# Project Table

TITLE:
An Outdoor Art Inventory of the San Marco Sestiere

AUTHORS:
Maria Dilanco
John Handal
Edward M. Mason II

Original Abstract:
The third in a series of descriptive outdoor art inventories carried out in Venice, Italy, this project was sponsored by the Archeoclub of Venice in an effort to prevent further decay of the Venetian Cultural heritage, particularly in the sestieri of San Marco. This IQP uses computerized databases, mapping, and calculates formulas for this goal. The end product is a prioritized catalog of each piece ranked by it’s relative restoration urgency. Finally, this project also generates ideas for improvements on future IQP’s more specifically in terms of fund raising and evaluation methods.

Description:
The Venetian Republic began as a cluster of small islands and rose to a world power.  Although, the Venetian republic no longer stands, its legendary architecture and outdoor art still remain.  However, these pieces face an uncertain future.  With the increase in errostion and pollution over the past century, these works have begun to deteriorate rapidly and action must be taken to keep these magnificent works from disappearing into oblivion.
     This IQP was the third in as series of descriptive outdoor art inventories serving to promote public awareness of the decay of this unique outdoor museum.  This project aimed to produce a current inventory of the outdoor art in the sestiere of San Marco and assess their conditions.  The project refined the procedures and methods developed in prior IQPs in data collection, data storage, evaluation, and fund raising.
     The database developed contained three components.  The first database contained artistic information: a general background of the piece containing info such as its location and age.  The second database contained the physical condition and restoration cost estimates of each piece.  The third database linked the first two and produced a slide show that the Archeoclub was able to present to the public showing the ongoing work of the inventory in the San Marco area.
     Regression formulas were further advanced and made more complex producing more accurate estimates of restoration costs.  The location of each piece was recorded in a MapInfo layer and database information was linked so that at the click of a button, all information about a piece could be observed. 
     Several suggestions were made to facilitate funding for repairs. Some of these included: the creation of a non-profit organization with the sole purpose of raising funds, the creation of books and postcards for sale to the public that supplied info about the pieces, and the initiation of an Adopt-A-Piece campaign similar to the Adopt-A-Highway in the US.  In addition, they provided suggestions on how to reduce scaffolding cost which is generally the bulk of the total cost of the restoration process.
     It is vital that these pieces be restored before it is too late.  This historical artwork gives Venice a special ambiance, one that is hard to describe, but missed if it was not there.  Through the use of cutting edge technology, it is possible to solve the humanistic problems of saving centuries old artwork from its ultimate decay.


TITLE:
The Churches of Venice II
A System for Artistic Restoration Analysis

AUTHORS:
Brian Aldrich
Kevin Shea
David Youkstetter

KEY WORDS:
Churches, Art, Randolfi Architectural Studio

Referenced Material:
The Churches of Venice: A System for Restoration and Analysis (E90)

Original Abstract:
This Project , Completed at the Venice Project Center, was sponsored by the Architect Nicola Randolfi and concentrates on the churches of Venice. The project involved the creation of a computerized “church layer” using the Geographical Information System, MapInfo, the collection three databases on 143 Venetian churches, and an in depth artistic and restoration survey of one Venetian church, San Pantaleone. This survey established an order  of restoration prioriy for the art in the San Pantaleone.

Description:
Regular surveys need to be conducted on the churches of Venice to determine restoration priority for allocated funding.  A study was completed in 1990 that documented 104 churches in Venice and developed methods for analysis.  Another study was necessary to continue the efforts previously made.      
     The goals of this project were to expand on the previous study by documenting the remaining churches, and to develop restoration surveys based on the data collected. 
     The project team exceeded their own expectations by producing the following results.  First, they developed an architectural history/guide to Venice to provide an adequate background.  Next, they expanded the database from 104 churches to 143.  Many improvements were also made including the addition of more detailed fields, scanned photographs, and floor layouts of the churches.  Then, they linked a GIS map of Venice to the database.  A church layer was designed to put over the map of Venice, however, the version of MapInfo available could not link this layer to the database.  
     They also chose San Pantaleoni as an example for further analysis of specific pieces of art inside the church  A complete restoration survey was developed for San Pantaleoni made up of a separate database for general information and restoration recommendations.
     Recommendations were also made for improved software packages and future projects.

This project contains the following information:
     -Descriptions of the churches of Venice
     -Architectural history
     -A list of Venetian churches (app A)
     - Explanations of computer software used.


AUTHORS:
Nicolle Burnam
Heather L. Emerson
Kevin M. Furbish

KEY WORDS:
Environment, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), Education

Referenced Material:
A Feasability Study of a Venice Project Center, vol III: Venice and the Lagoon Environment (B88)

Original Abstract:
Sponsored by the Forum per la Laguna di Venezia, this project analyzes the necessary means for starting a successful environmental NGO's.  A summary of educational, lobbying, grassroots and fundraising activities for US environmental organizations are analyzed with emphasis on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation as a model.  On the basis of this analysis layouts of a brochure, newsletter and fact sheet were created.  Recommendations are made on programs, information distribution and fundraising methods.

Description:
There are a number of problems facing the future of Venice and environmental problems are among the foremost of these issues.  This problem will only be resolved by the education of the public to make them more aware of these issues, and in turn allow the public to participate in the improvement of life in Venice.
     This project examines the means for creating and developing a successful environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) that will act to educate the citizens of Venice.  The goals involved in doing this are:
     1.)  Organize and summarize information in three separate databases on American environmental non-profit organizations.
     2.)  Develop methods for information distribution for the Forum, including newsletters, brochures and fact sheets.
     3.)  Identify effective methods of organization empoyed by American environmental groups in activities such as educational programs, fundraising and networking.
     4.)  Using documents from the Rio Accords and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) assess the future role of NGO's in local implementation of Agenda 21.
     With these goals reached and information obtained, recommendations were made to the Forum on operations and sample brochures were created.  This is a great help, and assures that the Forum can succeed in its efforts to educate the people in Venice about the problems faced in their own environment.


TITLE:
A Data Synthesis of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Venice Canals Project

AUTHORS:
Kerry Cooke
John F. Ebersole, Jr.
Heidi A. Marrino
Lisa Rosiello

SPONSORS:
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

Original Abstract:
This project, prepared in part for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, served to compile missing dat on the past thirteen IQPs in order to complete the documentation for traffic, mud, flow, sewer and damage on the canals of Venice, Italy.  This study further organizes and standardizes all gathered data to clarify the methodology for future studies.  In addition, the team set up a format for canal booklets, which present an accessible summation of canal data.

Description:
Thirteen canal projects had been completed by the end of May in 1993.  Previous studies included data collection and interpretation of static, hygenic, and dynamic characteristics, structural damages, boat traffic, and the creation of geographical information systems (GIS) for processing this data. This study summarizes and further continues the work of a canal summary project completed in the previous term (D93).
     The goal of this project was to make all information on the canals of Venice available and accessible for analysis through canal summarization and geocoding of the databases
     The team succeeded in meeting their goal.  They collected an additional set of data to account for missing or incorrect information due to weather and time constraints.  Then they entered all of the data into a database and linked it to MapInfo and Excel.  Canal booklets were also designed and produced to present the vital statistics of each canal in Venice. 

Information that can be found in this IQP is as follows:
     -History of the canals
     -Updated methodology of collecting data
     -Compiled data from 13 IQP’s in database format.


TITLE:
Creation of a Database Management Program
for Cataloguing Computer Images 
Used in the Non-Destructive Analysis of Works of Art

AUTHORS:
Joel C. Belog
Lourenco W. K. Dantas
Paul E. Hammerstrom

SPONSORS:
Soprintenedenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici di Venezia

KEY WORDS:
Art, Soprintenedenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici di Venezia

Referenced Material:
Infrared Reflectoscopy; Non-Destructive Analysis of Works of Art

Original Abstract:
Non-destructive analysis of works of art is the work of Mr. Paolo Spezzani of the Sorprintendenza ai Beni Artistici di Venezia.  With the accumulation of thousands of computerized images of artwork, he required a powerful organizational tool.  This project team devised a database management system (using Microsoft’s FoxPro development software) to aid Mr. Spezzani in organizing and simplifying his valuable work.  Also, a pamphlet was created to inform and educate the general public about Mr. Spezzani’s art restoration work.

