The Flood Problems of Venice

Abstract

Although Venice has been flooded occasionally for centuries, it experienced its highest flood in 1966, with water 1.94 m above sea level. Since then there has been wide controversy, scientifically and politically, about the best measures to prevent a re-occurrence; these are here reviewed in some detail. Of the five civil engineering solutions proposed, only one, the Agiltec Project A and B, has ever been made public and the arguments for and against it are here presented; the Project as well as the other four solutions were rejected by the Government. The flood problems of Venice have now been submerged in the general Italian political turmoil and if government in action persists, the consequences may be tragic.