Cambiamenti climatici e innalzamento del livello del mare
February 6th, 2015
12:00 pm CET
Language: English
Duration: 30 minutes + 20 minutes for Q&A
The unprecedented warming of the climate is likely to lead to rapid sea level rise. This accelerated sea level rise, further aggravated by an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events, damages coastal ecosystems and the regional socio-economic systems that depend on them. This webinar will explore how coastal wetlands act as efficient barriers to waves and erosion as well as their contribution to mitigating climate change by sequestering large quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide and storing it in the soil (blue carbon). Further, it will assess the conditions required to preserve these reservoirs and to harness the ability of wetlands to adapt to sea level rise and recover quickly after storms and floods. It will explore these questions and the influential role of wetland systems through the example of the Zennare Basin in the Venetian Lagoon. The proposal of re-wetting the basin will be explored in addition to a cost-benefit analysis of the situation.
Speaker:
Sonia Silvestri, Division of Earth & Ocean Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University