The "gun" in the face of drowning. Will the dams save the city or is leaving the solution ?

Experts and climate scientists have issued a stern warning about the future of the Italian city of Venice, stressing that current adaptation measures may not be enough to save the historic city from being swallowed up by the rapid rise in sea levels.

Three strategies to save the world's heritage

According to a recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers evaluated coping strategies based on reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and concluded with three inevitable scenarios:

First: earthen dams (until 2100): They may become urgent when the water level exceeds half a meter, at a cost of up to €4.5 billion.

Second: The giant dam (reinforced barrier), an option to protect the city from a height of up to 10 meters, but its initial cost could exceed 30 billion euros.

Third: The Great Departure (after 2300), as a last and painful solution, Italy may be forced to relocate the city, its inhabitants and its historical monuments in its entirety when the sea level exceeds 4.5 meters, at an unimaginable cost of 100 billion euros.

A race against time and climate change

Venice, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is considered a "living laboratory" for the challenges that will face low-lying coastal areas such as the Netherlands and the Maldives.

Professor Robert Nicholls, from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, says early planning is indispensable, as it can take 30 to 50 years to build permanent barriers.

"There is no perfect strategy; we have to balance the safety of the population, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our unique and invaluable cultural heritage," Nichols added.

Why does the gun sink?

There are natural and geological factors, most notably the  subsidence of the city's floor at a rate of one millimeter per year as a result of the movements of the earth's crust, in addition to the "Sirocco" winds that push the water strongly towards the lake.

In addition to the issue  of global warming, represented by the thermal expansion of seawater and the melting of glaciers, which increases the frequency of flooding that has hit the city frequently, as happened in the 2019 disaster, which caused hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

Summary of the Scientific Warning

The researchers believe that the "gun we know today" may not remain the same in the long term. Although millions of euros have been spent on temporary solutions such as glass barriers to protect St. Mark's Cathedral, the city remains at the mercy of the tides of a planet that is warming by the day.