Production of seedlings for transplanting at the project site, in collaboration with Veneto Agricoltura

As part of the European project WaterLANDS, the association We are here Venice is committed to restoring and strengthening the resilience of artificial salt marshes in the Venice Lagoon. A fundamental pillar of the intervention involves the large-scale planting of halophytic species—native plants…

published on 12.08.26

WaterLANDS

Fieldwork

We are here Venice contributes to Italy's National Nature Restoration Plan, drawing on WaterLANDS expertise

We are here Venice (WahV) contributed to the official consultation process for Italy's Nature Restoration Plan, linked to the European Nature Restoration Regulation (EU) 2024/1991) to recover degraded ecosystems. It came into force in 2024 and seeks to combat biodiversity loss and climate change …

published on 25.06.26

WaterLANDS

Raising awareness

‘We are made of this lagoon’: Ecological re-story-ation in Venice

The article ‘We are made of this lagoon’: Ecological re-story-ation in Venice written in collaboration with the University of Cambridge has just been published in the jo…

published on 26.05.26

WaterLANDS

News

We share the contribution by Jane da Mosto, We are here Venice ETS’s Executive Director and Emma Rose Cyr, Social Anthropology Researcher from the Stockholm University, for the new Ecocritical Guide to the Gallerie dell’Accademia of Venice, published by Wetlands and edited by Camilla Pietrabissa…

published on 09.04.26

News

Raising awareness

Survey of flora at the Ponte della Libertà

In late autumn 2025, we conducted an exploratory survey of halophilic plants present in the construction site area of the new aqueduct between Punta San Giuliano and Tronchetto. The site is located near the Ponte della Libertà bridge, on the south side (Fig. 1). The excavation of sediments for th…

published on 26.02.26

News

Raising awareness

The Marsh Series

The Marshes Series is a collection of fictional short stories exploring the Venetian lagoon’s most distinctive and endangered ecosystem: the salt marshes, or barene, as locals call them. It was produced by Laguna~B in collaborati…

published on 02.02.26

Raising awareness

Some good news comes from the world of flamingos

Some good news comes from the world of flamingos. Their numbers in many different parts of the world, across all continents (except Antarctica and Australia), is rising. The 4th International Flamingo Symposium (10-15 November 2025), organised by the IUCN SSC Flamingo Specialist Group, and hosted…

published on 17.12.25

News

Completion of the macro-structure of brushwood at the WaterLANDS action site

At one of the Venice Lagoon action sites, installation of the largest ever brushwood structure in the Venice Lagoon was completed in November. It covers the width of the most vulnerable area of the reconstructed marsh. Preliminary observations and wind and wave measurements suggest that energy an…

published on 12.11.25

WaterLANDS

Fieldwork

News

Evaluating Inundation Dynamics through Timelapse Images and Machine Learning

Over the past months, Vital has been collaborating with a research student, Ryan Bañares, as a part of the European Masters programme in Coastal and Marine Engineering and Management (CoMEM+) to explore innovative ways of monitoring surface water dynamics within our project sites. This is an impo…

published on 29.09.25

Fieldwork

CAU Kiel students cooperation at the WL action site

Between April and May 2025, a group of eight students from Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel traveled to the Venetian Lagoon to conduct scientific fieldwork in cooperation with We are here Venice. The students are currently pursuing degrees in Geography and Environmental Management at both B…

published on 25.06.25

WaterLANDS

Fieldwork

Getting Our Feet Wet

WahV was invited to contribute to Architecture of Stewardship, the publication accompanying the Pavili…

published on 30.05.25

Raising awareness

News

The Resilience of the Venice Lagoon Between Climate Change and Innovation

On April 2nd, We are here Venice (WahV) took part in the workshop organized by the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources of the CNR and the University of Padua, within the framework of

published on 23.04.25

Raising awareness

First 2025 Fieldwork Updates

With the arrival of spring, new monitoring campaigns have begun, associated with Vital’s work to develop a system for ecological restoration of Venice's artificial salt marshes. In collaboration with our technical partner DEME

