Mearsure the water level in Venice

The sinking Venice

Venice is a world-class cultural heritage. Its unique waterway environment has shaped its historical context. However, due to climate change, the waterways on which the city of Venice depends are gradually submerged. In order to convey this to more people, I designed mobile app to record water levels’ change in Venice.

Brief Introduction

Flooding in Venice is nothing new. The Venetian lagoon is over 500km² in total, but has an average depth of just one metre. High tides and storms can have a severe impact on this kind of wetland environment.

Then there is the city itself, built on wooden pillars driven deep into the lagoon mud. The lowest part of St Mark’s Square is just 55cm above the current average sea level.

When considering why flooding in Venice may be getting more extreme, it’s important to remember both that sea levels are rising and that Venice is sinking.

As Venice’s buildings sink,

the floodwaters rise