Floating city in danger; The strange idea of ​​raising Venice before drowning

Quoted by CNN; Venice is both a floating city and the city of collapsed. In the past hundred years, Venice has been about 2 cm and at the same time, the average sea level in the area has risen approximately 2 cm. These two factors have nothing but a endless disaster for this lovely city.

This is a difficult situation in Venice one of the city’s attractions for tourists; Many want to watch Venice before it is lost.

But for the Venetians, the city’s island position has long brought both security and challenges. As the climatic crisis escalate, tides are higher and more recurring, and Venice meets about 2 mm each year.

It may be like sci -fi stories, but the engineering idea is to raise the city of Venice and believe that the key to saving Venice could be.

While the Italian government spends millions of euros every year to lift the flood walls to keep the tide away from the wetland, Pietro Theatrical, Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering at the University of Padova, says that it can pump water deep under the city to raise the wetland floor.

Will this really take the city higher than the waves? Or will the catastrophic go and the buildings look like Hollywood scenes? Theater says his plan gives Venice a chance to find a permanent solution alongside current walls. He believes that this system can increase the city about 2 cm (2 inches).

The flood walls, which were installed in year 2, have the tidal flow from the wetland to enter the wetland. During the thousand years of the Venice Republic, officials were constantly diverting the rivers, refreshing channels, and adjusting the wetland water route to serve the city.

But in the twentieth century, things were broken. In the 1980s and 1980s, groundwater was extracted from the Marra Industrial Zone; The big mistake that made that range complete. From 1 to 2 historic Venice centers, about 2 cm.

Today, the city’s main protection against tall is the flood wall system, which, in times of tide, rises from the wetland floor, separating it from the Adriatic Sea. The structure was supposed to be activated five times a year, but due to climate change and rising water levels, the wetland water level has been more than 5 cm more than 5 cm in the last twenty years, to the extent that it causes catastrophic floods.

The walls have been activated about 2 times since their inauguration; However, they are still in the test stage and are not fully officially exploited. To date, the project cost is estimated at about six billion euros.

The wetland is virtually closed every time the walls rise; This not only prevents the ships from the ship (the second port of Italy and the fifth Mediterranean), but it also stops the natural process of washing the wetland with fashion. The greater the frequency of closure, the greater the wetland ecosystem.

The researchers intend to inject salt water at a depth of 1 to 2 meters underground, where a thick layer of clay prevents penetration. The idea was formed by the inspired of hydrocarbon tanks in the Padova plain; Where the engineers saw that when the gas is injected into the tanks in the summer, the ground rises and sat down when they are harvesting gas in the winter.

The idea is to inject water instead of harvesting. By digging a few wells of 2 meters and pumping water to the depths of the clay, the earth gradually rises. These wells are supposed to be located in a circle of 2 kilometers around Venice – just in the wetland – to distribute the high altitude uniformly and no separately raised cannabis that cause instability or damage to the buildings.

Prior to the main implementation, a test project should be carried out about € 1-5 million in a small part of the wetland: digging a few wells, controlled pumping and measuring sitting or height. If the results are sure, it can be entered into the main phase; It is even estimated to be three times cheaper than the MOSE project.

Of course, experts like David Dobson of the University of London College look at the idea with “cautious optimism”: If the multi -year experiment shows the pumping and expansion control is accurate, it can be continued; Otherwise there is a risk of cracking or instability of stone layers.

Although the design has been bursting for Venice within five years with the help of flooded walls, theatin considers it a “temporary solution” to provide an opportunity to find a more sustainable solution.