Description:
Venice has produced talented artists such as Carpaccio, Bellini, and Titan, whose names remain immortal in the art world.  Unfortunately, their paintings are not as immortal as their reputation.  The paintings have suffered drastic changes and damages over the centuries and now require restoration.  Mr. Paolo Spezzani has spent several years researching and developing methods for non-destructive analysis of these painting using modern technology.  His research aids in the restoration of these paintings.
     Mr. Spezzani, at the time of this IQP, had over 30000 computerized images of works of art.  These images were created using x-ray or infrared reflectoscopy techniques.  In the process of gathering these images, he was unable to organize them in a useful manner.  Therefore, the main goal of this IQP was to create a database management application to aid Mr. Spezzani in his work.  
     The database management system designed by the project group had the capability of viewing several images on the same screen.  In addition, all of the data associated with each piece of art was organized in a convenient fashion.  The system consisted of two databases that together formed an easily maintainable system.
     Also, the project group designed an informational pamphlet that introduced people to the art restoration work performed by Mr. Spezzani and his group of restorers and technicians.  It discussed the importance of art restoration and the different non-destructive techniques used by the art restoration lab at San Gregorio.


TITLE:
The UNESCO Venice Lagoon Ecosystem Project

AUTHORS:
Larry R Breen
Salvatore Gencarelli
James Leo Kilgallo

SPONSORS:
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Original Abstract:
This Interactive Qualifying Project was an analysis of the UNESCO Lagoon Ecosystem Project carried out on the Venice Lagoon. It involved examining the data gathered by nine international research teams, and relating this data to the local ecosystem, specifically the Palude della Rosa. It also involved relating the data to the global self-regulating ecosystem, Gaia, as activity and results of the international teams. Finally, from the analysis, several recommendations on further research, future IQPs and MQP, and the general improvement of the Venice Lagoon were offered.

Description:
This project sudied the data collected by the various organizations involved in the UNESCO Venice Lagoon Ecosystem Project.  Nine research teams from the United Kingdom, France, and Italy came to Venice to study the health of the Lagoon.  Their work focused upon the Palude della Rosa, a somewhat isolated section of the Lagoon, north of Venice.  Many aspects of the Palude were studied, including levels of pollutants, species abundance of organisms, and various hydrological parameters, such as tides, salinity, water temperature, pH, etc.  The main goal of the UNESCO project, which took place from Fall 1991 to Summer 1993, was to gain a better understanding of the Venice Lagoon ecosystem.  
     Four main objectives were focused upon in this project.  The first and second were to relate the data collected by the UNESCO research groups to global and local ecosystems.  The third objective was to create an informational pamphlet which the general public could understand, outlining the actions of the various UNESCO research groups and the general conclusions on the condition of the Lagoon arising from their work.  The final objective was to suggest further research topics concerning possible future studies of the Venice Lagoon.
     It was concluded that the theory of Gaia, a self-regulating system which will always evolve to benefit itself, is plausable.  Also, the importance of conveying these results to the public was discussed, stating that their knowledge can help them to make decisions that have a serious impact on the environment.
     Information contained in this project includes characteristics of a macroalgae, (Ulva rigida), activity of Lagoon sediment, diatom blooms, and other various organisms important to the ecosystem of the Lagoon.  The data collected was compared to that of other UNESCO groups to come up with the general conclusions, and were then conveyed in a well organized pamphlet.


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of the Docks, Cargo Deliveries, and Boat Traffic within the Santa Maria Zobenigo Insula

AUTHORS:
Diego Felices
Carlos Moreno
Alexander Munoz
Brian J. Smith

KEY WORDS:
Santa Maria Zobenigo, Boat traffic, docks and deliveries, UNESCO

Referenced Material:
Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic in the Venetian Canals (91 + 92); A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic on the Canals within the sestiere di Castello di Venezia (92)

Original Abstract:
The objective of this project is to document and analyze the usage of docks, cargo deliveries, and boat traffic in the insula of Santa Maria Zobenigo, in order to aid the City of Venice in preparing for the closings of the canals in this area during reconstruction.  The closings of the canals has to be done in a way that will minimize the disturbance of the lives of the people in the area. This report provides the City of Venice and future IQP groups important data and analysis on docks, cargo and traffic, as well as useful methods on how to conduct similar studies.

Description:
In 1994, the commune di Venezia was planning on beginning a canal maintenance program which would involve the closing of some of the canals on the insula of Santa Maria Zobenigo.  When the canals are closed, docks along these canals would be unavailable for use.  The documentation of the usage of public docks will facilitate the determination of alternate docking sites once particular canals are closed.  In addition, it would be possible to determine which businesses are most affected by these closings through this study.
     The main purpose of this IQP was to provide the capability of predicting possible chaotic situations, such as the clogging of main canal arteries, inaccessibility of businesses in the insula for deliveries, and overcrowding of docks.  Possible solutions to related socio-economic issues on the island are also presented for consideration by the ciy of Venice.
     The project group created a dock and cargo data collection form to record cargo and boat type information, and preoceeded to catalog all docks in the insula.  They then monitored selected docks for delivery patterns in addition to asking delivery people where the final destination of all merchandise unloaded on the dock to determine the businesses that would be affected by the canal closings.  Traffic forms were developed to track traffic flow through the canals and later presented in maps showing the traffic activity of the entire insula.  Case scenarios were presented for the closings of each canal and graphs of total dock usage for the insula were created.
     Detailed recommendations were made for the city from the data collected, which should be taken into account when closing the canals.  They discussed which canals were not being used to full potential, the possibility of adding docks and parking spaces along various canals, and time limits for unloading cargo.  Comments were also made about traffic regulations and their compliance by owners of private boats.  Such disobedience causes confusion and makes the canals more perilous for all.


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Public and Overnight Boat Parking on the Canals within the Insula di Santa Maria Zobenigo

TOPICS:
Boat Traffic, Parking, Canal maintenance

KEY WORDS:
Santa Maria Zobenigo, Traffic, Parking, canals, UNESCO

Original Abstract:
This Interactive Qualifying Project Report, submitted to the faculty of WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, describes in detail,   a boat parking study on the Venetian canals.  This study, sponsored by UNESCO, consisted of collecting and analyzing field data on public and overnight parking within the Insula Santa Maria Zobenigo.  Through the use of an organized database and a mapping software program, boat parking can be analyzed and constantly updated for maintenance programs by the Comune Di Venezia, and for future IQP groups.

Description:
In 1994, Commune di Venezia was planning on beginning anal maintenance programs on the insula Santa Maria Zobenigo.  However, up until the time of this IQP, there had never before been an in depth study of the parking on the Venetian islands.  In fact, no records were kept of parking spaces within the canals of this island.  This lack of record keeping led to parking confusion as well as safety issues, such as insecured poles and rings as a result of deterioration.  The city needed a descriptive parking regulations document in addition to information and data relating to each parking space on the island.  The most effective way to manage this data once collected is through computerized methods.  
     The main objective of this IQP was to create a Geographical Information System (GIS) model database for collecting public and overnight parking data.  The second objective was to analyze possible parking alternatives for periods of time that the canals wll be closed for maintenance programs.
     For decades, the canals have succesfully served two main purposes: to serve as a transportation system and to serve as a sewer system.  Stemming from the transportation system is the necessity of a boat parking program.  The reason for creating a boat parking database was to locate the closest parking spaces in the surrounding canals so that boats displaced by the closure can be relocated.  This information will decrease the amount of confusion when boats are needed to be relocated.  The necessity of a strong parking program in Venice was obvious in light of the canal maintenance program that was soon to begin.
     The project was conducted with four main subjects: public docks, private docks, public parking spaces, and overnight spaces.  Condition of poles and rings were also addressed in the study.  The obtained data was entered into MapInfo and Access which proved useful when relocating boats to other parking spaces while canals were closed for maintenance.  The project produced the first detailed database for the parking spaces on the island, and made recommendations for solutions to parking issues that would arise once canal maintenance began.


