Kind: captions
Language: en
Venice Italy is in Peril models suggest
the sea level here could rise more than
40 inches by the end of the century
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it would seem the future of this
remarkable city is bleak
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now there is hope
after nearly 20 years of construction
and some 8 billion dollars a network of
enormous flood barriers called the mosa
is in place
it is designed to block the flood waters
before they reach the city
in charge is Elizabeth
is a masterpiece of Italian engineering
it has required so much labor so much
research so much testing
scale of this project is immense
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78 individual gates are arranged in four
barriers that each stretch over 1100
feet across the inlets to the Lagoon
so the barriers are only lifted when a
flood endangers Venice
gate is colossal a proximately the size
of two tennis courts
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these gates are fixed
beds sitting on the bottom of the sea
the gates are full of water which weighs
them down and keeps them lying flat on
the sea floor until the team injects
compressed air through a system of
valves
air is pumped into the gates and they
slowly rise
and emerge from the sea
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then they join together and hold back
the high tide
most floods last fewer than four hours
so once the threat has passed the team
can lower the barriers
the mosa is still in its testing phase
the team is perfecting how to operate
the barriers when an aqua Alta threatens
the city
yes this project needs to work perfectly
water cannot pass through