How a bold geo-engineering experiment could slow the venice sinking crisis and buy precious time for a drowning city.
Venice, Italy’s fabled floating masterpiece, is drowning. The crisis of venice sinking is no longer metaphorical. Over the past century, its foundations have dropped nearly 25 centimeters while sea levels have risen almost a foot. Today, this cultural jewel faces an existential threat that can no longer be delayed by nostalgia or engineering vanity. Now, a bold proposal by Italian hydrologist Pietro Teatini suggests what once sounded unthinkable: physically lifting the entire city by injecting water into the earth beneath it.
A Lagoon on Borrowed Time
By 2100, scientists predict up to 120 centimeters of additional sea-level rise, a scenario that could overwhelm Venice’s MOSE flood-barrier system and accelerate the venice sinking crisis. The city has already subsided more than 25 centimeters in the past century, much of it linked to aggressive groundwater extraction during industrial expansions in Marghera. Today, Venice continues to sink by two millimeters per year, while rising seas add another five millimeters annually — a double assault that threatens to submerge much of the lagoon by 2150.
In early 2025, the Italian government created the Autorità per la Laguna to coordinate long-term rescue strategies. Among competing ideas, one has electrified engineers and environmentalists alike: Teatini’s plan to lift the city itself. His proposal aims to raise Venice by around 30 centimeters, potentially buying 50 years of survival and slowing the venice sinking trajectory.
The Science of Raising a Sinking City
Teatini’s radical concept is grounded in decades of industrial data from Italy’s Po Valley, where gas injections and seasonal extractions caused measurable uplift in the surrounding land. If gas could move the earth, he reasoned, then water — applied with precision — could safely do the same.
The plan envisions drilling approximately 12 wells in a 10-kilometer ring around Venice, within the lagoon’s perimeter to prevent disruptions to mainland terrain or Adriatic tides. Pressurized water would be injected 600 to 1,000 meters underground, elevating the ground by 20–30 centimeters and counteracting the pace of venice sinking.
Unlike fracking, the technique uses low pressure, significantly lowering risks of micro-fractures or seismic instability. A natural clay layer beneath the lagoon would act as a cap, keeping injected water from seeping into freshwater reservoirs. The pilot phase is estimated to cost 30–40 million euros (around 653 billion rupiah, approximately 54.2 million SGD) — a fraction of the nearly 6 billion-euro cost of MOSE.
The Shrinking Power of MOSE
When Venice unveiled the MOSE flood barriers on 3 October 2020, it was hailed as a modern marvel — an engineering promise that Venice would defy its watery fate. The system’s 78 steel gates, each weighing 250 tons, can rise from the seabed at three inlets to block surging tides. Originally expected to be activated five times a year, the system is now raised nearly 100 times annually as climate change intensifies the venice sinking emergency.
But every closure comes at a cost. MOSE temporarily isolates the lagoon from the sea, disrupting marine life, port activity, and water exchange. Stagnant water traps pollutants and weakens fish populations. Even worse, scientists warn that MOSE offers only temporary defense, not a permanent salvation.
A City Losing Its Soul
Beneath the science and policy is a quieter tragedy. The permanent population of Venice has fallen below 50,000 — a 70 percent decline in just seven decades. Mass tourism, unaffordable housing, and the relentless stress of venice sinking have driven families away, leaving behind a fragile living museum visited by more than 30 million tourists annually.
Activist Gloria Veclani calls the experience “psychologically distressing — like watching Rome auction off the Trevi Fountain.” Meanwhile, local initiatives, including resident-only islands such as Poveglia, reflect a growing effort to reclaim dignity and resist cultural erasure. The question now is not only whether Venice can stay above water, but whether it can remain alive.
Fifty Borrowed Years and a Narrow Window
Researchers at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology warn that without radical intervention, large portions of Venice will be underwater by 2150. Teatini’s uplift proposal is not a miracle solution — it is a delay tactic, a scientifically plausible pause button that could extend MOSE’s lifespan by up to half a century. As he noted in May 2025, “We have about 50 years, including MOSE’s durability, to create something far more radical.”
Critics call the plan fantastical. Supporters, like University College London geophysicist David Dobson, believe it deserves a real-world test, emphasizing that “controlled pump rates and measurable uplift” could make the experiment viable. The risk is irreversible compaction if aquifers fail to respond — a gamble that underscores the stakes of the venice sinking crisis.
Venice is more than a postcard. Its slow descent is a warning about climate change, over-extraction, and the fragility of coastal civilizations. The venice sinking story mirrors the future of cities like Jakarta and Manila, where water is both lifeblood and threat.
Beyond Europe, initiatives such as Tanjung Uma Empowerment Program (TUEP) in Batam and Livingseas Foundation in Bali are working toward sustainable futures by strengthening communities and restoring marine ecosystems. Their missions remind us that resilience begins at the shoreline — with education, conservation, and local stewardship.
If Venice is to survive, the world must listen, learn, and act. This is not a tragedy to photograph, but a call to rethink how humanity lives with water. Explore more perspectives and solutions by visiting our homepage.
Sources:
[1] Venice is sinking. Now there’s a radical plan to lift the entire city above rising floodwaters
[2] Why does Venice flood?
[3] Venice is sinking. But one plan could lift the entire city by 30 cm
[4] New study by Italian scientists predicts Venice will be underwater by 2150
[5] Venice is sinking: Italian engineer proposes raising the city by pumping water underground
[6] Salvation for Venice or just an expensive delay of the inevitable?
[7] MOSE
[8] ‘Haunted’ Venice island to become a locals-only haven where tourists are banned
[9] Rising waters and overtourism are killing Venice. Now the fight is on to save its soul
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