TITLE:
Le Sponde dei Canali di Castello, Venezia

AUTHORS:
Amy Cahill
Gregory Masterson
Carlos A. Zapata

Referenced Material:
Anal of Str. Damage to the Canal Walls of Castello (E92); A Comprehensive Review of WPI Canal Studies (D93); A Data Synthesis of the WPI Canal Projects (E93); A HDS of Inner Canals of Venice (D91); Anal of Str Damage to the Canal walls of Venice, It (D92); Doc and Anal of Boat Traffic on the Canals of Castello (E92)

Original Abstract:
Working as official partners of UNESCO, this project homogenizes and integrates all existing data on sewer holes and structural damage to the canal walls in the Sestiere Castello di Venezia.  A comprehensive report about the insula Santa Maria Formosa was created using photodocumentation and innovtive software.  All the information collected can be accessed for use in the city’s restoration program.  A maintenance program was developed in an attempt to avoid the reoccurence of the critical conditions in the Sestiere di Castello.  New hyppotheses on the causes of sediment build up and sewage outlet blockage are also explored in this study.

Description:
The canals of Venice have been in dire need of attention in recent years to severe neglect. It was discovered in prior student projects that the sestiere of Castello contained four of the eight emergency restoration locations of Venetian canals.  In 1994, the time was ripe to inform the public of the information found in the student projects.  
     The main goal of this project was to create booklets containing all the information pertaining to the sewage outlets, structural damage and impact damage to the canals walls of the island of S.M. Formosa.  In addition, they aimed to develop maintenance strategies through research of the canals in Castello to prevent the critical condition from occurring again.  Finally, they implemented a study on the growth of sewage holes to discover the exact causes of structural damage.
     The project group produced canal booklets with detailed information on the canals in above-mentioned areas.  They also verified, corrected, and added to the canals database.  Finally, they developed a detailed plan for canal maintenance and hypothesized on the effects and results of the implementation of this plan.  Recommendations were made to the city that addressed how to best utilize the brochures and methods discussed in their IQP.


TITLE:
A Method for the Evaluation of Venetian Bells and Bell Towers

Referenced Material:
Churches of Venice II (93); Churches of Venice (90)

Original Abstract:
Completed at the Venice Project Center, this project main accomplishment was the development of a method to assess Venetian bells and bell towers.  The project involved the creation of two data bases on bells and bell towers, and the creation of computerized layer, using MapInfo, to locate ten bell towers that were evaluated externally.  A system was also developed to give a restoration priority to the two towers, Campanili of San Pantaleone and San Nicolo dei Mendicoli, that were studied in depth.

Description:
Venice is unique not only for its famous canals and gondolas, but also for its role in the evolution of art.  Among the most visible forms of artistic expression is the incredible architecture found in its churches and bell towers. These structures have been subjected to constant deterioration due to several factors including acid rain/fog, exposure to the elements and neglect.  In recent years, the city of Venice has begun to take action to reverse this process.  However, while massive restoration efforts have begun in many of the churches, the Venetian bell towers remain neglected because, besides limited resources, most towers are closed to the public so there is not an urgent need to keep them in good condition.
     The purpose of this IQP was to contribute to the rescue of all Venetian bell towers by creating a foundation for collecting data and for determining the urgency of restoring each bell tower. To accomplish this, the project group determined what information was important and feasible to collect about the bells and towers and developed a method for collecting this information.  A form was created (found in Appendix A) which served as a template for future data collection.
     Although fifty towers were photographed and documented, only ten were chosen for data collection using this new form.  Two towers in particular, San Pantaleone and San Nicolodei Mendicoli, were studied in depth.  For these two towers, data was collected for the inside in addition to the data gathered externally.
     The information collected was then entered into two databases, one for the bells and the other for the tower structure.  This data was linked to a MapInfo layer and designed for easy maintenance (adding additional data).  In addition, a system of prioritization was developed based on the detailed data collected from the two towers mentioned above.  The project group intended that the methods for data collection and database management would be further developed in future projects.
     The bell towers of Venice are an incredibly important part of the city’s heritage.  Eventually, with the completion of subsequent projects of this nature, it will be possible to see the bell towers of Venice in restored condition, and they will remain for future generations of Venetians to enjoy.


TITLE:
Outdoor Art Inventory of the Sestiere di Castello

AUTHORS:
Elizabeth R. Fonseca
Brent R. Johnson
Samuel C. Russell Jr.

SPONSORS:
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization;
Archeoclub di Venezia

KEY WORDS:
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization; Archeoclub di Venezia; Outdoor Art; Castello

Referenced Material:
Archeoclub Inventory (91); 
Archeoclub Inventory II (92); 
An Outdoor Art Inventory of the San Marco Sestiere (93)

Original Abstract:
An Outdoor Art Inventory of the Sestiere di Castello is the fourth project in a series to catalogued the erratic external art in Venice, and whose primary goal is to aid in the conservation of the Venetian art heritage.  This IQP uses databases to create a computerized catalog and to forge a list of the state of conservation of the pieces, the estimated cost of restoration and, ultimately, create a prioritized list of the art in the Setiere di Castello.  Finally this project suggests improvements that can be made on the rest of the projects in the series.

Description:
The city of Venice is centuries old, and so are most of the outdoor art pieces found within the islands.  Over the years, many of the art pieces are becoming abused or neglected, and are showing the wear and tears of the years past.  This project, continuing in past efforts by WPI project teams, was completed to create a prioritized list of outdoor art in the sestiere of Castello, listing state of conservation and the importance of revitalizing its appearance in the streets of Venice.
     Once this prioritzed list was made, suggestions for implementation were made.  Price lists of repairing damaged art were created, and cost breakdowns were added.  Also, many suggestions for aiding future projects in the field were given, being made from the troubles and drawbacks encountered in this project.
     With this list, the city of Venice can begin to chip away at the many deteriorating art pieces, making Venice even more beautiful than it is today, perhaps bringing it to its original beauty.
     Information contained in this project includes the cataloguing of 510 external art pieces, with pictures and documentation, restoration costs, states of conservation, and finally price restoration prioritization.


TITLE:
A Feasibility Study of Venice Project Center

AUTHORS:
Michael R. Cote
Anthony S. Cucci
David M. George
Richard J. Granfield
Michael J. Kroese
John P. Lankhof

Original Abstract:
This project examined the feasibility of opening a new WPI project
program for IQP's in Venice, Italy.  First, the logistical aspects of opening such a center were examined.  Second, the group searched for, and found, IQP sponsors, IQP topics, and background information in the governmental, environmental, and scientific fields.  The resulting report contains both background information and a logistical guide for future students going to Venice along with many pertinent recommendations to ensure the success of the program.

Description:
This was the first project completed in Venice, Italy and is often referred to as the "bootstrap" project.  This project had two main goals: the first was to explore the logistical feasibility of establishing a project center in the city of Venice, and the second was to determine if the Venetian community would be interested in having American students work on some of the city’s more pressing problems.  
     These students monitored their own performance and ability to adapt and work in a totally different culture and evaluated their experience in order to conclude whether a Venice IQP Project program was feasible.  They documented all of the logistics of life in Venice for future students such as things to do before leaving the US, shopping for food and other necessities, communications, Italian money, and entertainment.  
     While gathering logistical data, the students searched the Venetian community for urban, environmental and scientific/industrial organizations that would have a need for, or an interest in, WPI student projects.  Once found, these potential sponsors were approached by the team with proposed topic outlines.  These outlines were examined by the prospective sponsors and returned to the team with suggestions for improvements.  At the end of the project, final proposals were made which led to the sponsoring of some of the future projects.
     In addition, they provided a great deal of information on Italy and the Veneto including history and geographical information.  Information on the Government, environment, and special issues of Venice was also provided.  Finally, a brief analysis of the state of technology in Venice was presented.
     Recommendations were made to WPI to implement a student project center in Venice.  The pros and cons were outlines so that further improvements could be made to the proposal.  Suggestions were also made to future Venice Project Program participants on how to best prepare for their Venice project experience.  Suggestions were also made for future IQP topics and sponsors.


