The warm waters and sandy beaches of the Venice Lagoon have attracted tourists from all over the world for hundreds of years.
Now locals and visitors alike have one more place to set up their sun loungers as a new island forms near the historic town.
Previously, the secret islet of Bacan only formed in the summer months before being swept away by winter storm surges.
But thanks to a new flood barrier, this prized refuge for tourist-shy residents has become a permanent fixture of the lagoon with its own thriving ecosystem.
The sandbank, 250 meters long and 10 meters wide, is covered by a thick layer of vegetation.
Bacan is now home to a variety of swamp plants such as samphire, sedges, native flowers, and small, salt-resistant cedars called tamarisks.
With new roots holding the soil in place, the island has not disappeared since 2020, when flood barrier operators were on vacation during a winter surge.
However, even as residents celebrate the birth of a new beach, some experts warn that this could be a worrying sign for Venice’s fragile ecosystem.
Venice is now home to a new island that was once the treasured secret of locals looking to escape the summer crowds.
In the shallow brackish lagoon of Venice, small sandy islands can form even by slight disturbances of the swirling currents.
It takes so little for the tides to form a new island that the locals have a saying: ‘Palo fa palugo’ which means ‘a pole makes an island’.
What made Bacan unique among this ever-changing archipelago was its seasonality.
In the warmer months, when water levels dropped, Bacan rose from the waters where its quiet, inaccessible beaches made it a popular spot for residents of Castello, the southernmost neighborhood of Venice.
Then, in winter, when the storm surges that so often flood the city arrive, the island would simply be washed away.
Yet the islet has remained resolutely above the waves for the past four years.
According to Giovanni Cecconi, an engineer at Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice, the stability of the island is a byproduct of the MOSE flood barrier that has protected the city since 2020.
The MOSE barrier, which Cecconi worked on, is a series of movable gates that rise to separate Venice from the Adriatic Sea during winter surges.
Bacan Island was formerly a sandbank that appeared in summer and disappeared in winter. However, it has grown in recent years and has not disappeared since 2020.
Venice has always experienced flooding when strong sirocco winds combined with high tides to raise water levels above the city streets.
However, in recent years, these periodic floods seem to become more common and more severe.
In 2019, one of the worst floods on record plunged 80 percent of the city underwater when sea levels rose 1.8 meters higher than normal.
The MOSE barrier helps prevent these deluges by temporarily sealing the Adriatic lagoon when large surges are forecast.
However, a side effect is that these powerful tides no longer carry the sands of Bacan.
Mr. Cecconi said The times: ‘By raising the barrier in winter to stop the floods, the island is protected from the storm surges that previously eroded it.
The island’s location may also explain why it has grown so much since MOSE was implemented.
Located opposite one of three entrances to the lagoon equipped with flood defences, Bacan may benefit from an increase in current during the summer months.
Some experts say the island’s more permanent status is due to the MOSE flood barrier (pictured) separating Venice from the Adriatic. This barrier can speed up the current to bring in more sand while it is open and protect the island from winter storm surges when it is closed.
Venice has faced increasingly worse flooding in recent years, culminating in the disastrous floods of 2019 (pictured). The MOSE barrier is an essential line of defense against sea level rise
Mr Cecconi says: “The barrier… speeds up the flow of water into the lagoon when it is open, meaning more sand gets in, which helps support Bacan.”
And as the island becomes more vegetated, its soils will become even more stabilized, making it more likely to survive future erosion.
“This is a new ecosystem and shows that the lagoon can evolve positively in parallel with human intervention,” adds Mr Cecconi.
However, not all experts are convinced by Mr. Cecconi’s explanation.
Professor Adrea D’Alpos, an expert on the evolution of coastal zones at the University of Padua, told MailOnline that it is a mistake to attribute the formation of Bacan entirely to the MOSE closures.
It says: “The development of this narrow strip of sand and mud, now colonized by vegetation, is mainly the result of several overlapping processes acting at different spatial and temporal scales.”
Furthermore, Professor D’Alpos notes that Bacan’s training actually began long before the first activation of MOSE in October 2020.
This means that the flood barriers surrounding the city are likely just one part of a larger, more complex picture.
Bacan (pictured) has now been colonized by plants including flowers, sedges, samphire and salt-resistant cedars called tamarisks.
Professor D’Alpos is also not convinced that Bacan will become a year-round beach resort for future generations of Venetians.
He says: ‘I wouldn’t describe it as permanent. While the islet is currently rising and its elevation is above mean sea level, its long-term persistence remains uncertain.
Critically, Professor D’Alpos also argues that the development of a thriving ecosystem in Bacan is not necessarily a sign that nature is recovering.
While the MOSE flood barrier is indispensable to the survival of Venice, it is also having a profound effect on the surrounding environment.
Most importantly, by preventing high tides from washing away the land, the barrier prevents sediment from being transported to the marshes surrounding the city.
“While MOSE activations are essential to protect Venice from high tides, they dramatically reduce tidal peaks during storm surges and significantly limit the extent and duration of marsh flooding,” says Professor D’Alpos.
“This, in turn, decreases sediment deposition in the marshes, threatening their long-term survival.”
Studies have shown that Venice’s salt marshes owe 70 percent of their growth to these winter storm surges.
However, the island’s formation could be a sign that flood defenses are preventing storm surges from carrying sediment into nearby mudflats. This could cause the collapse of this vital ecosystem that stores 30 times more CO2 than a forest of the same size.
Venice’s marshes have been slowly disappearing for centuries, in part due to historical mismanagement of the waterways dating back to the 16th century, when water was diverted from the lagoon.
Given that marshes absorb 30 times more CO2 than a forest, their disappearance would be a big problem for the planet.
And since marshes cushion the impact of storm surges and reduce flooding, anything that limits their extent will also be a big problem for Venice itself.
So while the new life at Bacan might be good news for beachgoers, it could be a sign that some worrying changes are coming.