How to tackle flooding in Venice What are the institutional and material causes of MOSE’s failure? Master course: Environmental and Infrastructure Planning 11/06/2018 Student Supervisor Nicola Belafatti F.M.G. (Ferry) Van Kann s3232425
[email protected] University of Groningen Faculty of Spatial Sciences Abstract Literature extensively discusses the role of different elements such as corruption and stakeholder involvement as drivers of megaprojects’ success and failure (among others: Flyvbjerg et al., 2002; Flyvbjerg 2011, 2014; Locatelli 2017; Pinto and Kharbanda 1996; Shenhar et al., 2002; Shore 2008; Tabish and Jha 2011; etc). Scholars analyse reasons and incentives leading to the undertaking of public projects. The main consensus is that insufficient stakeholder involvement, processes lacking transparency and missing institutional checks are factors hindering the appropriate fulfilment of initial expectations and the realization of the project resulting in cost and time overruns (Flyvbjerg et al., 2002; Flyvbjerg 2014). The thesis tests the existing theories by linking them to a specific case study: Venice’s MOSE. The city of Venice and its lagoon have long been threatened by increasingly frequent floods, severely damaging the city’s historical and cultural heritage and disrupting people’s lives. The acqua alta phenomenon has considerably increased in scale and frequency throughout the last decade. The Italian government, in order to protect the lagoon and the city, launched in 2003 the construction of a mobile barrier called MOSE (MOdulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, Experimental Electromechanical Module) whose development had started back in the 1970s. The one-of-a-kind giant structure, known worldwide for its length and mass, has not yet been completed, though.