published on 07.04.25

Fieldwork

World Wetlands Day: promote memory and local action

Every February the world marks World Wetlands Day to capture global attention for wetland conservation. Beyond the broad social media campaigns that generate widespread awareness around the…

published on 05.03.25

WaterLANDS

Raising awareness

Birdwatching and biodiversity in the Venice Lagoon

Emanuele Stival, a passionate birdwatcher and member of the Venetian Society for Natural Sciences, established Venezia Birdwatching in 2015, to share his knowledge and observation practices. We invited Emanuele to share his story: about how he began as a birdwatcher and the changes he’s witne…

published on 20.01.25

Raising awareness

Restoration and Optical Monitoring: An Emerging Method

The interventions at the action site of the European WaterLANDS project (GA 101036484), a complementary initiative to Vital, aim primarily to restore native vegetation and stabilize sediments on reconstructed salt marsh. These measures are essential to prevent erosion and maintain the long-term m…

published on 28.11.24

WaterLANDS

Fieldwork

New Jobs in Nature Regeneration

With the intensification of field work in the lagoon, We are here Venice has expanded its workforce by involving new collaborators as

published on 22.10.24

WaterLANDS

Fieldwork

Vital at the ICCE24 in Rome

The International Conference on Coastal Engineering (ICCE) is a biannual event that gathers experts from around the world to discuss the latest developments and facilitate international knowledge exchange and co…

published on 26.09.24

Fieldwork

Raising awareness

New research presented at the annual conference in Estonia of the Society for Ecological Restoration

New research to understand changes in children's perceptions of nature within the framework of the

published on 29.08.24

WaterLANDS

News

Raising awareness

Benchmarking biodiversity to evaluate the effectiveness of salt marsh restoration

Establishing a scientifically valid baseline measure as benchmarking of key biodiversity indicators before initiating restoration efforts in the Venice saltmarshes is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of Vital’s restoration projects.

published on 30.07.24

Offset

WaterLANDS

Fieldwork

The exploration continues with "Giants of the Lagoon.”

Developed in the framework of WaterLANDS (GA 101036484), Giants of the Lagoon is a participatory experience that invites the exploration of the lagoon environment in a movement towards the observed subject: from the observation of the landscape, through the use of binoculars, to the sear…

published on 01.07.24

WaterLANDS

Raising awareness

Signs of success from interventions at the pilot site

In July 2023 we described some interventions carried out on the perimeter of a recently constructed infill in the central lagoon of Venice, expressly designed to improve co…

published on 29.05.24

Fieldwork

‘The Mudflat Crew’

‘The Mudflat Crew’ is a Vital publication created by Pietro Leddi, inspired by exploration of the Vital pilot sites, the richness of the lagoon ecosystem, and Venetian folk stories and legends. It is designed to make people more mindful of the Lagoon, triggering curiosity especially among the you…

published on 29.04.24

Raising awareness

News

Update from the WaterLANDS action site

The WaterLANDS Action Site is a reclaimed salt marsh known as Lago Bastia 2. It is one of many infills constructed with dredged sediments, removed for port maintenance from the main shipping channel and lagoon inlets. The classification of this particular artificial marsh as “medium condition”, b…

published on 27.03.24

WaterLANDS

Fieldwork

Lepidoptera biodiversity of the salt marshes of the Venetian Lagoon

Current knowledge of the terrestrial fauna of the Venice Lagoon is mainly focused on mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. Of the invertebrates, which predominate in all types of environment in both number of species and in biomass, little is known. Even less is known specifically about the in…

published on 28.02.24

WaterLANDS

Fieldwork

Ecologies of the Imaginary. Venice, the Lagoon and the Fantasy

Last year’s collaboration with Valentina Sturli and Prof. Alessandro Metlica of the Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies (DISLL) at the University of Padua have been collected in a volume "Ecologies of the Imaginary. Venice, the Lagoon and the Fantastic ", already

