Venice, on the Road to Doom Due to Overtourism, Climate Change

(Photo : Reuters)
A man walking on the flood.

The Venice was under the state of emergency after it was hit by the worst flooding in 50 years last week.

The flooding occurred on Tuesday due to an exceptionally high tide that was never seen since 1966. This resulted in an "enormous, hundreds of millions of euros" worth of damages, including the precious tourist and historical sites, said Mayor Luigi Brugnaro of Venice.

The patriarch of St. Mark's Basilica, Monsignor Francesco Moraglia, described the situation as if they were at the beach due to the occurrence of waves in the flood. He also has never seen floods as bad as this at St. Mark's Square, which is also among the damaged sites.

The country's prime minister Giuseppe Conte visited the city on November 14. He also declared a state of emergency on the same day.

Situazione drammatica pic.twitter.com/gS63ZK2j3Q — Luigi Brugnaro (@LuigiBrugnaro) November 12, 2019

The Sinking City

Venice has previously reported to be sinking consistently.

According to various studies using GPS data and radar images, the whole city was tilting to the east. Multiple locations have been observed to be sinking by 1-4 millimeters yearly.

It is still unknown what causes it. Scientists initially thought that sedimentary compression due to the artificial pumping of groundwater caused this. Yet not chances were seen even after pumping has stopped.

But other than the sinking, climate change is also blamed as to why this happened. Mayor Brugnaro himself tweeted it in his official Twitter account. He also described that this crisis is a "wound that will leave a permanent mark".

It was previously reported that the global sea level is expected to rise between 0.6 to 2.1 meters by the end of the 21st century. And Venice, which was already struggling with high tides, are among the places which could sink down.

In 2003, the Italian government has started constructing a multi-billion worth of a complex flood defense system.

Almost two decades later, the project is still unfinished due to frequent delays. The latest one was in October, after the consortium in charge of the project, Consorzio Venezia Nuova, announced that the vibration in some sections of the drain line pipes is hindering the construction.

READ: Climate Change Threatens Scotland's Heritage Treasure

The Overcrowded City

The flooding crisis arrived just in the time the city was dealing with an unsustainable level of tourism. The tourism authorities of Venice have issued a warning that the overabundance of visitors, including from the cruise ship passengers, can damage the environment and spoil the views. The overcrowding is also forcing the youngsters to leave and work outside the tourism sector.

According to the National Tourism Agency, the city catered an average of 465,100 day-trippers and at least 2.2 million tourists who stay overnight in the month of August alone.

The Port Authority, on the other hand, reported that at least 32,000 passengers from cruise ships go down to the city daily between April to October.

To counter this, the local government implemented various measures to decongest the city.

In April, authorities implemented "segregation tactics" such as restricting some areas to local and Venezia Unica card owners and redirecting the tourist flows.

In August, some cruise ships were redirected to neighboring ports.