TITLE:
The Future of Science and Technology in Venice

AUTHORS:
Paolo Cattaneo
Cristiano Pierry
Evan W. Sullivan

Original Abstract:
This project is a study of the future possibilities for Venice, Italy, in the fields of science and technology.  Using interviews and observations of Venice in its present state, it was possible to document the current status of the city and define its needs for future development.  The conclusions obtained were that Venice cannot realistically support manufacturing development but it could be an ideal model for development of alternative technology of global impact.

Description:
In 1990, members of the Venetian society were investigating into what kinds of changes they needed to make to obtain the status as a world leader in technology as they had been centuries earlier.  However, as the world changed around the city, Venice was falling behind the times and a project was initiated to study the possible future of science and technology in Venice.
     The purpose of this project was to investigate the future of science and technology in Venice.  To obtain a full perspective with which to make predictions, it was necessary to divide the project into sections: the past, present, and future.  They found very little information on the history of technology in Venice.  Their project focused mainly on the present; they researched organizations in Venice that were determined to help Venice regain its status as a technological leader.  Through this research, it was possible to gather enough historical background to develop a basic idea of the history of technology in Venice.  In addition, they examined the present technology in Venice and discovered a small scientific community willing and determined to catch up with the times.  Finally, they projected where the future of Venetian technology.  They hypothesized that the greatest possibilities lie in the use of modern technology for the restoration of the city.  The project makes recommendations on how to expedite the progress of Venice technology and states some of the limitations present.  The final objective of the project was to serve as a multi-bootstrap project recommending several feasible investigations for future IQPs as well as providing information to enhance the newly begun Venice Project Program.


TITLE:
Re-Utilization of the Island of Lazzaretto Nuovo

KEY WORDS:
Islands; Lagoon, Lazzaretto Nuovo; EKOS club

Description:
In recent years, it has become the goal of several private organizations to take action toward the preservation of the history of the Venetian lagoon while at the same time protecting the delicate ecology of the region.  In addition, it has been desired to find solutions for such problems as pollution of the waters and disuse of many of the islands in the lagoon.
     The island of Lazzaretto Nuovo is rich in beauty and has great historical significance.  Many Venetians are unaware of the island’s existence or historical significance.  Although the Ekos Club that now maintains the island has made many efforts to restore the island, it is their desire to investigate alternatives for the reutilization of the island that will not compromise the historical or environmental aspects of the island.  In other words, they intend on attracting people who can appreciate the incredible island without creating harm to its fragile ecosystem and ancient strcutures.
     The goal of this projecdt was to study the state of the island (Lazzaretto) and evaluate the strengths and limitations of all parts of the island.  In addition, they aimed to present to the Ekos Club a proposal with the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative for re-use.
     Their proposal included detailed maps of the island divided into homogeneous regions, indicating both flora types and man-made structures, the conditions of each and detailed descriptions of possible uses for each region.  The environmental impact is included in their study as well as an investigation into the transportation problem between the island and others in the lagoon.  From this analysis of the island, a tentative schedule of events is proposed and possible means of financial support are suggested.  The information provided in this proposal was intended for use in an additional brochure of the island including maps, pictures, history, and a schedule of future events. 
     The report concluded that there are several feasible options for re-utilizing the island.  Each recommended alternative maintained the environmental and historic integrity of the island.  In addition, the project made detailed recommendations as to which issues to consider when choosing and option.


TITLE:
Quantifying the Problem of Acid Fog and Acid Rain in Venice

AUTHORS:
Bill LaPrade
Ryan Marcotte
Patrise Puleo

SPONSORS:
Laboratoio Scientifico della Soprintendenza di Beni Artistici e Stroici di Venezia

KEY WORDS:
Acid Fog; Acid Rain; Laboratoio Scientifico della Soprintendenza di Beni Artistici e Stroici di Venezia; Pollution

Original Abstract:
This project was undertaken at the  Laboratorio Scientifico della Misericordia in Venice, Italy, developed a procedure and preliminary results for the first-ever formal collection and quantification acid fog and rain in the city.  Fog and rain samples were collected in a specially devised receptor and then entered into a project-designed database.  In addition to the development of the procedure, the project generated a brochure in the Laboratorio and made recommendations on receptor modifications, collection cites, and collection sequences.

Description:
Venice is said to have 16% of the world's artistic treasures.  The problem this project addresses is the decay and deterioration of the treasures due to acid fog and acid rain.  Its goals are to study the chemisty of fogwater, and analyze the effects of acid fog on stone structures.
     Throught the course of this project the project team found a number of items which could be improved upon in future follow-up projects.  They are:
     1.)  Samples should be analyzed or frozen immediately upon collection to ensure accurate results.
     2.)  A data logger should be employed in the collection procedure to obtain more useful information.
     3.)  The use of multiple collectors should be considered for future projects to further improve the quality of the data.
     4.)  Modifications to the existing collector are recommended to improve collector efficiencey.

     This project succeeded in working through and refining the procedures involved with the study and it laid an excellent foundation for many productive follow-up projects in the future.
     Inforamation contained in this project includes data on fog analysis, wind charts, and restoration techniques for the stone structures of Venice.


TITLE:
A Hygenic, Dynamic, and Static Study of the Canals of Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Michael Ciacciarelli
Brian O'Connor
Barry Sylvia
Steven Testa

SPONSORS:
Instituto Studio Dinamica Grande Masse (ISDGM)

Original Abstract:
This Report, Prepared for the Instituto Studio Dinamica Grande Masse (ISDGM) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), analyzes, through a new methodology linking simple measurement techniques and computer applications, the static and dynamic properties for the Venetian canal network.  The project suggests a way to get an accurate low cost picture of the sediments in the entire canal network, the first step in the difficult process of restoring Venice’s infrastructure to proper function.

Description:
The Community of Venice has faced several problems in the recent years relating to its canals.  The once effective system of sewage disposal and transportation medium is no long functioning as efficiently as the city demands because of recent neglect.
     The purpose of this research project was to prove the complexity of inter-canal behavior and scientifically establish the detrimental effects of the organic sediment deposits on the overall flow capacity, hopefully bringing about a heightened awareness of the state of the network.  
     Because the canals have suffered neglect, the depth has decreased making it less suitable for boat traffic in addition to decreasing the flux of the water; the less flux of water, the less effective the flushing system of the canals will be.  In essence, if the canals are continually ignored, it will no longer be possible for the system to flush out waste flushed into the canals.  Consequently, this project determined the characteristics of flows within the network and related a flow response to the accumulation of sediment.  The group chose four independent canals for their study in the sestiere of Dorsoduro.  It was then intended that their conclusions would model the rest of the network relatively accurately and that their conclusion could be applied throughout the whole system.  
     The project established a methodology for the collection, presentation, and archival of the data related to the static and dynamic properties of the canals.  It was discovered that such elements such as tide heights, flow velocities, and excursion between high and low tides were greater during half-moon.  In addition, the wind affected the surface velocity of the water and when strong, even reversed the flow of the canal.  
     Their main realization, however, was that the actual tide entering the lagoon was not directly responsible for the flow in the canals. Tide height in the Grand Canal increased more rapidly than the tide height in the Guidecca due to the Grand Canal's smaller size.  Water then flows down the hill from the Grand Canal to the Guidecca through the Dorsoduro canals.  This shows that the tide flows in each canal are not the product of simple factors, but rather the results of a very complex scenario.
     It became clear that with the continued buildup of sediment reducing flux in the canals, the sewage system in Venice would soon become inadequate.  Proper maintenance is needed to restore the canals to their full working capacity keeping the city sanitary and dignified.


