Abstract
Three years of mobile barrier operations have been simulated with a hydrodynamic model to check the efficiency of the barriers in defending the city of Venice from flooding. The simulations have been carried out in the actual situation and with a sea-level rise of 30 and 50 cm. Moreover, the interference of the barrier operations with the ship traffic has been studied. It is found that without a security increment for the forecasted water levels, the mobile barriers cannot defend completely Venice from flooding due to the uncertainty in the forecast. With a security increment of 10 cm, the barriers work well in actual conditions but still cannot avoid flooding with a global sea-level rise. The interference with the ship traffic is acceptable under actual conditions but becomes prohibitive with a sea-level rise of 50 cm, when nearly two-thirds of the ship passages are blocked or delayed.
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Acknowledgements
The authors want to thank the Venice Municipality for their support as well as Afro Massaro, Alberto Tomasin, and Paolo Pirazzoli for the useful discussions during the preparation of the manuscript. Moreover, they want to thank Paolo Canestrelli and his collaborators for the data used in this study.
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Umgiesser, G., Matticchio, B. Simulating the mobile barrier (MOSE) operation in the Venice Lagoon, Italy: global sea level rise and its implication for navigation. Ocean Dynamics 56, 320–332 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-006-0071-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-006-0071-4