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

[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.