TITLE:
A Study of the Applicability of Pollution Control Technology on the Island of Murano

AUTHORS:
Jennifer Creamer
Rocco Paduano
Roberto Renya
Jehan Tamboowalla

KEY WORDS:
Associazione Artigiani di Venezia; Pollution; Murano

Original Abstract:
This project, developed to assist the Associazione Artigiani di Venezia in discovering feasible solutions to the pollution problems in Murano, examines the artisans' predicament and describes various pollution abatement options.  Personal interviews with the artisans, along with other materials allow for a thorough examination of the available technologies and establishment of their practicality and use in Murano.  This project  assesses the pollution problems found in many of the shops, and suggests possible treatment procedures for these problems.

Description:
All over the world, environmental awareness and preservation is on the rise.  Italy faces many environmental problems especially in regard to the artesian related traits. This Interactive Qualifying Project was done for the artisans of Venice on the request of the Associazione Artigiani di Venezia whose sole purpose is to aid its members in any artisan- related problems.  The overall goal of the WPI/Associazione Artigiani collaboration is to identify, analyze and possibly solve the pollution problems of all the artisan shops in Venice.  
     The island of Murano was chosen as a test site for this project due to its manageable size, importance and high concentration of representative types of shops.  Murano, an island to the north of the city of Venice, approximately two square kilometers in area, contains most of the industry in the Venetian lagoon and, as a result, contains the bulk of the pollution problems associated with the Venetian island system.
     Many of the problems associated with Venice (and Murano) stem from the fact that it is a densely populated city that encompass an entire region of islands which makes it close to impossible to find available space for waste treatment areas, such as treatment centers and even landfills.  Venice is beginning to have serious problems with the disposal of solid waste materials because its landfill is rapidly reaching maximum capacity and there is very little space to create a new one.
     After having analyzed the data accurately, the project team realized that most of the important data was approximate, therefore being an inaccurate source of information.  Although the questionnaire was misleading in providing quantity data on materials being used in the production process, it was a good means of exposing the problems that these glassmakers have in common. 
     Among other information obtained the project team was able to understand the danger of working in such an environment.  The workers are not only constantly exposed to toxic air emissions, and dangerous noise levels, but are also exposed to the high temperatures that radiate from the furnaces directly into the working environment.  Unfortunately direct readings of the temperatures found in each of these shops was not performed, but it is obvious that if the furnace is kept constantly open, it will radiate large amounts of energy that will get dispersed in the working environment.
     To the problems presented above there is a follow up in the suggestion section of the report, which presents different ideas that could be used to help these artisans get rid of some of the problems that they are experiencing.  Relocation of a centralized melting facility, reduction of raw materials used, substitution of the present raw materials with other less dangerous chemicals, redesigning the furnaces, applying more efficient pollution control techniques, and many others are just some of the suggestions that can be found in more detail.


TITLE:
A Feasibility Study for the Relocation of the University of Venice to Abandoned Lagoon Islands

AUTHORS:
Spyro J. Kotsonis
Micael Maglio
M. Joseph Soscia

KEY WORDS:
Relocation; Lagoon; University of Venice; SERENdpt Foundation

Original Abstract:
This project, prepared in conjunction with the SERENdpt Foundation, is a study on the possibly relocation of the University of Venice to some of the abandoned islands of the Venetian Lagoon.  An assessment of the current situation was made through an extensive on-site gathering of information on the islands and the University system in Italy and specifically in Venice.  Several rational alternatives for the future location of the University are furnished, which concurrently provide solutions to the problems that face the University, while at the same time, once again establishing the islands as useful components of the city of Venice.

Description:
In the city of Venice, real estate is hard to come by.  The University of Venice knows this, being faced with 28,000 students and no place to put tem all at once.  This project explores the feasibility and the desirability of relocation of the University of Venice to some of the underutilized islands of the Venetian Lagoon.  At the present time, the University is in tight quarters and it is the goal of this project to provide some distinct options for its future.
     Suggestions are made for the relocation under the following considerations:
     1.)  Accessability by students from class to class
     2.)  Physical space of location
     3.)  Transportation to the new locations
     4.)  Cost of relocation

     The fact that relocation is needed is discussed and proven many times in the body of the text.  All that remains is the initiative for it to materialize.  As time goes by, the buildings of the University and of the Islands become older, and the number of students becomes larger.  
     The information organized in this project should be of major assistance, and should act as a reference point for any future proposal to relocate the University of Venice.  It includes locations and data on existing buildings, references to US schools and operations, boat schedules and stop locations, and various other useful information with regards to relocation the University.


TITLE:
The Churches of Venice : A Sytstem for Restoration Analysis

AUTHORS:
Luca Bortolami
Luis Carlos Campo
Carl Frederic Madsen

Original Abstract:
This project, undertaken at the Venice Project Center, with the advice support of Architect Nicola Randolfi, provides a photographic census of the current state of the churches in Venice. The project creates a database of the churches, including computerized maps, and a detailed photographic examination of the deterioration of four churches. By utilizing the French M.E.R. system and other measures. The project concludes with a priority list and provides a prototype for a full investigation of the restoration needs of all of Venice's churches.

Description:
The last survey completed on the conservation state of the churches in Venice was conduced in 1970 and the data was recorded on paper only. These surveys are important because they help determine which churches are in need of repair.  Funds are allocated by the government to preserve and maintain the churches, but there was no organization as far as need was concerned.
     The goal of this project was to update the existing document of each church and introduce computers into this field to facilitate future data collection. 
     To meet their goals, the project team developed a method to be used in the future to obtain a complete census about the condition of the churches.  They documented general information on 104 churches (i.e. name, location, condition, etc.) and entered it into a database.  Photographs were also taken of each church.  Four churches were focused on in greater detail to provide the complete prototypes of information that should be documented.  Booklets were formed on the churches of S. Fosca, S.Pantaleoni, S. Simone Grande, and S. Rocco.  The interior and exterior situations of each church were taken into account to assess restoration priority.  Cost analysis of proposed renovations were also performed.  
     Recommendations were made for future IQP’s to continue and expand on this project. 
This project contains information on: 
     -Non-destructive methods for the determination of material properties
     -Restoration concepts
     -Religious orders in Venice and the churches they own (list format)
     -Art types (byzantine, gothic, baroque, etc.)


KEY WORDS:
Lagoon, Farming, San Erasmo, Saccagnana Coop

Original Abstract:
This project, undertaken at the Venice Project Center, establishes a basis for the introduction of organic farming into the Veneto region, using the island of St. Erasmo as a first case study,  The project presents background on organic farming in general and on the agriculture of the Veneto region.  Through interviews, aided by liaisons, the project establishes a history, and present social and economic profile of St.’ Erasmo and its agrarian sector.  The project concludes by introducing a path toward switching to organic agriculture on the island.

Description:
Agriculture adds to water pollution through the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. As a result, oxygen content is reduced in the water and algae production is multiplied.  This suffocates higher order aquatic and plant life in the Lagoon.  Organic farming is one alternative solution that would reduce the pollution to the waters of the Lagoon.
     The goal of this project was to help the farmers of San Erasmo establish an environmentally sound method of agriculture while still maintaining current output.  To achieve this goal the students first researched methods of organic farming.  Then, they visited the island of San Erasmo and studied the current system of agriculture.  They designed a cooperative system of organic farming that could be used to reduce water pollution and maintain their production levels.  Some benefits of implementation might be a general decrease in expenditures for bulk purchases and lower transportation costs if boats were bought and shared.  There were a few problems that could hinder this process such as lack of cooperation between farmers, problems with accepting change, current illegal situations, and the average age of the work force.  It was concluded that, generally, the systems used on the island produced minimal negative effects when compared to farming on the mainland, however, San Erasmo could serve as an example for other areas.
Information can be found on:
     -Organic agriculture
     -Agricultural pollution
     -Pest control methods
     -Soil fertility management
     -Agriculture in the Veneto region
     -Laws regarding agriculture
     -Case study for San Erasmo


Original Abstract:
This project, undertaken at the Venice Project Center, reviews aspects of the introduction of computers to humanities studies with a particular application for the University of Venice.  The project researched international computer usage in areas of archaeology, history, music, and language.  Practical application was accomplished through organizing the facilities of the humanities lab at the University.  Project results include extensive computer applications within the lab, a guide to the lab, recommendations concerning an exchange program, and suggestions for future projects.

