Until 2020, no packing list for a winter's journey to Venice was complete without gumboots. Built atop small lagoon islets, the fabled 1600 year old city of Venice has been a victim of both subsidence and, more recently, global sea level rise fuelled by climate change. The Italian government funded construction a series of floodgates to close the lagoon entrance before exceptionally high tide phenomena known as acqua alta. After 17 years marked by delays and drama the barriers first rose to protect the city from flood on 3 October 2020. Until their deployment, flooding, especially in winter, was increasingly commonplace as local sea levels rose 2.76 ± 1.75 mm/year since 1993* (this excludes subsidence). In 2002, the system was designed to a
4441 Acqua alta, high tide on a Venice canal, flooding walkways along the canal, boats in the water and pedestrians walking through ankle deep water. 2. Impacts, 6. Adaptation, 5. Resilience Climate Visuals Principles: 1. Show real people not staged photo-ops, 6. Show local (but serious) climate impacts, 4. Climate impacts are emotionally powerful, 5. Understand your audience Until 2020, no packing list for a winter's journey to Venice was complete without gumboots. Built atop small lagoon islets, the fabled 1600 year old city of Venice has been a victim of both subsidence and, more recently, global sea level rise fuelled by climate change. The Italian government funded construction a series of floodgates to close the lagoon entrance before exceptionally high tide phenomena known as acqua alta. After 17 years marked by delays and drama the barriers first rose to protect the city from flood on 3 October 2020. Until their deployment, flooding, especially in winter, was increasingly commonplace as local sea levels rose 2.76 ± 1.75 mm/year since 1993* (this excludes subsidence). In 2002, the system was designed to a "prudent" estimate of 22cm of sea level rise**. Twenty years later, scientists are taking metres, not centimetres, suggesting that scenes such as these are far from consigned to history, and will be repeated in coastal towns and cities around the world. Sources: * www.researchgate.net/publication/346867948 ** https://e360.yale.edu/features/rising-waters-can-a-massive-sea-barrier-save-venice-from-drowning City: Venice Region: Veneto Country: Italy Agency: Climate Visuals Creative Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Mandatory Credit: Adam Sébire / Climate Visuals Australian Artist-filmmaker Adam Sébire was in the Norwegian Arctic researching a PhD on visual art & climate change when border closures marooned him there for 18 months. He's since become one of the Arctic’s 4 million human inhabitants, with a front-row view on this climate change hotspot. Adam had just graduated as a documentary maker in 2004 when his experience of rising seas on the atoll nation of Tuvalu, only 2m above the Pacific Ocean, turned his focus to climate change. Fifteen years later he found himself in the middle of the 187cm Venice flood disaster. His climate-art videos, installations and photographs have been shown in film festivals, art galleries, museums and on TV around the world. Photographer name: Adam Sébire Photographer based in: Norway Social media: www.vimeo.com/adamsebire Website: www.adamsebire.info/the-works/anthropoScenes
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