The Wetland Contract as a Governance Tool to Manage Conflicts in the Venetian Lagoon

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2025.2.06

Published

2025-11-24

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2025): Water Management in World Heritage Properties at a Time of Climate Change

Section

methodologies and case studies

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Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Chiara Tosi, Alessia Franzese, Mette Juhl Jessen

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

The Wetland Contract as a Governance Tool to Manage Conflicts in the Venetian Lagoon . (2025). Blue Papers, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2025.2.06

Keywords:

UNESCO World Heritage, Venice, Wetland contracts, collaborative planning, commons

Abstract

Venice and its Lagoon, a vulnerable UNESCO World Heritage property, requires innovative governance tools to manage its complexity amid intensifying impacts of climate change. The local community has the potential to act as a living laboratory for testing new approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This article examines the participatory process behind the Wetland Contract for the Northern Lagoon of Venice, a government instrument designed to strengthen protection of the lagoon’s wetlands. The initiative brings together diverse stakeholders and local actors who commit to managing, restoring and protecting wetlands in a coordinated manner. The contract aims to balance competing priorities of socioeconomic development and biodiversity conservation.

Author Biographies

  • Maria Chiara Tosi

    Maria Chiara Tosi urbanist and PhD, is a full professor of urbanism at Iuav University in Venice where she is also the director of the School of Doctorate Studies. She has been the principal investigator in many national and international research projects on the study of urban settlements, with a focus on the Venetian Lagoon. She is the Iuav representative in the Academic Council of Venice International University, has been an expert for the Research Foundation Flanders FWO-Belgium and currently she is responsible for the double degree in architecture with the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University.

  • Alessia Franzese

    Alessia Franzese architect and PhD, is a research fellow and adjunct professor in urbanism at Università Iuav di Venezia. Her research focuses on spatial justice issues from a socio-ecological perspective, especially investigating the relation between welfare spaces and fundamental rights. Currently, she’s working on the IT-HR Interreg project “GREW - Governance of Wetlands in Italy Croatia Cross Border Region.”

  • Mette Juhl Jessen

    Mette Juhl Jessen is a landscape architect with a BA in comparative literature and is a PhD fellow in landscape architecture and planning at the University of Copenhagen. Her PhD research focuses on climate adaptation and regional planning in coastal areas. She investigates concepts of vulnerability and water in contemporary planning, looking for ways to shift perspectives and imagine new narratives. Mette is a member of the editorial board of the Nordic journal Landskab and a visiting PhD fellow at Iuav University in Venice.

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