Description:
The University of Venice did not use computers in many of their humanities courses because they seemed to think that they were more of an inconvenience than a benefit.  They were also not aware o the amount of computer technology that was available for these courses.  
     The goals of this project were to:
      1. Organize and document the Lab of Humanistic Informatics of the University of Venice.
     2. Investigate and expose the many different applications computers could be used for in the humanities and inform the faculty and staff of these available resources in order to increase computer usage and close the gap between the students and computers.
     3. To establish an exchange program between WPI and the University of Venice.
    To achieve their goal, they first documented the existing lab through databases, slide shows and booklets. Next, they documented, organized, and expanded the hard/software resources in the lab.  They also designed menu driven screens to facilitate the access to the software.  They also provided a compilation of references to texts, articles, and applications related to the topic to facilitate the research of future students.  The feasibility of an exchange between WPI project students and those at the University of Venice was also looked into.  The team recommended that the lab make use of the new database and the hard/software installed. They also suggested that more computers (Macintosh) could be purchased and as a result, more computer courses could be offered.
     This report contained information on:
     -Word processing
     -Databases
     -Graphic design programs
     -Report generator and Self-education programs
     -Optical disks
     -OCR’s and Speech processing
     -Hypertext and Multimedia
     -Natural language processing and Artificial intelligence
     -Various computer applications (Perseus, Emperor-1, MacLang, etc.) 
     -Humanities subjects that were focused on (history, archaeology, language,      music)
     -Italian University system
     -The Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Venice


TITLE:
Wetland Management for the Lagoon Park Proposal in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Carme L. Barbillas
Johnathan Lovelard
Donna M. Roche

Original Abstract:
This project, undertaken at the Venice Project Center, in association with the World Wildlife Fund-Venezia, studies Valle Averto as a prototype for the proposed Venetian Lagoon park.  The project includes a U.S. Wetland information review, and Italian Environmental Laws compilation, a visitor-management plan for Valle Averto, documentation of the Lagoon’s casoni (old fishing lodges) as possible recreation sites, and computer applications for the park.  Recommendations to WWF Valle Averto and suggestions for the Lagoon Park Proposal conclude the project.

Description:
This project concerns the proposal for a Lagoon Park in th Lagoon surrounding the city of Venice.  This area is an important and diverse wetland as well as a historic and cultural center.  Establishing the park deals with a multitude of scientific, economic, and management aspects.  The project utilized a management plan that mashes the components of the proposal together to increase the worth of the wetland without sacrificing society's needs and desires.
     This project aided the agencies responsible for the park and benefitted the entire region of Venice.  Results indicated considerable interest in Valle Averto and that more information could be provided to the visitors and the general public concerning the Valle and the Lagoon.
     This project produced the following outcomes:
     1.)  Data on the state of wetlands and their condition in the United States
     2.)  Suggestions for visitor management at Valle Averto
     3.)  An English translation of a pamphlet describing Valle Averto
     4.)  A database of visitor information and visitor frequency for Valle Averto for the years 1989 and 1990
     5.)  A study of legal aspects that apply to the proposal.
     6.)  A database of casoni in the Lagoon
     7.)  Booklets displaying information of the casoni


TITLE:
Solar Photovoltaic Applications in Venice

Original Abstract:
Through the use of the fundamentals of solar design, and information garnered from Venice, this project examined many possible applications of Solar Photovoltaic Power in Venice, Italy to determine their feasibility.  It is the opinion of this project group that solar power is a viable energy alternative to the present methods in certain applications, and the viability of solar power will increase with the depletion of the earth's resources, and the pollution of its environments.

Description:
The production of thermoelectricity involves burning increasingly rare fossil fuels, and produces a large amount of pollution.  Thermoelectric production is also highly inefficient.  The purpose of this project was to analyze and determine the feasibility of several solar power projects in the Lagoon of Venice.  They are:
     1.)  The powering of the new electric boat designed by the Venetian public transportation authority.
     2.)  The powering of Venice through the application of rooftiles with implanted solar cells.
     3.)  The powering of the illumination of the many canals of Venice.
     4.)  The powering remote islands through individual solar units or with a solar power plant.
     5.)  The powering of a small boat similar to the many boats in use in Venice
     6.)  The observation of a solar boat race in Venice.
     7.)  The powering of an experimental proccess being conducted by Engineer Fabio Carrera, called "accretion."

     This report proposed solar power implentations for all of these projects, and showed how to overcome some of the obstacles that would be faced.  It contains information on price comparisons between solar vs. gas, including initial cost of materials, diagrams of placements of solar tiles or ribbons, and power charts for solar outputs vs. gas.
     This project could greatly overcome the problems of energy consumption and pollution, and helped provide a basis on which future projects can follow in the field of photovoltaics.


AUTHORS:
Susan E. Carlson
Alessandro Casagrande
Edward J. Connor
Sean P. Moore
Mark J. Sarmiento

SPONSORS:
Serenissima Development and Preservation through Technology Association (SERENdpt)

Original Abstract:
This project, at the Venice Project Center (VPC), was undertaken for the Serenissima Development and Preservation through Technology Association (SERENdpt), which is concerned with improving the Venetian environment.  The two- fold goals: structuring SERENdpt and solidifying the VPC- including diverse procedure (direct experiences, computer implementations, correspondence literary analysis and field research) and yielded outcome of photographer’s guides, database files, VPC booklets and a newsletter.  The project recommended to SERENdpt a five year plan of events, funding, future projects and expansion options.

Description:
The SERENdpt Association (SERENissima Development and Preservation through Technology) is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the development and preservation of Venice through modern, innovative, and non-polluting technologies. The organization was founded in 1988, and in 1990 sought the help of WPI’s students to assist in the development of a five year plan to chart their progress.  
     The main goal of this project was to structure the internal organization of the SERENdpt Association including:
     -Creating a membership plan 
     -Creating various databases of SERENdpt related information
     -Designing a newsletter for members
     -Planning events
     -Exploring possible sources of funding
Another goal, which was not directly related to SERENdpt, was to organize the VPC by putting together a logistics compilation, student related database, and helpful booklets) 

     The end result of this project was a five-year plan for the SERENdpt Association that met all of their goals. More specifically, the Association now has a library of information about the various artistic and architectural works in Venice, including street alters and churches.  The five-year plan also contains a basic outline of a newsletter.  A schedule of events was recommended for SERENdpt to (co)sponsor, that could be funded thorough outside sources, to show the benefits of technology and make people aware of the overall purpose of the association.  Also, databases were created to organize the information that would be needed to implement the proposed plan. 

     The project’s second goal for the VPC was also reached.  A database was produced, helpful forms and booklets were designed, and the VPC was recommended to become a site for any student to complete projects that would benefit themselves as well as the city of Venice.

The appendices of this IQP contains:
     -Database files
     -A prototype newsletter
     -A logistics booklet
     -Details of  recommended events
     -A funding compilation
     -Information on the founding members of the SERENdpt association as well as other preservation organizations in Venice.


