Venice is a city on the water, and often, it’s a city underwater. The frequency and severity of flooding have increased in the past 50 years. All over Venice, walls and foundations are eroding due to high tides and rising sea levels. An estimated thirteen million tourists come to this city of about 50,000 residents every year. Most visitors stick to famous landmarks like the Rialto Bridge and St. Mark’s Square. This concentration of numbers damages Venice’s fragile buildings and strains its infrastructure, making it difficult for local people to do business. Venice’s primary income source is tourism, but this industry focuses on profit, not sustainability.
With its narrow streets and canals, Venice does not allow bikes, cars, or scooters. There are two ways to get around the city: by foot or by boat. Two hundred years ago, there were 10,000 gondolas in Venice. Today there are about 400. Gondolas compete with water buses, water taxis, fishing boats, garbage barges, delivery boats, ferries, tugboats, and cruise ships along the Grand Canal. Cruise ships bring in millions of people who spend little money or time in the city. Hotel stays have dropped by two-thirds in the past 25 years, and the true extent of damage these massive vessels cause the Grand Canal has yet to be evaluated.
Venice has always experienced flooding from acqua alta – exceptionally high tides – but the frequency of these events has increased. Recently, the government installed adjustable sea walls to try to control water levels, but the project was costly and took so much time to build that the pace of climate change is already outstripping the projections they were made to withstand. With rising sea levels and decaying infrastructure, some believe Venice will be uninhabitable in just 100 years. Imagine a world without the beauty and grace of Venice. It’s unthinkable.
