WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE (ITALIAN)
Abstract
An overview is made of the sea level rise and the flooding storm surges, named ‘acqua alta’ (AA) that occurred in Venice over the last seven centuries. Since 1871, the sea level and surge data are provided by tide gauges. In the previous period, documentary and proxy data are used, i.e.: (i) manuscripts and other written sources; (ii) visual arts, i.e. accurate paintings made by Canaletto and Bellotto (18th century) with the help of the ‘camera obscura’, which report a biological indicator of the high tide level, i.e. the belt of green algae, named ‘comune marino’ (CM); a similar painting by Veronese, dating 1571; (iii) measuring the submersion depth of the lowest step of water stairs that was originally conceived to be above the CM level, to allow people to use it when they got off the boat. The historical AA are also analyzed, and the 1966 depth was frequently reached. The record shows that the frequency and depth of the AA are related to the exchange of water between the lagoon and the sea, occurring across the lagoon inlets.
Suggested literature
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