Mario Tomasino

Observations on future sea level changes in the Venice lagoon

‘Venice is sinking while the sea level is rising’ is a common statement in issues concerning the future of the Venice lagoon. The search for a reliable interpretative tool for measured sea-level changes has taken on more urgency since the sea-level rise was indexed as the consequence of global warming—with catastrophic scenarios for both the ecotone and the city, linked to increasing lagoon erosion, sudden modifications of biological equilibriums, loss of wetlands, salt aggression and an increasing frequency of exceptional high tide events. However, the peculiar hydrodynamics of the northern Adriatic Sea, made more complex by the freshwater inflow from the Po River, and the conceptual limits of existing long-term predictive systems, would suggest a more cautious approach to the scenarios yet proposed for the next century.