Flooding and Environmenal Challenges for Venice and is Lagoon: State of Knowledge 2003

Background

Cambridge University Committee for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (CIES) and Churchill College Cambridge in collaboration with the Venice in Peril Fund (The British Committee for the preservation of Venice) are undertaking a research project focussing on the flooding and environmental challenges for Venice and the Venice Lagoon. The project is carried out in association with the Venice based Consortium for co-ordination of research concerning the Venice lagoon System (Corila).

The issue is one of the greatest works of art ever created by man, the city of Venice. Venice is being flooded with ever-greater frequency (St Mark’s Square was invaded by the waters about 10 times a year a century ago; now it is almost 100 times a year). If the sea levels rise by even the lower estimate agreed in 2001 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), then Venice will be uninhabitable by the end of this century.

Actions are needed to safeguard Venice from flooding and environmental degradation. These actions need to be supported by using the available information and state of knowledge wisely. Berlusconi’s government has said that it intends to build the proposed mobile barriers between the Adriatic and lagoon, but in practice has only committed two years’ worth of funding, and these are for an ancillary project, not the main work. There is apparent disagreement between scientists, engineers, lay people and decision-makers about what to do.

The primary aim of this meeting is to provide a forum for discussion. Participants will be invited to illustrate key research results with self-criticism and to suggest realistic and demonstrable ways around current problems.

The specific objectives of the Project are:

	To identify and discuss the key issues facing Venice and proposed interventions and solutions to combat the flooding and environmental problems;
	To provide a synthesis of sound scientific and technological research results;
	To explore scale (global-to-local) and uncertainty issues associated with predicting the impact of global environmental change in Venice; and,
	To continue to build a community of researchers for issues related to the sustainable management of coastal lagoon systems using Venice as a case study.

The International Meeting – 14-17th September 2003

This scientific and technical meeting will provide the first up-to-date international synthesis since the UNESCO Report of 1969 of interdisciplinary research undertaken to investigate the problems of Venice and the Venice Lagoon. Many of these challenges are applicable to, and will be compared with, other coastal locations.

The programme is structured around the following technical themes:

Theme 1: Proposed Engineering Solutions to Tidal Flooding
Theme 2: Urban flooding: Architectural and structural issues
Theme 3: Physical and Ecological Processes: Sediments
Theme 4: Physical and Ecological Processes: Water Quality
Theme 5: Modelling hydrodynamics, morphology and water quality
Theme 6: Venice and Global Environmental Change

Further information is available from venice2003@geog.cam.ac.uk

The meeting is organised by:

The Venice in Peril Fund

The Venice in Peril Fund has helped finance the restoration of twenty-three buildings, monuments and works of art throughout Venice. In 1998 The Fund organised a symposium in London called ‘High Water Warning: Cities at Risk’ at which five international experts in climatic change, discussing the risks posed by rising sea-levels, identified the extreme vulnerability of Venice. Venice in Peril now seeks to widen its remit to become an impartial, independent forum for information about the problems (ecological, hydrological, socio-economic) of Venice and its lagoon and about the solutions to those problems.

website: www.veniceinperil.org

Cambridge University – Committee for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (CIES)-CERNET

Cambridge University contains a great wealth of expertise on a wide spectrum of environmental topics and is highly valued externally as an authoritative yet neutral setting for the debate of complex and often contentious environmental issues. CIES was established in 1993 with the primary aim of promoting links for teaching a research across disciplinary boundaries amongst the environmental research community in Cambridge. Since its inception, CIES has developed, through electronic media, networking amongst those with environmental interests; arranged interdisciplinary seminar programmes with high-profile speakers; organised events bringing together the academic community, NGOs, industry and commerce; and contributed to debates on the public understanding of science through well-received media seminars. For more information the project please contact Dr Caroline Fletcher at caf37@cam.ac.uk

website: www.chu.cam.ac.uk

Cambridge University – Churchill College

Churchill College is one of the 31 colleges of the University of Cambridge and is the national and Commonwealth memorial to Britain’s great wartime Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill. According to Churchill’s vision, the college was created with a bias towards science, mathematics and engineering, with close links to industry and commerce. The College, housed in modern buildings, contains a high proportion of postgraduate students and supports a substantial programme of visiting fellowships.

website: www.chu.cam.ac.uk

“Flooding and Environmental Challenges for Venice and its Lagoon: State of Knowledge 2003” - An International Discusion meeting at Churchill College, Cambridge 14-17 September 2003.