BocelliOnline

[Melodie]

Venice Is Drowning
Engineers Try to Save Ancient City

By Ned Potter

May 18— They call Venice La Serenissima — the most serene of cities. But it is hard to stay serene when you are up to your knees in acqua alta.

The city is sinking, and has slipped perhaps 5 inches in the last century. At the same time, the nearby Adriatic Sea has risen as much as 4 inches. The numbers may sound small, but the consequences are not. More than 100 times a year now, the fabled piazzas are flooded by high tides.

"I have been working here since 1997, and it's getting worse," said Andrea Testa, a musician at an open-air restaurant. "I don't know if it's some weather change, but it's getting worse."

Fabulous ancient buildings are dissolving in the flood waters. The population of the city is shrinking. It is now 60,000, down from 150,000 after World War II.

"There is no other solution," said Riccardo D'Ambrosi, a shopkeeper. "We have to keep and save Venice."


Parting the Waters

But where to begin? The Italian government has debated the issue time and again since the great flood of Nov. 3, 1966, when Venice was devastated by floodwaters 5 feet deep.

Different plans have come and gone, almost as frequently as prime ministers; few politicians were willing to commit money to protect Venice, knowing they would probably be voted out of office before any work was completed.

But now, finally, the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has committed funds to begin Project MOSE. The name is an Italian acronym, short for MOdulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico (pronounced "MO-seh" and roughly translated to mean "experimental electromechanical module"), but the name is close enough to "Moses" that everyone gets the joke.

Project MOSE will not part the sea — just try to stop it.


Gates to the City

Eight years and $4 billion from now, if everything works, giant hollow steel gates will be built to block the three inlets to the lagoon that surrounds Venice. The gates will look like giant slabs, 60 feet wide and up to 100 feet long. There will be 79 of them.

Most of the time they will lie flat on the sea floor, unseen. But when high tide threatens, engineers will pump them full of air. Then they will rise on hinges to a vertical position and block the floodwaters.

"I am convinced," said Rafael Bras, an adviser from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "that at the end, when everything is said and done, everyone will be quite pleased."

But at this stage, very few people are. Environmentalists say the gates will trap pollution around the city. Others say the technology is untried, and the cost will balloon.

"It's a very complex project, expensive, not reversible, and I think it's a silly idea," said Gherardo Ortalli, a member of an opposition group called the Our-Italy Association. "The world now thinks that if you have MOSE you have saved Venice. I don't."

The city's mayor, Paulo Costa, warns what will happen if nothing is done.

"Very simple. In 15 or 20 years, Venice will be completely free of inhabitants," he said.

"We can survive," he added, "but we cannot live. We want to live again."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/SciTech/venicefloodtech030518.html

[Nellie]

Everybody hurry up and start packing before Venice goes down :D There are very cheap tickets offered by KLM, even Alitalia at this moment. If you are so concerned about Venice dissapearing, I would just try to get there before it happens. You won't regret it, trust me :)