Importance Of Cinema As A Medium Of Communication

Venice is founded on sand, silt, and clay. The city has some variance in elevation, which leads to flooding of lower levels at high tide. This flooding stems directly from subsidence resulting from the removal of artesian water from the bedrock of the lagoon and the massive weight of the buildings, which has compressed the subsoil (1).

Venetian buildings were designed to ‘float’ on the wet sand and mud in order to resist the constant tidal movements. Due to the high cost of oaken timbers, pile foundations were used only when necessary: such as on the edges of canals, beneath heavy or tall structures, or on extremely soft terrain. These piles never reached the bedrock, but rather worked to stabilize the structures in the soft mud. Most of the piles were sunk underneath the load bearing points of each structure. These piles remain constantly wet, which in turn allow a buildup of sediment and resist decay over centuries (1).

High water, or acqua alta, is a persistent phenomenon throughout the Venetian lagoon. Over the centuries, the city's leaders, merchants, and residents have dealt with rising sea levels either by demolishing old buildings and erecting new ones on higher, impermeable-stone foundations, or by raising the entrances to buildings that line the dozens of canals crisscrossing the historic city. Or, on the then-rare occasions when the city was flooded by storm-driven tides, Venetians simply waited it out (2).

The burning of fossil fuels and other human and natural activities has released enormous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These emissions have caused the Earth's surface temperature to rise, and the oceans absorb about 80 percent of this additional heat. The rise in sea levels is linked to three primary factors: 



Thermal expansion: As water heats up, it expands. Approximately half of the past century's rise in sea level is