AUTHORS:
Nicola M. McGowan
Reinaldo F. Niella
Pierre Schrappe
Jennifer Smith

SPONSORS:
Soprintendenza ai Beni Ambientali e Architettonici; Equipe Veneziana di Ricerca; Archeoclub d'Italia; Soprintendenza all'Archeologica, Idra

Original Abstract:
This project, undertaken at the Venice Project Center, provides a framework for comprehending the archaeological environment in the Venetian lagoon.  This objective was accomplished by reviewing the state-of-the-art in the field, contacting local archaeological groups and participating in their efforts, and overviewing the archaeological superintendency of Venice.  Project outcomes include technological alternatives and computer implementations for Venetian archaeologists, illustrative booklets on recent sites, maps and databases for archaeological applications, and suggestions for future projects involving lagoon archaeology.

Description:
Archeology is a field that benefits greatly from the use of computers and technology.  The work of Archeology is important for preserving heritage and learning about ancient history. The islands of the Venetian Lagoon are a gold mine of ancient treasures.  However, until 1990, there was no complete documentation of artifacts and very little technology was used to store what documentation existed.  The archeological community was in need of a more effective system to display the artifacts they uncovered.
     The goal of this project was to study the architectural environment in the Venetian Lagoon and present technological alternatives that would improve the various aspects of the local archeologist’s work.  In addition, they aimed to serve as the foundation for future projects.
     This project developed an extensive background on the Lagoon and archeological studies in the Lagoon.  They did exhaustive research to bring to light the methods employed in the archeological studies of the lagoon.  They documented each excavation site in the lagoon and created a database that stored the details of each site including some of the artifacts found at that sight.  They also created a booklet on Lagoon Archeology, which was for distribution to the public and designed to inform them of the importance and developments of such work.  Finally, they supplied a detailed and complete analysis on how modern technology can be applied in archeological studies.  This project was considered the best IQP completed in 1990 and won the Presidential IQP Award for that year.


TITLE:
The Interrelations of Weather, Pollution, and Acid Precipitation in Venice and their Effects on Indoor and Outdoor Art

AUTHORS:
Michael A. Achim
Nicholas F. DiCamillo
Cheri A. LaFrinea
Melissa L. Paddock

SPONSORS:
Laboratorio Scientfico Della Misericordia
Soprintendenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici

KEY WORDS:
Pollution, Art, Laboratorio Scientfico Della Misericordia, Soprintendenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici

Referenced Material:
Quantifying the Problems of Acid Rain in Venice (90)

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by the Laboratorio Scientifico della Misericordia in Venice, Italy, represents a contribution to the understanding of the interrelation of  weather conditions, air quality and acid precipitation with respect to the preservation of Venetian artwork both indoor and outdoors.  Fog, rain. and snow were sampled with a special apparatus; weather data was collected by an automatic weather station; air quality data was obtained from existing monitoring networks; indoor conditions were transcribed from existing records.  The information was organized in computer databases, manipulated with custom-programs, and graphed.  Quick reference booklets were developed for future use.

Description:
For centuries, Venice has remained unaltered; the churches and buildings remain, and the endless maze of canals is still present.  However, under the surface, there are slow and destructive changes: the penetration of humidity into the walls of historic buildings; the formation of a black, destructive crust on stone monuments; the warping, cracking, and molding of precious paintings in unregulated churches and art galleries.  One of the primary culprits accountable for these transformations is air pollution, which in its most catastrophic form become mixed with water to form acid precipitation. 
     The goal of this project was to correlate weather patterns with the precipitation events and pinpoint sources of primary pollutants present in the atmosphere of Venice in addition to continuing the quantification efforts of the first IQP on acid fog.  Moreover, the project group began an investigation of the climate control in the museums and churches of Venice to discover how many pollutants are present in these indoor environments.  
     The project conducted intensive investigations and research of precipitation pH and pollutant content levels.  Three particular events were examined and compared: acid rain, acid fog, and acid snow.  In addition, they worked in a laboratory and assisted in the research on the effects of the air pollution on various materials.  Moreover, the unique weather patterns of Venice were researched providing historical insight on the level of pollutants currently existing in the air surrounding Venice.  Finally, a study was conducted on the microclimates of chosen Venetian museums.
     The instruments used throughout the project such as the rain/fog collector and the pH/ISE meter are explained in great detail.  In fact, two booklets were produced for the specific purpose of providing information on how these instruments are properly used.  Other booklets developed gave a background on their sponsor and provided compact results and analysis of the work completed through their project.  Three booklets were created to inform the public of the problems and effects of air pollution in Venice.  
     The project made recommendations for future IQPs.  The report also serves as an excellent reference for future projects involving similar topics.  The far-reaching implications of the material presented in the study can be further analyzed and utilized to assist in the prevention of deterioration of precious artwork and structures in the city of Venice.


TITLE:
A Study of Tide Flows, Mud Buildup, Boat Traffic, and Structural Damage on the Cannaregio Canal Subsystem

AUTHORS:
Hernando Carvajal
Manrico Federico
Carlos Gonzalez
Tim Johnson
Jeff Levesque

SPONSORS:
Centro Previsioni e Segnalazioni Maree;
Instituto per lo Studio Dinamica Grandi Masse (ISDGM)

KEY WORDS:
Tide, Mud, Traffic, Damage, Canals, Cannaregio, Centro Previsioni e Segnalazioni Maree, Instituto per lo Studio Dinamica Grandi Masse (ISDGM)

Original Abstract:
This report, prepared in collaboration with the Cento Previsioni e Segnalazioni Maree and the Istituto per lo Studio Dinamica Grandi Masse (ISDGM)  of the Italian National Research Council, presents the results of a hygienic and dynamic study of the Cannaregio canal subsystem of Venice, Italy.  The study analyzes the tide flow, mud buildup, boat traffic, and structural damage on five primary canals, fourteen secondary canals, and four major surrounding bodies of water.

Description:
This project addresses three of the major problems facing Venice today:  deteriorating hygenic quality of its canals, increasing canal utilization difficulties for boats, and decay of the structures along the canals.  It consists of two major sub-studies; one of which examines the canal flows in detail and the other of which focuses on the mud buildup in the canals.
     Suggestions were made to dredge the canals on a more frequent level, reducing the levels of mud buildup.  Sewer holes will be freed to flow, and boats will have an easier time navigating the smaller canals.  Also, tide flows will increase throughout the canals, allowing the natural dispersement of sewage into the ecosystem.  Without dredging, the canal mud is forced to build up, and create even more problems than originally anticipated.
     The inforamtion contained in this project includes mud levels of the canals, tide vharts, tide flows, and traffic patterns of boats throught the Cannaregio sestiere of Venice.


AUTHORS:
Berk Eksioglu
Mauricio Molina
Raquel Medina

Original Abstract:
This project presents an analysis of twenty-one Venetian museums.  Four databases were created containing (1) General data on each museum including digitized images of the facades, (2) Technical museums data, (3) Survey results on six of the main museums, (4) Specific data about part of the Ca' Rezzonico Museum Collection including digitized color images of selected pieces.  Finally, the museum data was geo-coded into an existing computer map of Venice, allowing the interactive browsing of the database and images.

Description:
The museums of Venice contain some of the city’s most valued treasures.  They provide and opportunity for citizens and tourists to develop and appreciation and understanding of Venice’s glorious and eventful history.  They contain works of art that are known around the world, and play in invaluable role in preserving the Venetian heritage. The infrastructure of these museums needed to be studied and analyzed to clearly define the challenges and needs of the system.
     The main goal of this project was to analyze the present situation of the main museums of Venice with an emphasis on the Ca’ Rezzonico museum and make suggestions of how they can be improved.  It is important for the history found in he museum to be organized and able to communicate effectively, and this project team aimed to contribute to the improvement of the museum system.
     This project group assembled information on 21 museums by obtaining published material, visiting museum sites and surveys.  They organized the information gathered into a database and did a detailed analysis on the data.  A procedure for image capture, storage, developing floor plans, and analyzing surveys was developed.  Databases were integrated and images were geocoded using MapInfo.  Finally, the group devised quick reference booklets for the museums and placed all database information on CD ROM for easy access.  
     The project group made recommendations for the museums and provided prototypes and criteria for further analysis of the museum system.  This project was the best IQP project completed in 1991 and won the Presidential IQP Award.


