An Underwater City- The Concern for Venice

Written by: Caroline Kim

January 21, 2023

Chances are, you’ve heard about underwater cities like Atlantis from fairy tales and movies like The Little Mermaid or Aquaman. Recently, Venice has been attracting significant attention due to its sinking. Though the idea of underwater cities may sound beautiful in stories, it our real world, there would be some major consequences. The thing is, it isn’t just Venice that’s sinking; multiple coastal cities around the world face the same threat.

The technical term for this phenomenon is subsidence in which the makeup of earth’s surface changes, causing cities like Tianjin, Samarang, Venice, Miami, and Houstonto “sink” (Squires). Simply put, urban areas often have higher temperatures and are more prone to these events due to factors such as blacktops, human activity, factories, buildings, and more. In fact, one author writes, “... study found that groundwater pumping is a primary cause of subsidence in cities worldwide… while subsidence can’t be reversed, reducing extraction can at least slow it down” (Squire) . There are many other solutions that are being proposed as well: “Some cities are investing in new sea walls, dykes and polders, or high-tide gates – like London’s Thames Barrier – to hold back high waters” (Vince). While these efforts to fight subsidence exist, not all can afford or have access to them, in which people’s only option is to abandon their homes. Not only would many be without homes, the environmental impacts would include: “... permanent inundation of land, aggravates flooding, changes topographic gradients, ruptures the land surface, and reduces the capacity of aquifers to store water” (Holzer).

Some solutions to promote safety and slow down subsidence include sustainable water management, restoring water ecosystems, waterproof planning (Steenfelt). However, solutions are specific to location and city- so here is what is happening in Venice. Some efforts in Venice involve the Experimental Electromechanical Module, which essentially is a “sea-based defensive barriers made up of 78 mobile gates” (Phelan). Unfortunately, this project is far from complete or perfect. Considering Venice is a popular tourist attraction for it’s coastal character, this project may be very unfavorable to the eyes of many. Subsidence in conjunction with seal level rise and global warming has potential to be catastrophic, and it is clear that these efforts to fight it could benefit from the attention.

Sources:

Squires, Camille. “The World’s Coastal Cities Are Sinking, but Not for the Reason You Think.” Quartz, 9 Apr. 2022, https://qz.com/emails/quartz-weekend-brief/1850011794/running-the-world-from-davos.

Vince, Gaia. “The Rising and Sinking Threats to Our Cities.” BBC Future, BBC, 12 June 2013, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20130613-the-rising-threat-to-our-cities.

Thomas L. Holzer, Devin L. Galloway, 2005. "Impacts of land subsidence caused by withdrawal of underground fluids in the United States", Humans as Geologic Agents, Judy Ehlen, William C. Haneberg, Robert A. Larson

Steenfelt, Jorgen S. “How Do We Stop Cities from Sinking.” COWI, 8 Feb. 2019, https://www.cowi.com/insights/how-do-we-stop-cities-from-sinking.