Geomatic and Geotechnical Monitoring of Settlements in the Venice Lagoon, Italy

The safeguarding of Venice and the Venetian lagoon (Italy) from rising water is of great national interest. Besides the normal tidal regime, the effects of an increase in the frequency and intensity of floods in the lagoon have been accentuated by a reduction in the elevation of the land in respect to the actual average sea level. With the aim of reducing the vulnerability of the lagoon, the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research financed the research project “The geotechnical model of the subsurface for the safeguarding of Venice and its lagoon”, to study the compressibility of the lagoon deposits, both by natural causes and as a consequence of overloading with heavy structures. The project involved the construction of a large experimental embankment in the Treporti area of the lagoon, in order to perform a full-scale long-term compression test on the lagoon soils. By using various geomatic and geotechnical monitoring techniques, it was possible to appraise very small vertical movements of the ground induced by the compressibility of the highly heterogeneous silty formations. High-precision data was acquired by means of classical topographic methodologies integrated with continuous GPS (Global Positioning System) measurements. In addition, vertical displacements of the ground were obtained using geotechnical instrumentation. This cross-monitoring approach provided a valuable tool for analyzing both the natural and anthropic causes of settlement.