Commissioned: Consorzio Venezia Nuova- Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia
Period: 2008-2009
Country: Italia
Venice and its lagoon form a complex system having a diverse range of problems, services and functions; in this context, sustainable development assumes particular importance as it is directly dependent upon a variety of possible future scenarios. Confronted with this complexity, the study evaluated the sustainability of the Venice System, determining possible future scenarios in order to identify those elements that are essential to planning sustainable development strategies. For the purpose of placing this evaluation in an international context and to ensure that the most recent guidelines for sustainable environmental management were followed, it was conducted in collaboration with an international panel of experts from the Sustainability Solutions Institute at the University of California at San Diego, which is the most authoritative international body for matters relating to sustainability.The approach used for the study, which looked to the experiences of similar areas as references, provided for:
- An evaluation of the status of the lagoon ecosystem based on currently available information; this allowed for identification of the key problems for the various environmental components, as well as areas that required further investigation – important factors for sustainability scenarios;
- An analysis of the critical factors and forces in the Venice system; based on the findings, strategies were recommended for developing a sustainable and flexible management plan for the system that is capable of adapting to future changes (adaptive management);
- An analysis of the possible environmental scenarios, taking into account the effects that the various management options would have on the lagoon ecosystem’s services;
- An analysis of the recent economic changes and trends that the Venice region has experienced, with a discussion of the economic value of sustainability with respect to the Venice system;
- The development of a possible scenario for future sustainability; this included an evaluation, according to the aspects that support sustainability and taking into consideration both the characteristics of the Venice system and the anticipated effects of climate change, of the construction of the Mose system (infrastructure to protect Venice).