published on 24.01.24

Raising awareness

Vital featured in 2023 scientific conferences

This was the year that the Vital initiative reached an important milestone in terms of “proof of concept” by beginning to be featured at scientific conferences - firstly in Bonn (Germany) at the 5th European Conf…

published on 29.12.23

News

Raising awareness

Geosciences

'A Whole Barena' - collaboration with the photographer Matteo de Mayda

The photographer Matteo de Mayda, in collaboration with We are here Venice within the Vital initiatives, recently presented the project 'A Whole Barena' as part of 'Nuova Generazione. Contemporary looks at the Alinari Archives", by CAMERA and the Alinari Foundation for Photography. The project wa…

published on 27.11.23

Raising awareness

News

Making socio-cultural values of the lagoon more visible

Over millennia and around the world, people have developed myriad ways of relating to nature and its different types of value, with consequences for how and what decisions affecting the state of nature are made. The Vital initiative is seeking ways to account for this within strategies to

published on 27.10.23

WaterLANDS

Raising awareness

New funding for research in the Lagoon through investment in CSR

Coinciding with the 80th Venice International Film Festival, Giorgio Armani staged th…

published on 28.09.23

Offset

Raising awareness

Vital at the Floating Cinema 4th Edition

Vital is pleased to collaborate to the 4th edition of the Floating Cinema - Unknown Waters initiative, giving voice to …

published on 23.08.23

Raising awareness

Working with Nature and with each other

The Vital Initiative has begun a promising partnership with DEME Group, through their Italian subsidiary SIDRA (Società Italiana Dragaggi). DEME is a world leader in the highly spe…

published on 26.07.23

Fieldwork

Green job opportunity

A “green job” involves environmental stewardship, contributing to preserving or restoring the environment, and the promotion of sustainable practices in traditional and emerging sectors

published on 29.06.23

Fieldwork

Some of the most inspiring papers on blue carbon guiding Vital

Blue Carbon is a term that was coined in 2009 to draw attention to the degradation of marine and coastal ecosystems and to the urgency to conserve and restore them to mitigate climate change and to meet the ambitious emission reduction targets set at

published on 23.05.23

Offset

Citizen science project in the lagoon

The team of We are here Venice ETS, in the context of the EU project WaterLANDS

published on 18.04.23

WaterLANDS

Raising awareness

Ecological restoration actions to support native and endangered plant species

To reverse the significant and alarming rate of salt marsh loss in the Venetian Lagoon, extensive areas of in-fills, officially known as "morphological reconstructions", have been created using dredged materials, often with a high sand content. Observed differences between natura…

published on 31.03.23

Fieldwork

Photographic fieldwork

Over recent months, I have had the opportunity to join Vital scientists and researchers on field trips to monitor an artificial salt marsh in the central lagoon. Salt marshes behave like organisms, absorbing water and then slowly releasing it following the tidal cycle. They play an important role…

published on 23.02.23

Raising awareness

Fieldwork

Biocultural Diversity as a lens for future visions

Today, links between human communities and the natural environment remain strong only among people who have maintained close material and spiritual ties with their environments, such as Indigenous Peoples and some distinctive local communities, including inhabitants of the Venice Lagoon. Through …

published on 15.02.23

Raising awareness

Evidence-based communication strategies: Vital’s GIS platform

Evidence-based decision-making requires that the right people have the right information at the right time and in the right formats. Bridging the divide between research and decision-making requires collaboration, communication, and knowledge translation. As the effects…

published on 25.01.23

Geosciences

Raising awareness

Fieldwork

Major Environment Summits of 2022

Governments of most of the world's countries have been meeting regularly since the 1990s to discuss challenges, opportunities and actions to protect our planet. This year there were three key environmental summits. First the Ramsar Convention COP14 in China ended with the …

published on 13.01.23

News

Natural Capital: assessing future opportunities

The recent string of natural disasters combined with the Covid-19 crisis has highlighted more than ever the need for business to take into consideration all forms of capital, revealing with greater clarity that "business as usual" is vulnerable to a range of outside influences, not just …

published on 31.10.22

Raising awareness

The importance of sediment compaction on the salt marshes evolution, a new 3D model developed by UNIPD

