
Venice Anti-Flood Gates Could Wreck Lagoon Ecosystem - vaultcool
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/venice-anti-flood-gates-could-wreck-lagoon-ecosystem/
======
larkeith
Link to original article:
[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07372-3](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07372-3)

------
ecpottinger
How much to make the buildings float? One by one floats could be added to the
buildings and cross connected to prevent individual building tipping.

It will take time and money, but they are already talking about spending big
bucks anyway.

~~~
starbeast
If sea level rise does ever seriously get out of hand, that is my prediction
for parts of Tokyo and New York. I strongly suspect that some coastal cities
would rather float than move.

~~~
girvo
New York 2140 is an interesting book examining what might happen to those
coastal "drowned" cities, especially those buildings caught in the new
intertidal zones.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29570143-new-
york-2140](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29570143-new-york-2140)

~~~
starbeast
That looks interesting, I might grab a copy when I have made a dent in my
current pile.

Some architects are already proposing to build floating apartments off the
piers in Manhattan - [https://www.dezeen.com/2018/02/09/pier-40-manhattan-new-
york...](https://www.dezeen.com/2018/02/09/pier-40-manhattan-new-york-dfa-
conceptual-floating-high-rise-apartments/)

~~~
girvo
One kind of nice/kind of weird part of it, is that it's mostly interconnected
slices-of-life without a huge overarching plot (though that's not entirely
true, either) -- that has made it quite good as a pick-up-put-down book:
handy, considering it's length!

------
taneq
Why don't they just build the gates and add some pumps to circulate water
between the lagoon and the open ocean?

~~~
marcoc
1) Boats need to enter/exit Venice Laguna

2) Venice Laguna is huge, I don't think that could be feasible

~~~
taneq
The objection in TFA was ecological damage due to de-oxygenation of the water.
They don't mention boats as a problem so I'd guess that's taken care of?

As for the size of the laguna, they're talking about walling the whole thing
off so some circulation pumps shouldn't be too much of a stretch. Alternately
they could install some kind of bubbler system (like a giant version of a fish
tank air pump) to keep the water aerated in situ. Again, it's not going to be
pocket change but it's an option.

------
gumby
Couldn't the barrier incorporate locks?

~~~
pacificmint
The barrier is only temporary anyway. But if extreme high tides get worse in
the future, then the times that the system would get activated would also
increase. That could cause the lagoon to be deprived of oxygen.

------
21
Isn't injecting cement under the city massively more damaging to the
environment (carbon emissions)?

------
quotemstr
There are lots of lagoons. There's only one Venice. The city is such an
important monument to learning and culture that I'd kill every living thing in
that lagoon to save the city. I'm a human, and while I want to preserve the
environment when possible, ultimately, I have to prefer human interests.

~~~
ip26
When will we learn that if we kill every living thing in the X, we're probably
going to regret it later... Maybe the lagoon acidifies and dissolves piers,
maybe algae blooms produce toxic gas, who knows.

~~~
quotemstr
> When will we learn that if we kill every living thing in the X, we're
> probably going to regret it later

Never, because it's not true. You haven't convinced me that there's anything
wrong with my proposal.

~~~
Waterluvian
From my perspective your proposal is at least valid. But it's really quite
subjective. Personally I've never really cared for the value we put on
landmarks and historic sites. Let it become a sunken city and sell submarine
tours.

Of course that's my subjective opinion as well.

