Case study on climate change

Case study 1: Hurricane Dorian (Bahamas, West Indies)

According to Adelle Thomas and Lisa Benjamin (2018), The Bahamas is an island that known
to be one of the most vulnerable state to climate changes because of its topographic and
geographic condition, fragile economy and population characteristics. Due to its limited
natural resources, their economic development is relying on tourism and healthcare services.
Bahamian community has less awareness of climate changes and the impact of environmental
changes caused due to the vulnerability. Basically, The Bahamas is a subtropical country in
which the climate throughout the year is maintained by fairly high temperature but moderate
rainfall only.

Tourism dominates the economic level of the Bahamas because of varies biodiversity (Cates,
1997). There are a lot of flora and fauna species that known to be the natural beauty of the
country and established the eco-tourism market without negatively affecting their
environmental and cultural value. Yet, tourism as a high impact industry that growing bigger
in this island obviously meant to undergo the development process to enhance their market
value worldwide since tourism industry generates approximately half of the gross domestic
product (GDP) and also provide employment for 50% of the population directly or indirectly.

Even though it is important to adjust the tourism offerings to the better changes according to
their consumers preferences but healthy growth is essential to sustain the climate and weather
condition. Land and fisheries affected by the tourism growth due to the bunch of construction
of facilities that can damage marine life and also land. These damages can leads to associated
problems such as improper garbage disposal and sewage issues, generation of electricity, and
water supply for the tourist as well as to the locals.

Poor management in industrial development can leads to environmental issues that begins with
climate changes such as green gas emission. A National Climate Change Committee (NCCC)
Calculated green house gas emissions in Bahamas for the year of 1990 and 1994. This
calculation resulted in the electricity generation and transportation sector known to be most
significant factor of greenhouse gas emission in the island.

Although Bahamas Island considered being vulnerable toward the drastic climate changes
since it is coastal zone but man-made developments do cause an impact in climate and sea
level changes. For Bahamians, tourism tends to influence their economical activities and
household income yet most of the constructions such as hotels and resorts which are located in
shoreline became a significant reason for coastal erosion that eventually cause an increase in
sea level rise.

Sea level changes or tropical cyclones that lead to hurricane definitely could be disastrous for
the industrial disruptions and also has a possible impact on human health. The Bahamas is one
the country that happened to face hurricanes as a frequent occurrence in its weather systems
and usually cause minor impacts but still the damages takes months to be fixed. However,
Abaco and Grand Bahamas Islands were hit by Hurricane Dorian on 1st September 2019,
which were left behind a path of destruction unprecedented in this country.

This disastrous event recorded to be the strongest hurricane that hit the Atlantic and also
Bahamas due to the damages caused by storm and extensive flooding. Apart for property
damages and widespread power outages, the mortality rate has risen enormously. Hurricane
Dorian formed on August 24 from a tropical wave over the Central of Atlantic and crosses the
Eastern Caribbean on August 27 but this storm became a hurricane as the storm moved
through the Lesser Antilles to the north of Greater Antilles on August 28.

Dorian reaches the peak as Category 5 hurricane as it proceeded to undergo rapid

intensification on September 1st from Category 2 hurricane with winds of 105mph, nearly 300
miles from The Bahamas on August 29 and also in August 30 th Dorian crosses the Category 3
to Category 4 phase that moves closer to The Bahamas and Florida. The storm slows down
from its sustained winds up to 185mph that has been gusted over 200mph on September 1 st
and began to move off The Bahamas toward Florida on September 3. The storm is still a major
hurricane due to the prolonged and intense storm condition that caused severe damages which
believe to leave behind $3.4 billion in damage.
Case study 2: In Venice, Italy

Arianna Varrani and Michael Nones (2017) stated that in future, countries that situated in
coastal zones are more likely to experience climate changes due to demographic growth as
well as changes in sea level and global warming leads to natural disaster and anthropogenic
activities that endanger the ecosystem. Coastal cities are vulnerable to climate changes and
Venice; in Northern Italy are one of the coastal area countries that currently facing natural
hazard.

From the very beginning, human activities started to modify the morphological structure of
Venice. With less than 10% of the land comprising its municipality around the lagoon area,
variable development forces yields its vulnerabilities and eventually leads to climate change.
The most common factor in both the metropolises is, tourism is the key for the economic
development of the cities since the entire Veneto region has its relevant world’s heritage that
can contribute to the development of tourism industry.

Indeed, climate hazards in coastal zones attributed by the sea level rise that leads to extensive
flooding in which known to be frequent occurrence in Venice (Ghetti, 1988). Venice is
extremely sensitive to climate changes due to urbanization (Camuffo, 1995). This revolution is
playing major role in land subsidence and eustatism that shaped the lagoons in Venice which
at the risk to be submersed because of the oceanic water expansion from global warming.

