Veniceland Atlantis

About Veniceland Atlantis

“This is an important book.  Venice is a city loved by millions of people, even those who have never been there.  The world is just beginning to wake up to the fact that all is not well with the City and here Robert L. France outlines the many and complex reasons why. We must recognise that the physical survival of Venice depends on our making its survival an absolute priority, avoiding actions, however potentially profitable, that might put it in danger, now or in the long term. Safeguarding Venice in a sustainable way will be “work in progress” forever and will require ever greater investment.”

Anna Somers Cocks, Chairman, Venice in Peril

Venice, the world’s most beautiful and beloved city, may also be the world’s most endangered city. Although so far Venice has defied both tides and time, today all evidence points to a much bleaker future for the “Queen of the Adriatic”. 

Veniceland Atlantis, written by the distinguished environmental scholar Robert L. France, is the first book to give equal weight to both the environmental and social problems plaguing the city. France bases his analysis on numerous and diverse sources, together with many interviews conducted while he lived and worked in Venice. The result is this comprehensive and extensively illustrated overview of the precarious state of the city.  

 Robert L. France’s concluding message in Veniceland Atlantis is that the very future of Venice is in doubt. This is not so much due to rising sea levels and floods of water but rather to the way Venice and its inhabitants are being completely inundated by millions of pleasure-seeking tourists whom the Venetians themselves have allowed and even encouraged to destroy, possibly irreparably, the social fabric of the city.

Veniceland Atlantis is accompanied by a website, www.libripublishing.co.uk/veniceland ,featuring colour versions of the images and maps together with additional information and links.

Robert L. France is an Associate Professor of Watershed Management in the Department of Engineering at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College and is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at nearby Dalhousie University. He is a leading authority on watershed management and environmental restoration who has published hundreds of technical articles and more than a dozen books and who has participated in many high visibility urban planning projects around the world. Formerly a professor of landscape ecology at Harvard University, for more than a decade he has been a frequent visitor to Venice and for three summers he resided there while teaching a course at Ca’Foscari University and conducting research for this book.