Saving Venice from flooding may destroy the ecosystem that sustains it

Venice, ItalyThe cataclysmic flood of November 12, 2019, washed unremarkably into Venice, Italy's Piazza San Marco around 6 a.m. Two hours later, the rising waters began to tail off at about three feet above normal sea level, leaving 90 percent of the city untouched. Venetians breathed a collective sigh of relief. It was just another mildly unpleasant acqua alta, high tide, in the lagoon.

The calm lasted until 4 p.m., just before night fell. Sirens began to sound, and within an hour the ancient squares and narrow walkways along the city's 26 miles of canals had vanished under ferocious torrents of seawater. "This wasn't simply a tide," says Marco Malafonte, who co-owns a property management firm with his wife, Caroline Gucchierato. "It