BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Will Venice survive? Lecture by Prof. Rinaldo
DTSTART:20230907T171500
DTEND:20230907T183000
DTSTAMP:20260408T085634Z
UID:26d7a312657f84e1e61f6d586da738463ebb6a90761bbccf5a2a7568
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Andrea Rinaldo\nIn 2008\, Professor Andrea Rinaldo found
 ed the world's first ecohydrology laboratory at the ENAC Faculty of EPFL. 
 In 2023\, he was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize\, considered the most p
 restigious in the field of hydrology.\n\nThe ENAC Faculty has the great ho
 nor of celebrating its laureate and invites you to attend his lecture and 
 the aperitif dinner that will follow:\n\n7 September 2023\n17:15 - 18:30\
 nRolex Learning Center - Forum\nEPFL - Lausanne\n\nWILL VENICE SURVIVE?\nB
 uilt and natural environments in a changing world\n\nVenice’s fate is st
 ill a case study of paramount importance today. On the one hand\, the intr
 insic relevance of the at-risk cultural heritage inevitably commands globa
 l attention. On the other\, the quantitative evaluation of the ecosystem s
 ervices jeopardized by the effects of climate change proves complex especi
 ally in contexts stratified by history. The very notion of sustainability\
 , which hinges on the social worth of the entire set of capital assets of 
 the Venetian economy (including the current natural capital)\, needs to fa
 ce here a long history of change and must not assume the biosphere to be e
 xternal to the human economy. The lack of a desirable\, characteristic ref
 erence state of the environment weighs in: lagoons are metastable tidal la
 ndforms where a benchmark natural capital does not exist because the Venet
 ian environment has been radically changed through the centuries to suit s
 hifting models of the city’s social and economic welfare long gone by no
 w. However\, sea-level regressions and transgressions have always shaped t
 he cycles of the fortune of coastal areas\, and it is only during the Anth
 ropocene we fancied to resist such strong evolutionary forces. Should we s
 imply accept the notion that in the long run Venice will become just a lay
 er of a sedimentary deposit? Should we instead unleash today’s technolog
 ical options in engineering the Earth and its risks?  Acute problems have
  been tackled in the past\, yet an idyllic golden age when nature was in e
 quilibrium with man never existed\, and the built and the natural environm
 ents we see today are the byproduct of decisive transformations imposed by
  man. \n\nMy take is: within this century\, owing to the effects of clima
 te change\, Venice and its lagoon cannot be the ones we see now. Soon sea-
 level rise will require a plan in place that will imply a radical rethinki
 ng of its built and natural environments: the sea-lagoon interfaces\, the 
 lagoon domain\, the social and economic activities within the greater Veni
 ce area\, and the very survival of the texture of the city. The time to se
 t in motion a proper discourse about the possible scenarios -- possibly by
  a broad international consultation -- is now given Venice’s track recor
 d in acting. These decades extend beyond the lifetime of most of us\, so w
 e must act without self-interest on behalf of future generations. The scie
 nce community should thus act affirmatively in their sentinel responsibili
 ty to alert the society\, possibly making the case of Venice the template 
 for the global rethinking of how to conserve cultural heritage\, while fos
 tering sustainable development\, at a time when rapidly changing environme
 ntal conditions no longer allow for the mere conservation through maintena
 nce.\n\n\nProgram\n17h15: \nWelcome & Introduction\n\n	Prof. Claudia R. B
 inder\, ENAC Dean\n	EPFL Direction\n\nLecture\n\n\n	Prof. Andrea Rinaldo\n
 \nQ&A\n\n\n	Moderation: Prof. Claudia R. Binder\n\n18h30:\nApéritif dinat
 oire
LOCATION:RLC E1 240 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==RLC%20E1%20240
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR