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The Treatise on Waters by Cornaro (1560) and a quantitative assessment of the historical sea surges “Acqua Alta” in Venice

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  • Dario Camuffo

    (National Research Council of Italy)

Abstract

In the sixteenth century, Cornaro wrote a Treatise on Waters with personal observations and conclusions regarding the Lagoon of Venice, e.g., the sea level rise over the centuries, the difference between normal tides for astronomical forces and storm surges driven by meteorological factors, and water exchanges between the Lagoon and the Sea. He witnessed the continuous rise of the sea level since the Middle Ages and listed some public works made to adapt to this challenge, i.e., raising city paving and floors, and rebuilding bridges that had become too low. Cornaro dealt with the mark left by the algae on walls that was kept as an official (zero) reference of sea level. Using this key to measure flooding depths, and knowing the relationship between the algae front and mean sea level, a revision of the historical floods (from 1240 to 1867) is made to assess precise depths. During the deepest floods, it was possible to reach San Marco square by gondola and float on the square. The draught of past gondola types has been another key to interpret flood depths. From 1200 to 1500, the most extreme flooding depths were higher than that of 1966, i.e., the highest in the instrumental record since 1871; from 1500 to 1799, they have been quite homogeneous, close to the value observed in 1966; in the nineteenth century, they returned to be higher than that in 1966. Over eight centuries, the deepest historical floods exceeded 7 times by 40 cm the 1966 extreme depth. The city should be prepared to face this risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Dario Camuffo, 2023. "The Treatise on Waters by Cornaro (1560) and a quantitative assessment of the historical sea surges “Acqua Alta” in Venice," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 1-20, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:176:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s10584-023-03492-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-023-03492-6
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dario Camuffo, 2021. "Four centuries of documentary sources concerning the sea level rise in Venice," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 1-16, August.
    2. Dario Camuffo & Chiara Bertolin & Patrizia Schenal, 2017. "A novel proxy and the sea level rise in Venice, Italy, from 1350 to 2014," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 73-86, July.
    3. Günter Blöschl & Andrea Kiss & Alberto Viglione & Mariano Barriendos & Oliver Böhm & Rudolf Brázdil & Denis Coeur & Gaston Demarée & Maria Carmen Llasat & Neil Macdonald & Dag Retsö & Lars Roald & Pet, 2020. "Current European flood-rich period exceptional compared with past 500 years," Nature, Nature, vol. 583(7817), pages 560-566, July.
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