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Before and after pictures from space: satellite images show the lock system being closed
Photo: NASA Earth Observatory / Joshua Stevens / US Geological Survey / ESA
Wade across St. Mark's Square in rubber boots, hurry to save works of art from floods: floods have been part of everyday life in Venice for centuries, as has the concern of the Venetians that their city might one day sink into the floods.
A new, billion-dollar water bulwark is supposed to prevent that.
It is called Mose, the S at the end can be thought of in German, after the Lord from the Bible who temporarily drained the Red Sea with a snap of his finger.
The planning and construction of the lock system took decades, there were breakdowns, corruption and rising costs.
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A minister was sentenced to four years in prison, and a financial holding company owned by the Berlusconi family was also involved in the construction.
When a record flood flooded the lagoon city in 2019, the frustration of many Venetians at the delays turned into anger.
The system should have been completed long ago when the water rose almost 1.90 meters above normal level and a state of emergency was declared.
It was the second worst "Acqua Alta" in the history of the city, which at the time was almost completely under water.
It is said to have been the last flood with such dramatic consequences.
Meanwhile Moses has taken up his ministry.
The system consists of 78 flood gates - each 30 meters high, 20 meters wide, five meters thick and weighing 250 tons.
They rise out of the sea like pop-up dykes when the water rises too high and block access to the lagoon.
Every time the operators raise the gates, it is said that it costs the city 300,000 euros.
When a storm brewed over the Adriatic in November, it was that time again.
According to the weather forecast, the water level should rise by 1.40 meters above normal, which would have flooded more than half of the city, including St. Mark's Square.
"Satellite images showing the barriers closed are very rare, as they are only activated in storms and are above the surface of the water when the cloud cover is usually too thick to see from above," said Luca Zaggia from Institute of Marine Sciences in Venice.
It is even more unusual for satellites to take pictures of sediments being thrown up by the movement of the barriers, as this phase takes less than 30 minutes.
The satellites only fly over the site every few days.
Moses did his job too.
While the water level at the gates of the city rose by 1.30 meters, major floods were prevented.
It was the fifth use this year, previously it was mainly test runs, as the system is not yet complete.
That should be the case next year.
Then it should also protect the city from the consequences of climate change.
While between 1900 and 1950 there were only two so-called flood events per decade on average, there are now 40. "In the most favorable climate scenario, the system should work well by the end of this century," said Federica Braga from the Institute of Marine Sciences.
However, if the climate targets are clearly missed, it would be overwhelmed sooner.
If things go well, in a few decades the Moses gates would have to be closed for a total of three weeks per year, according to model calculations.
If things go badly with climate protection, at least two months.
There are already concerns that if the Adriatic Sea is sealed off for days, the ecosystem in the lagoon will suffer, for example due to a lack of oxygen.
The lagoon would then become a sewer.
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