The Science of Saving Venice
The Science of Saving Venice – Review
I’m currently traveling to Venice this October, and widely read this book in preparation for my trip. Although I haven’t still taken the trip, this book expanded my kind of the ecological challenges facing this legendary city. Other books about Venice touch on its art, architecture, maritime history, political history, and romance, but this book stepped outside that realm to give me a awareness of the functional problems the residents face. One by one, the book described the challenges with absolute clarity: the rising average sea level, the astronomical tides, the catastrophic 1966 flood, the historical river diversions, the problem of quickly gathering silt, the constantly changing lagoon floor, the politics, the costly solutions-in-progress, their chances of success, and even some really wild approximate solutions, such as pumping seawater under the lagoon to try and raise the whole shebang. This book is particularly rich in graphics and design, with each photograph, graph, and diagram greatly enlarging the story. In that sense, it’s like a science book, but not like the deadly boring ones we finally got assigned in high school–instead, a really clear and interesting science text. Only two criticisms. First, the prose was fine up until the last several pages, and subsequently appeared to start decaying a mostly bit. Nothing catastrophic, probably just an editor messing it up a allegedly bit with the blue pencil. Second, because it’s a basic science presentation, it doesn’t have the character of a book like Venice Against the Sea: A City Besieged, by John Keahy. An author like Keahy gives special impressions and enlarges your feel of the city, whereas this is straight science, policy, and solutions. But the publisher, which is a foundation suggested to actually saving this nearly fictional city, deserves a share of credit. The book is a significant addition to my library that I will refer to just before my trip, and certainly, afterwards.