 Venice is regularly swamped by high tides and floods |
Some of the world's leading scientists are meeting in Cambridge to assess how to tackle flooding in the Italian city of Venice. The event, which started on Sunday at Cambridge University, has attracted about 100 experts from a variety of disciplines.
Dr Caroline Fletcher, Venice research fellow at Cambridge Coastal Research Unit, said: "The issues facing Venice are complex and broad-ranging - storm surge flooding, damage to buildings, pollution, coastal erosion, loss of habitats and rising sea levels."
Moses project
Venice in Peril, a British group which funds research, has organised the conference.
The group said the growing problem for Venice can be highlighted by looking at flooding in St Mark's Square.
It claims that in 1900 the square only flooded about 10 times a year but is now underwater about 100 times a year.
One of the items to be discussed by the scientists is the so-called "Moses" project announced by the Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi in May.
Over eight years $4b will be spent building hinged barriers on the seabed which would be raised when high tides threaten the city.
The conference at Churchill College is expected to last four days.
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