A Closer Look at MOSE

Some engineering projects are best understood from the deck of a boat — close enough to feel the waves, far enough to observe what stands between a city and the sea.

Together with our MSc students from the CoMEM+ Erasmus Mundus Programme, the MeteOcean team visited Venice for a technical study trip. We began with a boat trip to take a closer look at the MOSE barrier system at the inlets of the Venetian Lagoon.

During our visit, we had the privilege of hearing directly from the team that makes those decisions. At the Control Centre, we saw the place where a dedicated team works around the clock — days and nights — monitoring data across dozens of screens to protect both the lagoon and the extraordinary city it surrounds.

MOSE is a powerful reminder that the computations we run on our computers at the office are never just numbers on a screen. They have the ability to touch people's lives and provide safety for entire communities. This is what we wanted our students to see — and to carry with them.

What is MOSE?

MOSE — Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, or Experimental Electromechanical Module — is a flood defense system designed to protect Venice and the Venetian Lagoon from excessively high tides driven by storm surges in the Adriatic Sea. Although the Adriatic has a relatively low tidal range, specific weather conditions — storms, sirocco winds from the southeast, and the shallow bathymetry of the lagoon — combine to produce acqua alta, the high water events that have long flooded large areas of the city.

The weather and sea conditions are continuously monitored at the Control Centre. Whenever a rise in water level that could cause inundation is forecast, the barriers of the MOSE system rise from the seabed, temporarily separating the lagoon from the open sea.

CoMEM+: Your chance to become part of a multicultural academic community

CoMEM+ is a two-year Erasmus Mundus joint degree coordinated by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and offered in partnership with the University of Genoa (UniGE, DICCA), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), and BUILDERS École d'Ingénieurs / University of Caen Normandy.

Students choose from three study tracks — Future Ports and Waterways, Coastal Environmental Engineering, and Shore Management — and study across two or three countries over the course of their degree, graduating with a joint or double diploma recognized by all partner institutions. The program carries Erasmus Mundus scholarships and requires no tuition fees.

UniGE hosts students in the Coastal Environmental Engineering and Shore Management tracks, integrating research activities from DICCA and the MeteOcean group directly into the program through seminars, laboratory work, and real-world site visits — including this trip to the Venetian Lagoon.