Seawater isn't Venice's only hope. City officials are already hard at work on another rescue plan: building giant
floodgates to protect the city.
The plan is called MOSE, after Moses, the biblical figure who called upon God to part the Red Sea. It calls for hinged
gates to be built in the lagoon just off Venice. The hollow steel panels would lie flat on the lagoon floor during normal
weather. They would swing up to form a protective wall during dangerously high tides.
Officials expect the $5.2 billion project to be completed in the few years
Gambolati and his team of engineers and geology experts hope to pump seawater more than 2,000 feet underneath
the city. The seawater would expand the sand under Venice, eventually lifting the top layer of soil, they say.
"If the [test] project proves successful, we will see an immediate benefit, even though [it will be] gradual," Gambolati
told the Associated Press. He estimates that "the complete elevation will be achieved in around 10 years."
A Sinking Feeling
Some people think Gambolati's idea doesn't hold water. Michele Jamiolkowski, an engineering professor at Turin
Polytechnic University, says Gambolati's plan is unrealistic. "We are really in the area of science fiction," he says
about the plan. He warns that it would cost millions of dollars and might raise the city only a few inches.
Other people worry that the seawater could cause parts of the city to rise higher than other areas, damaging priceless
buildings. "Venice is in a delicate situation," says Giovanni Mazzacurati, the president of the New Venice Consortium.
"Should parts of [the city] be elevated in a different way, this would cause the city to crumble."
Despite the risks, everyone agrees that saving the sinking city is imperative. "If we let Venice fall into the sea, the
world would lose a tremendous part of [history]," says Melissa Conn of Save Venice, a group dedicated to helping
preserve the city.
Stemming the Tide
Seawater isn't Venice's only hope. City officials are already hard at work on another rescue plan: building giant
floodgates to protect the city.
The plan is called MOSE, after Moses, the biblical figure who called upon God to part the Red Sea. It calls for hinged
gates to be built in the lagoon just off Venice. The hollow steel panels would lie flat on the lagoon floor during normal
weather. They would swing up to form a protective wall during dangerously high tides.
Officials expect the $5.2 billion project to be completed in the few years