scholarly journals Long-term variability of storm surge frequency in the Venice Lagoon: an update thanks to eighteenth century sea level observations

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (12) ◽  
pp. 7465-7486
Author(s):  
F. Raicich

Abstract. Sea level observations made in the Venice Lagoon between 1751 and 1792 have been recovered, consisting of two time series of daily data on high and low waters at Venice and Chioggia. From comparisons with modern observations the quality of the 18th century data appears to be good enough to allow a useful analysis. A composite time series of daily mean sea level is obtained by merging the 18th century data and 1872–2004 observations at Venice Punta della Salute. The absence of reliable information on vertical references prevents the connection of the two 18th century time series with each other and with modern observations. However, daily sea level anomalies relative to the mean sea level enable to recognize storm surge events, that appear to occur more frequently in the second half of the 18th century than in the late 19th and 20th centuries, particularly during the 1751–1769 period. The record-breaking storm surge of 4 November 1966 turns out to be a remarkable event also in comparison with the events extracted from the 18th century time series. Further work is required to fill the gap between the old and modern observations.

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Raicich

Abstract. Sea level observations made in the Venice Lagoon between 1751 and 1792 have been recovered, consisting of two time series of daily data on high and low waters in Venice and Chioggia. From comparisons with modern observations, the quality of the 18th century data appears to be good enough to allow a useful analysis. A composite time series of daily mean sea level is obtained by merging the 18th century data and 1872–2004 observations in Venice Punta della Salute. The absence of reliable information on vertical references prevents the connection of the two 18th century time series with each other and with modern observations. However, daily sea level anomalies relative to the mean sea level enable us to recognize storm surge events that appear to occur more frequently in the second half of the 18th century than in the late 19th and 20th centuries, particularly during the 1751–1769 period. The record-breaking storm surge of 4 November 1966 turns out to be a remarkable event even in comparison to the events extracted from the 18th century time series. Further work is required to fill the gap between the old and modern observations.


Author(s):  
Xiufeng Yang ◽  
Dale Kerper ◽  
Shubhra Misra ◽  
James Stear ◽  
Tao Shen ◽  
...  

Storm surge is a major natural hazard to the construction and operation of infrastructure projects in shallow and gently sloping coastal areas such as the northeastern part of the Caspian Sea. Up-surge events cause significant coastal flooding, while down-surge events disrupt marine transportation by constraining safe navigable water depths. Coastal developments therefore have to achieve a judicious balance of these conflicting constraints. Further, the unpredictability of long-term and intra-annual Mean Sea Level (MSL) variability as well as periodic freeze-up and break-up due to ice formation in this part of the Caspian Sea complicate a robust and unequivocal basis for defining storm surge hazards.


1974 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 524-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. W. Lennon

The use of mean sea level as a surface of reference that might provide an independent control for geodetic leveling has been a long term goal arising from the classical analogy between the geoid as an equipotential surface and the surface assumed by a hypothetical undisturbed world ocean. The problems associated with this aim are now known to be vast, and are associated with the dynamics of the marine system, notably its response to meteorological forces, to variations in density and to the effects of basic circulation patterns. In consequence the mean sea level surface varies rapidly in both time and space. This identifies in fact a distinctive scientific discipline, coastal geodesy, in which contributions are required by both geodesists and oceanographers. It has come to be recognized that the coastal zone is a hazardous environment for all observational techniques concerned. On the one hand, the difficulties of measurement of coastal sea levels have only recently been understood; on the other hand, precise leveling procedures are now known to be influenced by the attraction of marine tides and by crustal deformation of tidal loading. Much of the data available for study are therefore inadequate and, moreover, it should be noted that long-time series are required. It is now possible to lay plans for both geodetic and oceanographic procedures to remedy these deficiencies in the long-term interests of the study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 363
Author(s):  
Camilla Bertolini ◽  
Edouard Royer ◽  
Roberto Pastres

Effects of climatic changes in transitional ecosystems are often not linear, with some areas likely experiencing faster or more intense responses, which something important to consider in the perspective of climate forecasting. In this study of the Venice lagoon, time series of the past decade were used, and primary productivity was estimated from hourly oxygen data using a published model. Temporal and spatial patterns of water temperature, salinity and productivity time series were identified by applying clustering analysis. Phytoplankton and nutrient data from long-term surveys were correlated to primary productivity model outputs. pmax, the maximum oxygen production rate in a given day, was found to positively correlate with plankton variables measured in surveys. Clustering analysis showed the occurrence of summer heatwaves in 2008, 2013, 2015 and 2018 and three warm prolonged summers (2012, 2017, 2019) coincided with lower summer pmax values. Spatial effects in terms of temperature were found with segregation between confined and open areas, although the patterns varied from year to year. Production and respiration differences showed that the lagoon, despite seasonality, was overall heterotrophic, with internal water bodies having greater values of heterotrophy. Warm, dry years with high salinity had lower degrees of summer autotrophy.


