The erosion process in the Lagoon of Venice measured

The waves of ship traffic to Marghera caused the erosion of one million cubic metres of sediments in the two kilometers long channel. Each year more than 30,000 cubic metres of soil are lost from the borders of the channel and from protected areas for wildlife conservation, with an average retreat of coastline of 3-4 metres per year.

The study was just published on PLOSONE by an international team of researchers, guided by scientists of the Marine Science Institute at the Cnr and of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, who investigated and shed light on the morphodynamics of the waterway in the Lagoon of Venice.

Field research was combined with remote sensing, explain the researchers, to highlight how the areas near the channel Malamocco-Marghera are eroding because of the waves produced by the caused by ship traffic, mainly heavy commercial ships going to the industrial port.

The results of the investigation show that, forty years from the channel construction, the navigation channel has still not reached equilibrium probably for the progressive increase of the intensity of traffic and of the size of ships.

This study is an in-depth exploration of the possible consequences of navigation in confined channels and brings attention to the need for identifying strategies to mitigate their impact, with a view to the increase of ship traffic and to cruise related traffic deviation in the Malamocco-Marghera channel.