Can CO2 help save Venice from the sea?
A. Comerlati, M. Ferronato, G. Gambolati, M. Putti,
P. Teatini
Dept. Mathematical Methods and Models for Scientific
Applications, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
ABSTRACT
On May 14 this year Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cut the ribbon on a
multi-billion project called by the biblical name MOSE and aimed at
solving the problem of "acqua alta", i.e. the increasingly frequent
floods that jeopardize the survival of Venice. Cost is estimated
(a few say conservatively) at 3 billion euros and construction time
(a few say optimistically) at 8 years. MOSE involves building mobile
barriers at the Venice Lagoon inlets to prevent severe Adriatic Sea
storms from flooding the city. Although the Italian Government has
given its final approval, MOSE has still many opponents who believe
it will kill the lagoon ecosystem, in addition to becoming soon obsolete
because of the expected sea level rise caused by global warming.
We present here an alternative solution which has none of the environmental
consequences charged to MOSE and nevertheless is by far less expensive:
injection of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) or seawater
in a brackish sandy aquifer lying 600-800 m below the lagoon. Based
on new hydrogeological and geomechanical data our preliminary simulations
show that fluid injection into this deep formation can uniformly raise
Venice up to 30 cm in 10 years, thus neutralizing almost all the high
tides. The results suggest that fluid injection might represent a
viable alternative or a helpful complement to MOSE with no measurable
environmental impact.