Natural coastal salt marshes, such as those of the Venice lagoon, are formed by sediment that has been transported by watercourses and the sea, and deposited over centuries and millennia. These characteristically dynamic environments host vulnerable ecosystems with an essential r…

published on 10.10.22

Geosciences

Reversing the human impacts on biodiversity by properly valuing nature

Natural habitats, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are being lost at rates never before seen in human history because we don’t properly see the value of nature in our cultural, social and economic systems, both in terms of choices and through actions. This is the central issue emerging from…

published on 13.09.22

News

"The Conservation Revolution", relevant considerations for the conservation of the Venice Lagoon

Vital team reviewed a book that serves to imagine a better ecological future for the city and lagoon of Venice. Vital’s objectives to conserve and restore the saltmarshes in the Venice Lagoon are tied to promoting a different practice and narrative regarding the Lagoon's natural environme…

published on 08.08.22

Raising awareness

Underground variations and the effects of age

The subsurface of the Venice Lagoon is highly heterogeneous. The formation and the evolution of the lagoon during the last ~11.000 years led to the deposition of different types of sediments (peat, silt, clay and sand), that, varying from site to site, testify the different depos…

published on 13.07.22

Geosciences

Fieldwork

Counterbalancing environmental impacts

As a result of prolonged increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases emissions (GHGs) connected to human activities such as deforestation, pollution, habitat degradation especially in coastal areas, initiatives to counterbalance this are becoming increasingly urgent and, in some cases, required…

published on 25.05.22

Offset

Monitoring the pilot project of Piovego Buora

In June 2022 We are here Venice began implementing a monitoring programme, designed based on previous European and global salt marsh…

published on 22.06.22

Fieldwork

The Venice Agreement

We are here Venice, Ensayos, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Chile

published on 02.06.22

News

Raising awareness

The WaterLANDS project

December 2021 saw the launch of the European WaterLANDS project, an ambitious and innovative initiative within the

published on 22.04.22

WaterLANDS

News

Carbon Capture and Storage and Other Issues related to Ecological Performance

The salt marshes of the Venice Lagoon (in italian barene)- lagoon areas between -10 and +50 cm relative to mean sea level, therefore periodically submerged by high tides - offer fundamental contributions to the survival of the Lagoon ecosystem and the communities that reside there. Indee…

published on 04.05.23

Offset

NECs monitoring at le Sorelle B pilot site

The resilience of salt marshes in the Venice Lagoon with respect to the rise in mean sea level depends considerably on sedimentation dynamics (both organic and inorganic), erosion and compaction.We speak of autocompaction when the compaction of recently deposited, soft sediments occurs. Cl…

published on 10.03.22

Geosciences

Fieldwork

Design of the NEC stations

A fundamental aspect of a salt marsh restoration project is the resulting ground-height relative to average water level in the long term. This is crucial for achieving the optimal ecological functioning of the system, as is the ability of the ground level to keep up with rising sea levels…

published on 17.02.22

Geosciences

Fieldwork

Lagunar - Amphibious Tales

Lagunar is a project developed by We are here Venice and the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano as part of the Project Visual Communication course of the Bachelor of Arts and Design degree, and is one of Vital's initiatives…

published on 11.04.22

Lagunar

News

Raising awareness

Starting monitoring activities at two sites in the southern lagoon

As part of our work to better understand the critical parameters for successful recreation of salt marsh in the Venetian Lagoon, We are here Venice and the VITAL initiative, in partnership with Laguna B, have been authorised by the

published on 11.02.22

Geosciences

Fieldwork

The Offset project will give companies and institutions the opportunity to offset their climate and social impacts by building the natural capital of the Venetian Lagoon. The focus of the offsetting action is on salt marshes, the most typical feature of the Lagoon landscape, which, in optimal con…

published on 15.12.21

Offset