Venice is known to be one of the less densely populated and flooding might impact the
citizens not in major way. However, high tides enough to flood the city that used to be
relatively rare. Flooding the city’s streets and landmarks by the high tide water devastated
Venice in the year of 2019 on November 13. This flooded city of Venice has been hit by
154cm which is 5 feet of high tide water and also the following Tuesday the highest level of
high tide recorded was 187cm that was the peak level in more than 50 years. Heritage and
cultural city of Venice has been went through damages of monuments, shops and homes as
well as more than 80% of the city around the region was flooded bad enough.
The “acqua alta” is also known as high water that is generated by sirocco wind storm by
astronomical forces (Lamb, 1972) and also by the free oscillation of Adriatic sea leads to
flooding tides in Venice in 1966 which estimated the tides to reach 55 inches and more. The
sea surges turned into flood, apart from the damages caused to properties and population, but
also impregnate walls with sea salt that leads to the destruction of limestone, marble and so on.

In the case of Venice, the city which was built just a few inches above sea level and sits on
thousands of wooden piles that have been driven into the mud. However, the rising sea levels
and heavy cruise ship traffic was steadily eaten away by the erosion at the surrounding
marshes and also mud banks is slowly subsiding and causing the city to gradually sink. The
murky green water of the Grand Canal has raised its level within a couple of hours that was
slapping over the paving stones. Furthermore, in some area dirty water continued to rise and
strong winds that lashing the area eventually contributing to the crisis.

The global climate change and the weather pattern contribute to the robust meridional air
stream that derived from Adriatic storm surge across the hemisphere and this state of affair has
fed a conveyor belt of depression into the central Mediterranean. The meridional jet stream has
the probability to combine with astronomical spring tides which might increase the prospect of
flooding in Venice.
The Solution

A UNESCO world heritage site sunk under water when the tides went to the highest level
hence government plan a strategy to build structural defenses for the lagoon city and they
proposed a hydraulic barrier system to shut off the lagoons during the disastrous phase such as
sea level rising and winter storms. This strategy referred to the so called MOSE project.

There are three gates of the coastal cordon more likely the MOSE system located are at the
inlets of Lido, Chioggia and Malamocco in which the tide spreads from the Adriatic Sea into
the Lagoon. The integration of The MOSE intervention defines a highly functional defense
system to build an underground barrier to protect the city from tide going up and also
guarantees the water quality as well as to ensure the morphology and the landscape being
protected.

Even though, University of Architecture in Venice has been instructed to carry out the
preliminary project as prescribed by the Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Heritage as
expressed in the Safeguard Commission for the insertion of the defense works into the
Venetian landscape but eventually they came into realization that the MOSE system may also
become an opportunity for a comprehensive territory exploitation beside the need to defend
the lagoons from intense high water.

Although MOSE system was known to be a 20-year major project that was designed by Italian
government in 1984 and they started working on it in 2003 and expected to complete the
project on 2011 but unfortunately the MOSE project has been plagued due to corruption
issues, cost overruns and prolonged delay. Hence, the MOSE project declared to be a failed
project.

However, there are 78 bright yellow mobile underwater barriers in today’s modern Moses
which can be activated to rise above the surface of water and able to prevent surging tides
from the Adriatic Sea flooding the Venetian lagoon. Even though, all the 78 gates are in
position now but the first testing is expected to be conducted next year, 2020. Following that,
city Mayor is now predicting the sea defense system will go on line at the end of 20121 at the
cost of 5.5 billion euros against an original estimate of 1.6 billion euros.

The real and sustainable solution in combatting climate change lies at the heart of every citizen
of planet earth. Ecosystem-endangering human activities should be curbed and a strong law of
regulations should be implemented and maintained. Besides, Non-Governmental Organization
(NGO) should conduct more activities to ensure a healthy ecosystem is maintained.

Reference

 Adelle Thomas & Lisa Benjamin. (2018). "Perceptions of climate change risk in The
Bahamas," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of
Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(1), pages 63-72, March

 Cates, D.L. (1997). Mark Catesby and The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the
Bahama Islands. Journal of The Bahamas Historical Society: 18, 2-10.

Ghetti, A., 1988. Subsidence and sea level fluctuations in the territory of Venice. Landscape
and Urban Planning, 16(1-2), 13-33. doi: 10.1016/0169-2046(88)90031-X
Ghetti, A., 1988. Subsidence and sea level fluctuations in the territory of Venice. Landscape
and Urban Planning, 16(1-2), 13-33. doi: 10.1016/0169-2046(88)90031-X
Ghetti, A., 1988. Subsidence and sea level fluctuations in the territory of Venice. Landscape
and Urban Planning, 16(1-2), 13-33. doi: 10.1016/0169-2046(88)90031-X
Ghetti, A., 1988. Subsidence and sea level fluctuations in the territory of Venice. Landscape
and Urban Planning, 16(1-2), 13-33. doi: 10.1016/0169-2046(88)90031-X
Ghetti, A., 1988. Subsidence and sea level fluctuations in the territory of Venice. Landscape
and Urban Planning, 16(1-2), 13-33. doi: 10.1016/0169-2046(88)90031-X
 Varrani, Arianna & Nones, Michael. (2017). Vulnerability, impacts and assessment of
climate change on Jakarta and Venice. International Journal of River Basin
Management. 16. 439-447. 10.1080/15715124.2017.1387125.

 Lamb, H.H. (1972). Climate: present, past and future, Vol.1, Methuen, London, 613
pp
 Camuffo, D. (1993). Analysis of the Sea Surges at Venice from A.D. 782 to
1990, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 47, 1-14.

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50430855