Extreme floods of Venice: characteristics, dynamics, past and future evolution (review article)

Lionello, Piero; Barriopedro, David; Ferrarin, Christian; Nicholls, Robert J.; Orlić, Mirko; Raicich, Fabio; Reale, Marco; Umgiesser, Georg; Vousdoukas, Michalis; Zanchettin, Davide

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-2705-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-2705-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Venice flooding: understanding, prediction capabilities, and...

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-2705-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 8

Review article

| Highlight paper

|

01 Sep 2021

Review article | Highlight paper |

| 01 Sep 2021

Extreme floods of Venice: characteristics, dynamics, past and future evolution (review article)

Piero Lionello, David Barriopedro, Christian Ferrarin, Robert J. Nicholls, Mirko Orlić, Fabio Raicich, Marco Reale, Georg Umgiesser, Michalis Vousdoukas, and Davide Zanchettin

Data sets

Extreme Sea level - RCP45 JRC - Joint Research Centre http://data.europa.eu/89h/e9e42344-119d-479e-9bc7-57400d12a8a2

Extreme Sea level - RCP85 JRC - Joint Research Centre http://data.europa.eu/89h/a565eea4-5422-4c7d-a000-2e10ae872da7

NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) https://psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.ncep.reanalysis.html

Punta della Salute tide gauge data ISPRA - Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale https://www.venezia.isprambiente.it/index.php?folder_id=20&stazione_id=129&tipo_dati_id=1&view=year

Acque alte eccezionali Città di Venezia https://www.comune.venezia.it/content/le-acque-alte-eccezionali

Short summary

In this review we describe the factors leading to the extreme water heights producing the floods of Venice. We discuss the different contributions, their relative importance, and the resulting compound events. We highlight the role of relative sea level rise and the observed past and very likely future increase in extreme water heights, showing that they might be up to 160 % higher at the end of the 21st century than presently.