The $7BN Megaproject to Save Venice

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I studied in Venice for two years. One advantage of floods is that apartments on the first floor are quite cheap.

I'm italian. It's so embarrassing that we can come up with incredible pieces of engineering and everything gets ruined by the corruption that cripples this country.

In this context, “Authorities didn’t think to switch it on” is probably one of the most Italian-bureaucratic sounding things I’ve ever heard

As a citizen of Venice (admittedly its continental part, Mestre) I can assure you this is by far the best informative video on this topic avaible in english; I've seen some others examples that are just incorrect and embarassing

Venice shops: we got flooded by water again Customer support: have you tried turning the $7BN megaproject OFF, then ON?

imagine paying 7 billion only to have the dummy in charge not turn it on....

CORRUPTION has kept this from happening sooner and wars over the contracts

Here I’m thinking I’m watching B1M and realize that I have a bunch of new videos to watch…Fantastic!

The clever bit of this system is, that it dynamically adapts to the tide level difference. In contrast to a watergate system, where huge steel doors have to withstand the tons of pressure from the water, these barriers operate basically without much stress at all. Waves are mitigated by the rotational degree of freedom and the water head pressure from the sea to the lagune is carried by buoyancy, rather then stressed steel. From an engineering standpoint, this system is great. Why, you might ask? If the water head becomes to strong on a conventional water gate to the point of system failure, the gate bursts open and lets all the water through, with the devastating effect of a broken damn. This system does the opposite. If the head pressure becomes to strong, a small flow over the top becomes possible, slowly and gently raising the lagune water level until equilibrium is recreated once more. I can see why it cost so much money, it's a brilliant solution.

My wife and I were honeymooning in Venice just after the flood in 2019, and we spoke with some of the shop owners as well as some of the residents about aqua Alta and they said that it’s getting worse and worse I’m so glad that this might help them!! These very happy people got very solemn anytime someone spoke of aqua Alta, it’s very serious and detrimental to their way of life

We were eating in a restaurant in Italy when the staff told us that they had to close soon, because "the water would be coming in soon" Needless to say it was a fantastic dining experience

Thank you for this video. I really should’ve watched it sooner. I really can’t believe how crazy the Venice project has gone over budget. It’s just insane.

It’s cool how these barriers are raised by using compressed gases to displace water, in the exact same way Submarines resurface.

This reminds me of when Discovery was a good channel, thanks for taking the reigns!!!

I hope they save Venice, it's one of my favorite places. I've been there 4 or 5 times in the past 20 years.

Need to save this beautiful place for the next generation. I've been in Venice it's soooo beauuutttiifulll! I love Italy. Filipino from Finland. ❤️

Omg adam savage is the producer?!!?!? That dude is definitely living his best life props to all the people involved!

I once worked offshore close to Venice. The Adriatic can be as mean as they get. One night when boarding a helicopter, the wind and driving rain blew ferociously enough that the helicopter had a hard time staying on the helipad. Being a large man, they asked me to get aboard quickly for ballast. I was soaked as everyone else was. The helicopter shook trying to maintain its footing. The normal paperwork for the flight couldn’t be accomplished at that time. The Helicopter Landing Officer (HLO) was fighting the wind and rain to the point he crouched down leaning into the gusts. Once the doors shut and the pad cleared we took off with little resistance straight up into the storm. The funny part was that once we gained a few hundred feet, the ride smoothed out as we turned direction to Padova, Italy. The airport was only 20 miles away. Other times the Adriatic was so ruff that the rented cruise ship Nord Norge had to leave the platform because of the swells. We had a good 25 feet of up and down for hours. Finally we made for Port of Padova and protection from the sea. We had to stay there for 5 days before we could make it back.

I watched a long documentary on this, sea life is also a big issue growing on all the underwater equipment, preventing it from working properly.