Venice Against the Sea: A City Besieged

by John Keahey

Venice is sinking—six feet over the past 1,000 years.

The reasons for this are many. Although there is a natural geologic tendency for some sinking, humans have exacerbated the problem by exploiting on a massive scale underground water resources for industrial purposes. Coupled with these events—and perhaps most significant—are climatic changes all over the globe. The heating of the atmosphere after the last ice age, dramatically speeded up by humans, has led to a steady, continuing rise in sea level. This global warming is likely to persist beyond human control for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

Venetians, other Italians, and many in the world community are locked in debate over Venice's plight. Venice Against the Sea explains how the city and its 177 canals were built and what has led up to this long-foreseen crisis. It explores the various options currently being considered for "solving" this problem and chronicles the ongoing debate among scientists, engineers, and politicians about the pros and cons of each potential solution.

Through extensive research and interviews, award-winning journalist John Keahey has written the definitive book on this fascinating problem. No matter what the experts decide to do, one thing is for certain—Venice's art, its buildings, and its history are too important to the planet's cultural identity to let it slip beneath the rising waters of the Adriatic.

Genres: Italy, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 20, 2002

Reviews

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Venice Against the Sea'--written in 2002 is of course dated in some ways. But the back history on Venice and it's unique geographical situation is fairly solid (unlike the land upon which the City is built). Unfortunately, the author has a tendency to repeat various facts--he must have told us the Nov. 4, 1966 'Acqua Alta' was 1.94 meters and the highest recorded in Venice at least a dozen times. That record has been challenged, most recently at 1.87m in November, 2019. Interestingly, the event of November 22, 2022 'would have' (according to a study) broken the record except for the action of the newly completed flood gates at the entrance to the Venetian Lagoon just a couple of years earlier.

The book gave fairly detailed account of the then developing consensus on global-warming and concomitant sea-level rise as it has and will continue to affect and threaten Venice. The debate on proposed solutions and the frequent political and bureaucratic machinations covered much of the rest. The technical solution eventually adopted was the subject of fierce disagreement for several decades, was called the MOSE (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico) and according to Keahy was first proposed as far back as the early 1970s by an Italian oceanographer (and WW2 hero), Roberto Frasseto. Somewhat surprisingly, no other idea was able to supplant this idea in the over a quarter of a century until the idea was finally accepted. The book went to press just as the Berlusconi cabinet gave approval of the project on December 6, 2001 for an estimated cost of $2.67 billion with a completion date in 2009.

Fast forward to today and the MOSE project was finally completed in 2025, although portions of it were operational by 2020. The cost? Over $6 billion from what I could find. It is certainly an engineering accomplishment--a system of underwater gates closing gaps between three barrier islands of the Venetian Lagoon. Each of the 78 gates lie about 100 feet below the surface that can be raised with a pumping system when a high tide (1.3m or more) is forecast. Keahy could probably have written another book about the corruption, with scandals from 2014 to 2018 with 35 people arrested including a former Mayor of Venice. There were and still are serious questions about whether MOSE will ending up causing more damage to the delicate ecosystem and flushing of the lagoon or will work at higher sea levels. Doubt I'll be around to find that out.

The book includes an excellent chronology of Venetian history especially pertaining to the response to the flood threat along with some nice photos and several good maps of the region and city. He also quotes several of the very fine writers who have lived in or written about the city including John Ruskin, Jan Morris, John Julius Norwich and the poet Shelley. Overall 3 stars, as it was a bit of a slog at times and but the topic was interesting and his hard work evident.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many parts of the book were interesting. But at some times, it didn't appeal to me. I've been to Venice a few times. But even so, I struggled with feeling that the author was not speaking to me, an average person. The target audience were people with a scientific background.

[JennyB · Rating 2 out of 5]

I rarely write off books as being boring, but this one was a hard slog, I can tell you. It is about how rising sea levels and more frequent floods are affecting Venice, and what the Italian government is (or, more aptly, is not) doing about it. The short summary of their efforts is that they spent 30 years arguing over whether to build an eye-poppingly expensive system of mobile gates to protect the lagoon's entrances against Adriatic high tides. As of writing 10 years ago, initiation of the project was still mired in bureaucratic tangles, but it has subsequently commenced. Particularly given that the project is not even meant to be a permanent solution (it will last 50-100 years), this sounds likely to go down in history as one of the more spectacular boondoggles of the century. In any case, I wanted to know about this topic before visiting Venice in November, and the book did serve its purpose for that. However, since the info is so dated (and boring), I'd probably have been better served to find more contemporary, SHORTER articles on the topic.

[Annie Rachele · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most intriguing books I ever read.
Read it and you'll be talking about it, at all dinner parties.
The mysteries of Venice are somewhat revealed, at least what's a foot under the water,
and how to stop the saline deterioration of building structures...

our treasured miracle city, palaces built on water

[Tom Olmsted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read on how man changing the environment around Venice and global warming is causing more frequent and higher floods of this historic city and some of the solutions proposed.