THE Venetians call it moto ondoso 鈥� the motion of the waves. But despite its lyrical name, the wash from motor boats is far from benign. Now researchers have come up with a simple plan that could cut delivery traffic on the city鈥檚 canals by 90 per cent and with it the erosion of Venice鈥檚 historic architecture. They have even persuaded the highly unionised Venetian boatmen to give it a try.
Byron鈥檚 鈥渇airest city of the heart鈥� is beset with problems. Rising sea levels have made floods part of daily life. And while the city鈥檚 population has halved in the past two decades, boat traffic has doubled due to increased tourism.
Although boat wash is probably not the principal culprit, it significantly accelerates erosion, says Fabio Carrera at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. He and his team have come up with a plan to cut delivery traffic dramatically and so minimise erosion. At present, deliveries are organised by product. So a boatman might ferry a particular brand of wine from the central depot to every shop, restaurant and hotel on the islands. Carrera collected data on all the trips made by the delivery boats and showed that organising deliveries by destination rather than by product would cut traffic by 90 per cent. So rather than stopping lots of times to make small deliveries, each boat makes one trip, fully loaded, to a single destination carrying a range of supplies. For one drop-off point, the San Luca district, the number of boats delivering there would fall from 96 to three, Carrera told a conference in Cambridge, UK, organised by the charity Venice in Peril.
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Carrera denies that his system will lead to major job losses. He says the plan would mean the same number of boats making fewer trips. Also, more staff would be needed at the central warehouse to coordinate the operation.
The initial reaction from workers was sceptical, he admits. 鈥淲hen we came up with the idea it was like 鈥榥o way鈥�.鈥� But he managed to convince the boatmen that the plan would have benefits for them too. Carrera, who was born in Venice, says dealing with its intricate union politics would have been almost impossible for an outsider. However, the plan still needs to be formally approved by the city鈥檚 mayor.