1985 ◽  
Vol 31 (109) ◽  
pp. 369-371
Author(s):  
S. G. Vombatkere

AbstractA Bailey bridge built on a permanent ice body at an altitude of 5580 m above mean sea-level has been carrying regular traffic of 7 tonne motor vehicles for over 2 years. The problems posed by the ice body, its behaviour under the load of the bridge and traffic, its summer and winter behaviour, and the problems posed in the construction and maintenance of the bridge are studied and discussed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Rubinetti ◽  
Carla Taricco ◽  
Davide Zanchettin ◽  
Enrico Arnone ◽  
Angelo Rubino

<p>The city of Venice (Northern Italy), together with its lagoon, is a historic, cultural and artistic heritage of inestimable value. One of its peculiarities consists in the recurrent storm surge phenomena, referred to as <em>acqua alta</em>. Sea level rise and local subsidence made their frequency to increase dramatically with respect to the past, causing severe damages to the lagoon and in particular to the city centre, as during the exceptional high tide verified on November 12, 2019.<br>Here we show the analysis of the historical time series of tidal maxima and minima recorded in the Venetian lagoon, covering the period 1872-2018. It is the longest and most complete historical series of the Venetian area and one of the longest records of the entire Mediterranean region. During this period, the relative sea level height has increased of about 30 cm with respect to the reference level, while the average number of <em>acqua alta</em> events – evaluated over a 40-year time interval - has passed from about 4 to 70 per year. These events usually occur during the fall season (from October to December), even if a not negligible number has been also recorded during winter. Therefore, we analyse the October-March average annual time series with advanced spectral analysis methods, like Monte Carlo Singular Spectrum Analysis (MC-SSA), to extract and reconstruct the significant variability modes characterizing the record. They are the increasing long-term trend and components with multidecadal, decadal and interannual periods. The trend results from the superposition on the global eustacy of the local subsidence affecting the Venetian lagoon, which is due to both natural causes and human activities. We also discuss the possible linkage of the other significant spectral components to large scale climatic patterns. In particular, the decadal-scale oscillation is one of the most important variability modes affecting Northern Italian hydrology.<br>Finally, we apply simple statistical methods (autoregressive models and feed-forward neural networks) to forecast the long-term evolution of sea level over the next ten years. In this contribution, we illustrate results from this state of the art two-fold statistical prediction system that provides robust predictions of sea level in the Venetian lagoon for the next decade and discuss them in the light of current longer-term projections of future sea level rise. Finally, we will test the predictive skill of the applied methods using tidal measurements recorded during 2019, to verify if our predictions are able to describe tidal variability characterizing the current year.       </p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milaa Murshan ◽  
Balaji Devaraju ◽  
Nagarajan Balasubramanium ◽  
Onkar Dikshit

<p>The Mean Sea Level is not an equipotential surface because it is subject to several variations, e.g., the tides, currents, winds, etc. Mean Sea Level can be measured either by tide gauges near to coastlines relative to local datum or by satellite altimeter above the reference ellipsoid. From this observable quantity, one can derive a non-observable quantity at which the potential is constant called geoid and differs from mean sea surface by amount of ±1 m. This separation is called Sea Surface Topography. In this research, the data of nine altimetric Exact Repeat Missions (Envisat, ERS_1 of 35 days (phase C and G), ERS_2, GFO, Jason_1, Jason_2, Jason_3, Topex/Poseidon and SARAL) were used for computing the regional mean sea surface model over the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The data of all missions together span approximately 25 years from September -1992 to January-2017 and referenced to Topex ellipsoid.  Which is later transformed to WGS84 ellipsoid, as it is chosen to be a unified datum in this study. Prior to computing the altimetric MSS,  altimetric sea surface height measurements were validated  by comparing  time series of altimetric-MSL with mean sea level time series calculated from three in-situ tide gauge measurements.  The sea surface heights values of the derived MSS model is between 15.6 and 26.7 m. And the linear trend slope is between -3.02 to 6.53 mm/year.</p><p>Keywords: Mean Sea Level, Satellite Altimetry, Tide Gauge, Exact Repeat Missions</p>


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