Environmental & Cultural Conflicts in the Preservation of Venice
2007 Exploration Seminar in Venice, Italy

**THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN CANCELLED AND IS NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS**

Program Director: Andrew Light, Philosophy & Public Affairs
Dates of Instruction: September 2 - September 14, 2007

Proposals for environmental preservation are often found in conflict with competing human cultural needs and values.  Oftentimes such conflicts occur in relatively untouched or pristine areas (such as the Brazilian Rainforest) with the trade-off expressed as one in which a natural area will be lost to create economic opportunity to foster human development.  But decisions about preservation and development are rarely, if ever, so stark, presenting a choice between retaining a pristine environment against the instrumental value of producing economic capital.  More generally such conflicts are much more complicated, involving a combination of historically situated cultural and environmental values which mutually evolve over generations of human habitation of a place.

This seminar will focus on one of the best global examples of how complicated such choices really are -- the proposal to build a series of 79 mobile dams to protect the city of Venice, Italy from sea level rises which are predicted to eventually swamp the city making it uninhabitable and losing some of the world’s most important architectural treasures in existence.  The plan, called the “MOSE” project, Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico (in English, the Experimental Electromechanical Module), will place barriers at the opening of the Venetian lagoon which will remain on the seabed until high tides and storms are forecast.  They will then be inflated, blocking the sea from the lagoon and effectively reducing high water levels.  The proposal has been endorsed by UNESCO as a way of saving this critical World Heritage Site and, if started soon, would be completed by 2011 at a cost of three billion euros.

The reaction to this project from the environmental community in Europe (including the World Wildlife Fund and the Italian Green Party) has been almost uniformly negative.  Criticisms range from claims that construction of MOSE would do substantial damage to the lagoon (including dredging approximately five million cubic meters of the lagoon's bed and dumping almost eight million tons of rock and 700,000 tons of concrete in its place), to worries that the project would open the deep shipping channels already in the lagoon risking an acceleration of its erosion and endangering its remaining salt marshes and mud flats (all of which are protected by the European Union's Habitats Directive).  Continued public debates and delays have made the feasibility and future of the project uncertain.  Other options are now on the table including massive public investment to raise the city as well as closing the shipping lanes in the lagoon.

The seminar will first provide students with a brief, though thorough, overview of the history of Venice, including the rise, importance, and decline of the Venetian Republic in the context of the broader history of the Western Renaissance.  This will include guided tours of the most important architectural and cultural sites in the city as well.  Next, a comprehensive survey of the ecological history of the lagoon will be provided including tours of aquaculture sites and talks from ecologists from the University of Venice who have been working in the area for decades.  Finally, we will meet with the range of stake-holders, including engineers working on this project, environmentalists opposing it, and representatives of cultural and governmental institutions advocating the MOSE project or other alternatives to save the city.  The expected outcome will not only be a thorough understanding of one of the most interesting environmental debates currently underway, but also serve as a test case for understanding how environmental values may shape most preservation-development disputes.

Acceptance into the course is based on a written application and interview.  Classes will be taught in English.  Italian language proficiency is not required. Participants will earn 5 credits of ENVIR 496: Study Abroad - Advanced Environmental Studies, PHIL 401B: Advance Topics, or CHID 471 Europe Study Abroad (I&S).  Participants should check with their advisors to determine how these credits can count towards departmental requirements


Student costs:  
$3,500 Tentative Program Fee
$200 IPE Fee
Additional costs include: Round trip travel to Venice, some meals, health insurance, any course materials and personal spending money.

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