Desperate to avoid more high tide devastation, Venice will finally test flood barrier project Mose

Record ID: 1561514

  • Title: Desperate to avoid more high tide devastation, Venice will finally test flood barrier project Mose
  • Date: 9th July 2020
  • Summary: VENICE, ITALY (FILE) (REUTERS) MOSE CONSTRUCTION SITE STEEL CABLES MOTOR COMPARTMENTS FOR FLOOD BARRIER
  • Embargoed: 23rd July 2020 14:08
  • Keywords: Mose Venice acqua alta flooding high tide
  • Location: VENICE, ITALY
  • City: VENICE, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Environment,Weather
  • Reuters ID: LVA003CM37C5J
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: For the first time since it was designed in 1984 to protect the lagoon city of Venice from high tide, a flood barrier project with 78 yellow mobile barriers buried in the water will rise simultaneously above the surface on Friday (July 10).
    Testing the project known as Mose became an urgent priority after last November's devastating high tides that swept through the city causing severe damage and destruction, destroying shops and restaurants, submerging its squares and even flooding its basilica.
    The city was hit by the worst high tide since 1966 on November 12, 2019, when the exceptionally intense "acqua alta", or high water, peaked at 187 cm (6ft 2ins), just short of the previous 194 cm record.
    Venice's huge St. Mark's Square, once described as Europe's living room, was submerged by more than one metre of water, while the adjacent St. Mark's Basilica was flooded for the sixth time in 1,200 years.
    Days of flooding followed, ensuing more devastation on the city.
    Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said at the time that if Mose had been working, the high tides could have been avoided.
    Flood barrier project Mose is an acronym for "Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico", or "Experimental Electromechanical Module", and refers to the biblical figure Moses who parted the Red Sea to enable the Israelites to flee to safety from Egypt.
    Following the worst flooding in Venice's history in 1966, the Italian government asked engineers to draw up plans to build a barrier at sea to defend one of the world's most picturesque yet fragile cities from the constant threat of high tides.
    Fast forward to 2003 and construction finally started with completion set for 2011. But the multi-billion euro project has been plagued by the sort of problems that have come to characterise many major Italian construction programs - corruption, cost overruns and prolonged delays.
    The city now expects it to be functioning in 2021.
    The modern-day Moses consists of 78 bright yellow mobile barriers buried in the water that, when activated, will rise above the surface and prevent surging tides from the Adriatic Sea flooding the delicate Venetian lagoon.
    They will all rise in unison for the first time during a test on Friday.
    The phenomenon of Venice's floods, is caused by a combination of factors, exacerbated by climate change -- from rising sea levels and unusually high tides to land subsidence that has caused the ground level of the city to sink.
    But some experts worry that the system was not designed to deal with the sort of rising sea waters that recent climate-change models have predicted.
    A report by the U.N.'s science and culture agency UNESCO says Mose was planned on a base scenario of sea levels in the northern Adriatic rising some 22 cm by 2100, but many scientists fear that assumption is far too optimistic.
    (Production: Alex Fraser, Gabriele Pileri, Manuel Silvestri, Antonio Denti, Emily Roe)
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