ABOUT THE WETLANDS

St. Mark's Square, November 4th, 1966. Flooded under 150 cms of sea water (194 cms when measured from the average sea level), several boats were seen navigating the piazza (di Venezia 1999). Three days of torrential rain brought Venice to its knees (di Venezia 1999). Venice remained isolated from the rest of Italy and from the world for 24 hours, and the city was not at all prepared to face this disaster (di Venezia 1999). The streets in the historical centre of Venice were flooded to heights of more than 50 cms above see level (di Venezia 1999). The flooding forced more than 1200 residents to abandon Venice entirely (di Venezia 1999). More than 75 percent of businesses, shops, and artisans' studios were seriously damaged, and thousands of goods were ruined or destroyed (di Venezia 1999). The damage to the city's artistic heritage was irreversible and incomprehensible (di Venezia 1999). This devastation is expected to occer every 100 to 150 years (di Venezia 1999).

FOOD WEB - THE WETLANDS OF VENICE

ENERGY PROFILE - THE WETLANDS OF VENICE

Algae and other plants produce their own food from the sun's energy (Trustees of the Stevens Institute of Technology, 1999).
First level consumers, such as black fly and mayfly larvae and snails, eat the plants and algae (Trustees of the Stevens Institute of Technology, 1999).
Second level consumers, such as fish, eat the plant eaters (Trustees of the Stevens Institute of Technology, 1999).
Third level consumers, such as birds, eat the second level consumers (Trustees of the Stevens Institute of Technology, 1999).

Picture and information courtesy of students.ed.uiuc.edu

SOIL PROFILES - THE WETLANDS OF VENICE

Soil Profile 2 (Floodplain Profile) Description:

A Horizon- This layer is found in the top 36cm of the soil profile (Chris Murray, 2006). It is composed of mineral materials, and has a silt-loam texture (Chris Murray, 2006).

Bt1 Horizon- The second layer has a lower case t to indicate a clay increase (Chris Murray, 2006). It is found from 36-48cm and has a silty clay texture (Chris Murray, 2006).

Bt2 Horizon- This horizon is found from 48-66cm and also has a strong increase in clay percentage (Chris Murray, 2006). It has a clayey texture and a high concentration of gray mottles indicating the presence of a water table at 48cm (Chris Murray, 2006).

Bt3 Horizon- The final layer is found at 66cm and continues well below this point (Chris Murray, 2006). The gray colors indicate that this soil is saturated throughout most of the year (Chris Murray, 2006). It also has a heavy clay structure (Chris Murray, 2006)

Graph compliments of courses.soil.ncsu.edu

RAINFALL AVERAGE / TEMPERATURE GRAPH - VENICE

Located in North-East Italy, the climate in Venice changes through out the year (Comune di Venezia, 2008). The hottest month is July and coldest month is January (Comune di Venezia, 2008).

During the fall and winter months Venice can suffer from flooding extremely often (Comune di Venezia, 2008). November seems to have flooding almost on a daily basis, because of Acqua Alta (Comune di Venezia, 2008).

Acqua Alta regularly occurs in the city of Venice, most often occuring during autumn and spring months (Comune di Venezia, 2008). It involves the flooding of Venice, or, and in the most severe cases, up to 96% of the City streets (Comune di Venezia, 2008).

Acqua Alta occurs when water is above 90 cm. (35.4 inches), over the average sea level (Comune di Venezia, 2008).

Graph compliments of The BBC Weather Center

A larger version of the temperature graph, with year round recordings of the highs, lows and the average.

Graph compliments of www.a-la-carte.com




REFERENCES
http://mcandrew-boyes2.blogspot.com/