increasing sea levels. Flooding is becoming more extreme, frequent and unpredictable Venice is built on its people’s ability to assess challenges and apply traditional and contemporary knowledge in a unique setting in innovative ways, to continually assess changes and adapt and carry out ongoing maintenance to the city to ensure its viability and to determine new solutions to complex problems. Opportunities to enhance environmental sustainability and/or human wellbeing The Venice chapter addresses a range of strategies to address sustainability and human wellbeing, for example the MOSE and limits on tourism. MOSE is a mechanical barrier located in the three inlets leading into Vencie lagoon - the Lido, Malamocco and Chioggia. It can be raised when there is expected to be flooding to prevent water entering the lagoon. The Venice Project Centre has concluded that the carrying capacity for tourism in Venice is 55,000 tourists per day, or 20 million per year, and a suite a strategies have been implemented to try to limit the impacts of tourism.
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