Saving Venice

Featuring Rafael L. Bras, Sc.D.
Distinguished Professor and Dean
Civil and Environmental
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, UC Irvine

Location:  The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering
Free and open to the public

For more information, please visit www.voicesatbeckman.org

Abstract:
The frequency and magnitude of tidal flooding of the lagoon and city of Venice have increased dramatically over the last 100 years disturbing commerce, life and seriously damaging the infrastructure of the region.  Engineers are constructing a series of gates across the three inlets of the lagoon of Venice which will separate the Adriatic from the lagoon in periods of very high meteorological tides in an effort to stop all flooding.

About the Speaker:
Rafael Bras, Sc.D. (NAE), is distinguished professor and dean of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine.  He chairs a panel of experts that supervises the design and construction of the multibillion-dollar project to protect the City of Venice from floods, and serves on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on New Orleans Regional Hurricane Protection Projects.  Bras has published two textbooks, over 170 refereed journal publications, and several hundred other publications and presentations.