Hyderabad tWaer Management nfI ormation ySstem City of Venice.pdf · HyWaMIS – Hyderabad Water Management Information System Hyderabad, 23-24 September 2003 Characteristics of the

HyWaMIS – Hyderabad Water Management Information System Hyderabad, 23-24 September 2003

Giuseppe Mella – City of Venice

Hyderabad ter anagement nformation ystemWa M I S


Summary

• The City of Venice• Water management in Venice• Actors• Safeguarding Activities• Pollution• “High Water” Events• Water transportation system• The International Relations Department• Asia Urbs Projects


The City of Venice

Venice is one of the most famous cities in the world, strategically located in relation to both Italy and Europe.

Venice is the capital of the Veneto Region, that is today one of thestrongest economic regions in Europe.

The City in figures:•Size: 457 km2

•Population: 266,181 people •Population density per km2: 582.4•Population in the centre and lagoon area: 38%•Population on the mainland: 62%


Characteristics of the City/1

The Venetian territory can be divided into three main areas:

•the Islands (old town)•the Lagoon•the mainland area - Mestre and Marghera (new town and industrialized area)

The unique setting of the city of Venice contributes both to its appeal and to its vulnerability to flooding and environmental degradation





1. Tourism industry: (3,438,000 arrivals per year; 281 guesthouses and hotels, 20,945 beds)

2. Industry: Marghera petrochemical plant is one of the largest Italian industrial areas (1,550 ha) for the chemistry, advanced materials and shipbuilding. Nearly 11,800 employees work in Marghera plant.

3. Commercial and industrial port: total goods traffic amounts to more than 24 million tons per year, (25% represented by commercial goods, 25% by industrial goods and 50% by petrol). Passengers traffic is also intensive (more than 700,000 units per year). In both the ports work about 30% of the total employed people in the Venetian area.

4. Glass industry, sited in Murano island.

5. Other traditional handicraft activities.

Figures (business units and workers):Industry: 4,461 (30,500 workers)Commerce: 6,544 (23,000 workers)Services: 8,416 (41,500 workers)Institutions: 1,966 (28,700 workers)Total: 21,387 (124,600 workers)


Water management in Venice


Water management: actors/1

Morphological recovery interventionMonitoring the quality of Lagoon waters

Safeguarding of the Venice LagoonVenice Magistrato alle acque

Programming the Provinces/Municipalities activitiesMonitoring surface and grounwaterElaboration data, reports on the state of the environment for the StateWater for human consumptionSwimming water (mapping, identification of suitable areas)

•Legislation•Programming and planning at the regional level

Regional Administration

Normative activitiesTransposal of EU directivesFixing limit values for entire national territoryFinancing plans and monitoring

•Legislative, guidelines, coordination•Substitutive powers in the case of inertia on the part of regions and local bodies

State

Competence regarding the protection of water management

RoleBody



Authorisation and control od discharge in surface water and soilEnvironmental impact assestment of projects of provincial competence

Control and planningProvincial Administration

Technical and scientific support; Intervention in case of accidental spills; planning of resource use; analytical control of seawater; analysis of drinking water

Consultancy and support to the other bodies; Support agricultural activities; Environmental quality control;

Local Authorities

The Mayor has been delegated by the Government as the “Commissario” (figure given authority in a situation considered critical) for water traffic in the lagoon

Supervision of water traffic in the lagoonMayor of Venice

•Provisions in stases of great danger or damage•Authorisation of discharged•Management of aqueduct and sewage services•Swimming waters

Authority over health issuesManagement of aqueduct services, sewage networks and purification through a specific authority

Municipal administration


RoleBody



Organisation of integrated water services (catchment, purification for consumption, distribution, collection)

Planning and control of integrated water services

Autorità di ambito (ATO)

Technical and scientific support to the RegionEnvironmental quality controls, Seawater monitoring

ARPA (Regional agency for environmental protection and prevention)

Planning of resource usesAdopt the catchment plan for a water balance for the uses

Catchment Authority

Management of aqueduct, sewage network and purificationAgent responsible for the management of the integrated water services in the ATO

Integrated water services management (VESTA)


RoleBody


Physical protection

Safeguarding activities:

Dredging of lagoon channelsRestoration of minor islandsRe-opening of channelsAlgae harvesting

Removal of pollutant sedimentInterventions for landfillsEstuary phytopurificationDistancing oil-tanker traffic

Crisis Factors to combat:

High water and sea storms:Erosion of the coastlineDeterioration of jettiesUrban fragility

Pollution and erosion:Morphological deteriorationEnvironmental deteriorationOil-tanker traffic risks


Pollution in Venice Lagoon

Manifestation:•Disappearance of animal and plant species•Weakening of the natural defences•Invasion of macroalgae

Causes:•Porto Marghera industrial plant•Waste water discharge•Urban Lagoon Centres discharge•Pollution of sediment


Pollution and Marghera industrial plant

• The huge industrial zone at Porto Marghera on the mainland was built over a richcomplex of salt marshes, filling in a vast area of the Lagoon. Its factories, in particular the petrochemical complex, have extensively polluted the soil and the Lagoon's waters.

• Porto Marghera represents an old approach to development.Since the 1960s, when Italy's chemical industry met the first symptoms of an ongoingeconomic crisis, Porto Marghera has seen little investment or conversion.

• Innovation & Conversion/ VEGA (Venice Science and Technological Gateway) isan initiative aimed at creating a strong link among intellectual, scientific and entrepreneurial resources, both local and international, as well as at implementingthe sectors of search and that are concerned with new materials and informationtechnology applications



< Standing time for pollutantsubstances.

