Comments on: Bad weather coming ashore

By: Erla

Erla — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:14:44 +0000

Thanks for the clarification. Eventually I’ll be interested to learn how much time is required to position the moveable barriers. Because in theory they should have been raised this morning before 6:00 AM (when the sirens sounded, with two tones: Code Orange) and yet the water in our canal barely came above the edge of our fondamenta. I walked around all morning in my street shoes. There was undoubtedly more water in the Piazza San Marco, but not as much as yesterday. This is not to say that the Centro Maree’s estimates can’t be wrong — and they understandably prefer the “safe rather than sorry” approach to forecasts. But if they tell the MOSE-wranglers it’s Code Orange, the gates could be activated to block a tide that didn’t show up. Even that doesn’t matter unless you’re concerned (as are a number of independent engineers) about the cumulative effect of frequent usage — wear and tear, in simpler language. If the gates are raised too often, they may well (as with most mechanical creations) begin to show some fatigue. This will almost certainly lead to other problems which I am not certain that the MOSE cheerleaders have acknowledged.

By: Krystyna

Krystyna — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:07:52 +0000

Thank you, I’m looking forward to read your article!! It’s great how you always do detailed research on context and everything.

There’s a site which seems to be the official website of MOSE – http://www.salve.it
Of course it’s biased and says that MOSE is awesome in every way. But they should be good for “technical” information.
Anyway, at the moment they do say that it’s going to be activated at 110 cm.
Maybe the press just writes “exceptional high water”, because any high water that is not exceptional doesn’t interest the Venetians very much.

Quote: “Attualmente, il livello di marea previsto per l’entrata in funzione delle paratoie Ã¨ 110 cm (rispetto al mareografo di riferimento posto a Venezia, Punta della Salute). Si tratta di una accordo preso dalle Istituzioni competenti, in base alla quota cui si Ã¨ deciso di rialzare le rive delle parti piÃ¹ basse dei centri lagunari. Tale livello non rappresenta, dunque, un limite funzionale del sistema di difesa e puÃ² essere rivisto e abbassato qualora ritenuto necessario.”

By: Erla

Erla — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:39:18 +0000

As far as I have heard — that is, read in the press, of which I am more skeptical every day — MOSE has always been intended to be used in cases of “exceptional high water,” which the city defines as being above 140 cm. I can only speculate as to the reasons for this. I will be writing a piece on MOSE before long, which ought to give more context than is usually reported in the (see above) press.

By: Krystyna

Krystyna — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:25:02 +0000

Hi Erla, I remember very well last december 1, when I was checking the tide center website nervously every minute, thinking of you, trying to guess if the water can enter your appartment, and then, when the water was sinking again, pondering how long I should wait before I can call you without disturbing you too much.

Today, however, I got up a bit late and don’t know the details. But it seems to me that the water didn’t rise like last year, and you didn’t have any particular problems, right? I hope so!

I had thought that they were going to use MOSE also for code orange. Maybe they changed their minds in order not to disturb the ship traffic or the natural water flow too much. But anyway, I don’t know what to thnk about that weird MOSE.