Engineering just saved Venice from a flood – will it be enough for the uncertain future?

The Mose system is a modern marvel, but it wasn’t designed for future sea-level change, write Chico Harlan and Stefano Pitrelli. How will it tackle rising water levels?

Piazza San Marco floods some 100 days per year. Though a barrier system is raised to prevent more extreme events (The Washington Post by Carolyn Van Houten)

Three years ago, a historic rush of water surged into this city, inundating restaurants and churches, tossing boats onto streets, and leaving Venetians distressed about a future with ever more extreme events. But this past week, one of those events arrived – a tide nearly as large as 2019’s – and residents barely noticed, aside from some wind and rain. The city was spared from disaster.

That’s because of a €5.7bn engineering project designed to protect Venice from mass flooding and the exhausting cycle of cleanup and recovery. The lagoon city’s inlets are now guarded by 78 rectangular metal barriers, each the height of a five-story building, that are pumped with air and raised from the sea floor any time high waters threaten it.

It’s a landmark climate change solution, one requiring 30 years of planning and 20 years of construction, that has reduced fears of Venice turning into a modern-day Atlantis.