A new flood barrier in a Venice lagoon is allowing locals and tourists alike to escape to a tiny island year-round – after it was previously made inaccessible by storms during the winter months.
Bacan, a small strip of beach only accessible from the city via boat or water taxi, has long been a favourite hidden gem in the city – offering a chance to cool off not possible in the Veneto capital’s myriad network of canals.
The island takes its name from the Italian word for “racket”, in a nod to the loud seagulls that habituate the stretch.
And the little sand strip off the coast of southeast Venice is especially popular with locals, who use it as a base for shellfish and razor clam scouring – something they will now be able to do all 12 months of the year.
It is thought that the new permanence of the island area, observed by Venetians for the first time in 2021, is due to the MOSE flood barrier, which was constructed in 2020 to protect the Venice Lagoon from water surges.
Giovanni Cecconi, an engineer who worked on the barrier, told The Times that it helped to accelerate water in and around the city during summer and was raised to “stop high waters” during the cooler months – preventing erosion on Bacan’s 250-metre-long stretch.
Mr Cecconi cautioned that the permanent fixture now risked being overrun by tourists and losing its “secret” escape status, however.
“What we need to avoid are ice-cream kiosks and luxury hotels,” he said.
Flood barriers have been installed at an accelerated rate around Venice in recent years in a bid to prevent the historic city from sinking below sea level.
The ‘Floating City’ has battled flooding issues for decades, despite raised barriers design to cut a 550-kilometre lagoon off from the wider Adriatic Sea.
Scientists have warned that such preventative measures may not be enough to prevent parts of the city being completely submerged in water by 2150, however.
Researchers at the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology estimate that tide levels in the bay are rising at around half a centimetre each year.
While climate change is playing a central role in the growing risk posed to Venice by rising water levels, overtourism is also a factor in the rapidly worsening situation.
The most recent effort to tackle increased footfall has been the introduction of a new ticket scheme that will introduce new visitor fees and increase the price of last-minute charges from 2025.
Previous measures included a cap of 25 people per tour group and a ban on loudspeakers to minimise noise pollution and help to streamline pedestrian flow.