S2526 – PODCAST SERIES

Water in Conflict

Water in Conflict takes research produced in the Conflict Management and Resolution course and turns it into stories that can travel beyond the classroom. The stories are three, and they all deal with water and infrastructure. The first unfolds along the border between the United States and Mexico, where water debt becomes a political dispositif that displaces costs onto specific territories, such as the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The second is Venice, where the MOSE system of mobile flood barriers redefines the relationship between the city and the sea itself, transforming a historical condition into a technical (and therefore inevitably political) question. The third takes place in Denmark, where conflict is diffuse: everyday agricultural practices coming into tension with groundwater protection. Taken together, the three episodes show that conflicts over water are never just about water, but about power, infrastructure, and unequal access. In this sense, the series does not seek a unified explanation but assembles three perspectives that expose the uneven distribution of possibilities within trans-scalar territorial planning.

Editorial coordination by Stella De Luca.
Post-production and sound design by Giorgio Mattina.
The series was developed within the course Conflict Management and Resolution (Politecnico di Milano, 2025-2026), taught by Carolina Pacchi and Giancarlo Vecchi.

S252605

Gating the Lagoon. The conflictual decision-making process of MoSe

Written by Quentin Baladi, Chiara Caruso, Sanjana Shankar and Emma Veneziani
Narrated by Dafni Riga

Gating the Lagoon explores the conflictual decision-making process that accompanied the construction of the MOSE system, the network of mobile barriers designed to protect Venice from high tides. Starting from the city’s long history of coexistence with its lagoon, the episode examines how MOSE has progressively redefined the relationship between water, technology, and power. It frames the project as a multi-level conflict in which local, national, and European scales intersect and are actively reconfigured. The episode also addresses the implications in terms of environmental justice, asking who truly benefits from the promised protection and who bears its ecological and political costs. Rather than a definitive solution, MOSE ultimately emerges as a test case for understanding how large-scale infrastructures govern climatic uncertainty and reshape the relationships between communities, environments, and institutions.

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Guests

Carlo Giupponi

Carlo Giupponi is Professor of Environmental and Applied Economics at the Department of Economics of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He is also Programme Director of the Climate Change Adaptation Programme at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.

His research activity focuses on sustainability science and global change, with particular attention to the integrated assessment and management of natural resources, especially water and agriculture. Over the years, he has also become one of the leading academic figures studying the impacts of climate change on Venice and on the MOSE system, analysing its sustainability, operational limits, and future perspectives in relation to sea-level rise. He has coordinated several studies on climate scenarios for the Venetian lagoon and on the relationship between protection infrastructures, lagoon ecosystems, and urban adaptation.

Resources

Audio sources used

AGTW. (2022). Il Mose salva Venezia, i cittadini: «Migliore invenzione degli ultimi 150 anni». [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7zpx8BEgEs

INA Officiel. (2019). 1966 : Une marée historique inonde Venise | Archive INA [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Pellegrini, G. (Director). (2020). La città delle sirene [Documentary]. Ginko Film. Version consulted: DocuVision. (2023). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUGvnUp0lz8

TG La7. (2013). Mose di Venezia: appalti distorti, in manette ex presidente Mazzacurati [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5Yiht0ceOM

Selected references

Alba, R., Klepp, S., & Bruns, A. (2020). Environmental justice and the politics of climate change adaptation – the case of Venice. Geographica Helvetica, 75(4), 363–368.

Ferrarin, C., Lionello, P., Orlić, M., Raicich, F., & Salvadori, G. (2022). Venice as a paradigm of coastal flooding under multiple compound drivers. Scientific Reports, 12, 5754.

Giupponi, C., Bidoia, M., Breil, M., Di Corato, L., Gain, A. K., Leoni, V., Minooei Fard, B., Pesenti, R., & Umgiesser, G. (2024). Boon and burden: Economic performance and future perspectives of the Venice flood protection system. Regional Environmental Change, 24, 44.

Gokhelashvili, N. (2015). The role of the public in environmental decision-making. American Journal of Environmental Protection, 4(3-1), 1–7.

Harimoto, I., Gabani Gimenez, M., Liu, D., Scarratt, J., & Van Herpe, A. (2024). Lingua Laguna: Water in the architectural, semiotic, and linguistic landscapes of Venice. Imperial & Global Forum.

Karlsson, J. (2023). Sink or Swim: Sea Level Rise Adaptation in Venice, Italy. A Case of Citizen Non-Participation. Stockholm, Sweden.

Mohai, P., Pellow, D., & Roberts, J. T. (2009). Environmental justice. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 34(1), 405–430.

Omodeo, P. D., & Trevisani, S. (2022). Historical geoanthropology in Venice. Journal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas, 11(22), 13:1–13:22.

Schlosberg, D. (2007). Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements, and Nature. Oxford University Press.

Steger, T. (Ed.). (2007). Making the Case for Environmental Justice in Central & Eastern Europe. Budapest: CEU Center for Environmental Policy and Law & Health and Environment Alliance.

Umgiesser, G. (2020). The impact of operating the mobile barriers in Venice (MOSE) under climate change. Journal for Nature Conservation, 54, 125783.

Walker, G. (2012). Environmental justice: Concepts, evidence and politics. Routledge.