WATER AND HERITAGE: TERRITORY AND CULTURAL ELEMENTS
Students: Utkarsh Singh, Kairat Kabiken, Shrawani Pandey“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”
Culture is something that is learned, shared, integrated, symbolic, and dynamic among societies for generations. Veneto region, being heavily influenced by the surrounding seas, has been proved to be a perfect example for these cultural attributes. Some of these examples are shown by its biodiversity, architecture, and lifestyle, including food, climate, trade, transport or and festivals. The Venetian Lagoon has been influencing the Veneto region for ages. Currently, the Venetian Lagoon is being affected by the advancing technology and other human activities like tourism and ever-changing demographics. An active government role is required for the conservation of the lagoon and culture through conscientious and sustainable strategies. Promotions businesses run by local people of the region, better modes of transportation, and housing structures.
The rich cultural heritage of the lagoon has attracted large number of tourists. During this time of growth, transportation has become better in facilitating tourism and supporting local businesses. Besides these benefits, this has also caused an increase in air and water pollution. Mass tourism leads to marine litter and increasing pressure on coastal areas. The result is an incredible strain on local waste management systems, causing landfills and overflowing sewage plants.
“The fact that it is now much easier to reach almost every place really played an important role and local people living on the coast can benefit from that as tourism is quite an important industry for them.”
The main concerns that are troubling Venice are trends on the waterways. Problems like pollution from heavy industries on the nearby mainland and shipping,congestion from unregulated boat traffic, and damages caused to waterside apartments by waves slapping against old foundations.
Venice has sunk roughly 15cm (5.9in) over the past century.
The “Fragile Venice” study investigates the processes that contribute to the degradation of the urban system and identifies possible solutions. In order to determine a Safe occupancy limit for Venice, the team utilized international safety standards specified by the European Committee for Standardization. These standards posit that evacuation of a given area should take no more than eight minutes.
The maximum occupancy of any area is given by the equation:Maximum Occupancy = Flow rate* Time* Egress Width
The number of citizens of Venice’s main island hit below 50.000 residents.
It’s difficult to imagine that in 1950’s Venice center had 150.000 venetians, right now it is ⅓ of that peak. There are more than 8000 houses and rooms for rent in the most scenic city of Italy. Residents who left Venice say that the city became a “Theme Park” and a “Short-term city”. Tourists at the same time, have noted they feel guilty walking among 25.000 people in the city center, fearing they are damaging the fragile city.
Is there any hope for betterment as far as the preservation of cultural heritage is concerned?
Tourists could participate in learning about locally produced foods and be a part of it, thereby preserving the stagnated or dying heritage of lacework and pipe craftsmanship. “Higher training Pathways for the Fishing Networks” – is a joint project of Ca’ Foscari and the local government, the main goal being the attraction for the students and market expansion in the field. The relations between locals and tourists can be improved with more efficient infrastructure – routes from Tessera and Fusina. Reservation as a route to demand management, and can make Venice a more special and enjoyable destination for tourists. The new and proposed projects may lay the foundation and change the course for better, more economically stable and heritage driven tourism. Only time will tell what will happen to the Venetians and the city of Venice.
References
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Picchio Forlati, L. (2017). The Ancient of Venice. In Sapere l’Europa. Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia. https://doi.org/10.14277/6969-052-5/SE-4-6
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Hansen. (2022, October 18). “The fishing sector needs managers: In Veneto the first advanced training course”. Italy 24 Press News. Retrieved October 29, 2022, from https://news.italy24.press/local/125777.html
Bertocchi, D., Camatti, N., Giove, S., & van der Borg, J. (2020). “Venice and Overtourism: Simulating Sustainable Development Scenarios through a Tourism Carrying Capacity Model”. Sustainability, 12(2), 512. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020512
Mitchell, Katherine D., “Cultural Heritage and Rising Seas: Water Management, Governance, and Heritage in Venice and Amsterdam” (2017). UVM Honors College Senior Theses. 161. https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/161