Rethinking Venice from an Ecosystem Services Perspective

Jane da Mosto, Camilla Bertolini, Anil Markandya, Paulo Nunes (), Tom Spencer, Arnas Palaima and Laura Onofri
Additional contact information
Jane da Mosto: We are Venice, Cambridge University
Camilla Bertolini: Ca' Foscari University
Tom Spencer: Cambridge University
Arnas Palaima: Cambridge University
Laura Onofri: University of Padua

No 2020.23, Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Abstract: Safeguarding the future of Venice is a globally recognised challenge of urban sustainability. We propose a sustainable management model, alternative to the current strategy, that primarily focuses on the built heritage and which interprets the city together with its encircling lagoon as a matrix of interlinked natural, cultural and social capital. In particular, Venetian natural capital can be valued as a stock of wealth that produces a flow of income, its ecosystem services. Such values can be measured in economic, including monetary, terms. Using the examples of salt marsh and seagrass carbon sequestration, together with sediment retention, water purification and artisanal fishery and aquaculture, we show that it is economically viable to develop and reorientate the nearfuture trajectory of Venice and its lagoon with reference to a more sustainable pathway, where the natural capital is a driver of future economic development and, as such, is comparable with the value of currently dominant economic activities (port and mass tourism).

Keywords: Natural Capital; Ecosystem Services; Eecosystem Services Economic Valuation; Sustainability; Venice Lagoon; Alternative Management Strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q56 Q57 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Rethinking Venice from an Ecosystem Services Perspective (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fem:femwpa:2020.23

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