53% of the pollution in the lagoon comes from agricultureand livestock and 47% comesfrom industrial, civil and urbansources.



Disappearence of animal and plant species is an useful indicator.The decrease in eelgrass is particularly serious as it is important for the biodiversity of the Lagoon.

Water transparency Marine eelgrass

Bird SpeciesPlant Species


Environmental quality

The objective behind interventions for environmental qualityaims at combating the factors contributing to the deteriorationof the lagoon ecosystem, dividing them into:

• erosive processes• different types of water and sediment pollution.

In order to achieve this objective it is necessary to restore or defend typical morphological features within the lagoon and to reduce the pollutant substances.


Information Exchange

There is need for:

• Much better information within the international scientific community about management solutions to the environmental problems, including evaluation of those solutions already proposed (eg. the mobile barriers at the entrances to the lagoon)

• A more coordination and cooperation among the decision takers, of the nature of the problem, the prognosis, the possible solutions and hierarchy of risk


Legislation

! Law 798 of 1984 (defence of all inhabited centres of the lagoon from high water and hydrogeological restructuring of the lagoon):

• interventions which act on the physical structure of the lagoon; • interventions which protect urban lagoon centers with local defence works; • interventions at lagoon inlets which temporarily interrupt communication

between the lagoon and the sea.

! Special Law for Venice• The requirement for water quality are more strict than other water surfaces in

Italy

! National Law for Water Protection• Updating of the special Law; requirements of depuration plants


“High Water” events/1

The occurrence of the phenomena of high water is mainly connected to two factorswhich affect, sea level:

1. The temporary rise in sea level because of the combination of the astronomicaltide and the meteorological factor2. The lowering of ground level with respect to mean sea level, because of the effects of the two long term factors of eustatism and subsidence.

High water occurs for the most part during winter months (about 80% of the occurrences are from October and February), that is when the cyclonic perturbationand low pressure are more frequent, with an average duration of about 3 hours.


“High Water” events/2


High water protection system/1

< Flood Barriers



< Cross section of floodgate housings and foundations.



• The mobile flood barriers are made up of lines of flap-gates built into the inlet canal beds. They are "mobile" because in normal tide conditions they are full of water and lie in their housings built into the inletcanal bed. • When tides exceeding 100 cm are forecast, anemission of compressed air empties the flap-gates of water until they emerge.• In this way, it is possible to temporarily isolate the lagoon from the sea blocking the flow of the tide.• The inlets remain closed for the duration of the high water and for the time it takes to manoeuvre the flap-gates (on an average a total of 4.5 hours).



When the mobile barriers are not operational, there will no reduction in the volumes of water exchanged between sea and lagoon. The lagoon inlets will be “closed” only whentides above established height (+ 110 cm) are forecast (an average of 5 times a year).

Permanent effects with the risk of irreversible damage to water volumes exchangedbetween the sea and lagoon and thus on water quality would however occur ifpermanent measures were implemented at the lagoon inlets to reduce the depth (raisingof the sea bed) or create obstacles to the entering tide.

The Mo.S.E. system could be realized in eight years from the time of the assignment of the work (2003)


The International Relations and European Affairs Department


International Relations and European Affairs Department

The International and European Affairs Department is responsible for the development of European and International projects which foresee the involvement of the City of Venice.The Department is divided in three Offices corresponding to three main fields of action:

• EUROPEAN AFFAIRS• INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

The European Affairs Office is responsible for the planning and the management of EU funded projects through:

• Information related to EU opportunities for funding: Infoeuropa web-site• Identification of EU funded Programmes• Technical support of the departments of the Municipality in planning and managing the projects• Support for the creation of local and international partnerships • Relations with the European Commission’s DGs


International Relations and European Affairs Department

The main activity of the International Relations Office consists in planning and managing international cooperation projects with local authorities, private actors and NGOs in order to make the city an active partner in decentralised cooperation programmes of the EU and the UN.

Its main strategic geographical areas are:

• South Eastern Europe• Latin America• Mediterranean • Asia (with particular reference to India, China and the Far East)

In particular, the City of Venice has been involved in several Asia Urbs projects


Asia Urbs Projects

• AUROVILLE I: Creation of a research centre, town planning and urban management for the city of Auroville (India).

• AUROVILLE II: Dissemination of the best results achieved in the projects carried out with the ASIA URBS funds (1998-2000).

• PHNOM PEHN: Supporting the city of Phnom Penh (Cambodia) in the definition of its urban planning policy after the city reconstruction (1993-1998).

•SUZHOU ECOLOGICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT: Implementation of pre-sorting of waste and increasing of recycling in Suzhou (China).

•KHLONGS (Thailand)


Water management in Khlongs (Thailand)

Name of the project Klongs Water Remediation in Bangkok and Samut PrakarnYear of submission2001Conclusion date2003LeaderCity of WienPartnersCity of Venice; City of Horsens (Dk); City of Bangkok, City of Samut Prakarn (Thailand)ActivitiesAnalysis of overall hydrogeological and urban systems (water conditions, agricultureconditions, healthcare situation, information); development and establishment of innovative water management, agriculture and healthcare systems with the aim of fighting pollution and improving life conditions of people living along the Klongs area in Bangkok and in the SamutPrakarn Province.

Documents

Hyderabad tWaer Management nfI ormation ySstem City of Venice.pdf · HyWaMIS – Hyderabad Water Management Information System Hyderabad, 23-24 September 2003 Characteristics of the