AUTHORS:
Sergio Mondlak
William H. Rockford III
Steven A. Tufts

KEY WORDS:
Inventory; Archeoclub; Outdoor Art, Cannaregio

Original Abstract:
This project completed at the Venice Project Center in association with the Venetian Cultural Group, Archeoclub, created a computerized inventory of external art in the Cannaregio region of Venice using databases.  Pictures were then taken of each piece for analysis and with a formula their state of conservation was determined.  A more precise definition of external art was also devised.  Finally, queries were made on the databases yielding the costs, placement, and other useful information relevant to the arts' restoration.

Description:
The purpose of this project was to create a computerized inventory of external art in Venice.  There were three databases created; one for the artistic perspective of each piece of art, one for the technical aspects of the art, and one used in the generation of the priority for each piece of art.
     This project was important for laying a foundation for the cataloguing of art on computer databases in the city of Venice.  It contains inforation on all of the art pieces in Cannaregio, and organizes them into a system of priority for restoration.  It has many graphs on the types of art, such as year, materials, and category.


AUTHORS:
Corien M Bakermans
Marc K. Davidson
Juliet K. Vescio

KEY WORDS:
Malamocco; San Lorenzo; Lagoon; Equipe Venezia di Ricerca

Referenced Material:
Re-Utilization of the Island of the Lazaretto Nuovo (E 89);
Lagoon Archeology (E 90)

Original Abstract:
This project, completed at the Venice Project Center, utilized computer technology for various Venetian archaeological entities:  the group Equipe Veneziana di Ricerca (EVR) and Ernesto Canal of the Soprintendenza ai Beni Archaeologici.  DBase was used to catalogue pottery pieces, AutoCAD was used to make three-dimensional maps, and BRAINMAKER was used to create a neural network to identify pottery pieces.  EVR is actively continuing the database, and Mr. Canal plans to utilize the three-dimensional maps and neural network in his ongoing research in the Venetian lagoons.

Description:
Man has been studying ancient civilizations for ages.  Archeologists determine sites of historical importance and then begin digging.  They then record their findings by hand.  By introducing computer technology to a field that has utilized a similar methodology throughout history, one can greatly increase the accuracy of these records, and more easily manipulate data in order to discover truly significant details.  Not only is this data easier to store, but it can also be made available to a greater number of people through databases.
     The purpose of this IQP was to introduce computer technology into the world of Venetian archeology.  In order to accomplish this goal, there were several specific sub-goals.  The first was to create a database from the information supplied by Equipe Venziana di Ricerca (EVR) about he pottery pieces found at the Malamocco excavation site.  The purpose of the database was to show EVR how much easier it is to organize and manipulate the data for analysis once it is in a database form, as opposed to simply writing it on paper.  The second sub-goal was to make three-dimensional drawings of the island of San Lorenzo, including its landforms and structures, from hand drawn maps provided by Mr. Ernesto Camal, honorary inspector for lagoon archeology.  The purpose of these 3-D representations was for Mr. Camal to better analyze the structures on the island.  The final goal was to use neural networking, decision making technology in archeology.  A network was developed which was able to determine the shape of the pottery based on certain parameters.  The possibilities of applications involving nueral networking in archeology are tremendous.
     The introduction of computer technology can be incredibly useful.  For example, using a database, one can extract data about a particular region of the site, or total up certain kinds of pottery found in specific places in minutes, whereas these manipulations could take hours or days by hand, and would be more likely to contain errors.  Using AutoCad to make three-dimensional representations takes the guess-work out of understanding each structure in relation to nearby or adjoining structures.  Of further importance, using AutoCad, one can separate structures into different views with one quick command, instead of drawing the map all over again.  Finally, one can accurately output unknown information about a piece of pottery once the program has been trained to recognize various types.
     The project made recommendations on possible database structures which best served the archeological purposes.  In addition, recommendations were made on how to make the AutoCad drawings more useful.  They also discussed possible applications of neural networking applications in the future.


AUTHORS:
Christine A. Easton
Deborah L. Leslie
Brian J. Malon

Original Abstract:
This bootstrap project, completed at the Venice Project Center, examined the feasibility of a number of items proposed as solutions to problems in Venice including: garbage recycling; well compactors; wind energy; handicapped crossings; accretion; ocean energy; solar channel markers; co-generation; canal dynamos; public restrooms; and surveillance cameras.  Background information was accumulated on each and used to propose future IQP projects.  The recycling program included a substantial analysis of a prototype to be implemented in a section of Venice.

Description:
The unique problems of Venice require ingenious and inventive solutions to apply modern technology while maintaining the aesthetic and historical integrity of the city.  The purpose of this project was to develop solutions for some of these problems and suggest future IQPs that could further explore these possibilities.  Their investigation included subjects such as: the use of garbage recycling, the possibility of well compactors for use as trash bins; the use of wind energy, ocean energy, and canal dynamos as a source of energy, and the use of solar channel markers to save energy.  
     The project’s main accomplishment was the design of a recycling program for the sestiere of Dorsoduro.  It was important to design a system that utilized the trash removal system already in use at the time.  They developed various bins and bin locations which were convenient and aesthetic for the city.  To find suitable locations for the bins, the canals of Dorsoduro were surveyed and pertinent details were recorded on a field form that was later entered into a database.  
     The project group also investigated into the use of well compactors as an alternative to the unsightly garbage bins in the city, but after discovering the historical significance of these wellheads, they realized that their use for such purposes would not be in the best interest of the city.  In addition, they investigated alternative sources of energy for the city.  They discovered that wind energy would not be feasible as the city does not receive a regular and strong enough wind to create the energy needed by the city.  Ocean energy would be, in most cases, impractical because the tidal fluctuations were below standard.  For the same reasons, canal dynamos could not be used to power the city, but may be used to charge up a battery during the day for canal lights.  They also unearthed that canal markers would be a viable way to save energy for the city.  Such application would introduce Venice to the use and maintenance of solar technology as an energy alternative.
     Moreover, they suggested floating public restrooms that could be added/removed temporarily with the fluctuation of tourists.  They further stated that surveillance cameras would be possible, and could be concealed in lighting fixtures similar to the current décor.  Handicapped canal crossings were also addressed and possible bridge designs were presented.  The efforts of this project were aimed to help Venice preserve its natural beauty while using modern technology to save energy and its environment.


AUTHORS:
Ricardo J. Behar
Giulio Grandinetti
Donato A. Miranda

KEY WORDS:
Geographical Information System; Grand Canal, Cannaregio

Original Abstract:
This project involves the creation of a geographic information system integrating past, present and future IQP's, to be used by the Venice Project Center, researchers and possibly tourists.  This goal was accomplished by compiling a historical map library database using dBase IV, digitizing and geo-coding a part of a modern map of Venice using MapInfo software package, and finally considering and prototyping a GIS for Venice.

Description:
The main goal of this project is to explore the technical feasability and socioeconomic desireability of a geographical information system for the city of Venice, and to begin to develop an information system of maps of Venice.  In order to accomplish this, three sub-goals were set:
     1.)  Make a complete survey of all maps of Venice ever produced, and catalogue them on a database.
     2.)  Digitize an up-to-date map of Venice on a computer
     3.)  Incorporate addresses in the digitized map in the Cannaregio sestiere, and to geocode already existing databases of several features of Venice.

     This project provides very useful information for researchers, and possibly tourists as well.  A plan for a tourist information booth is suggested, hoping some day to help the tourists of Venice find their way through the winding streets.
     Information contained in this project includes a database of all the known maps of Venice, and digitized sections of those maps.


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic in the Venetian Canals

AUTHORS:
Jennifer M. Corey
Sherri L. Curria
Paul F. Ormond

KEY WORDS:
UNESCO; Boat Traffic; Structural Damage; Canals; San Polo; Santa Croce

Original Abstract:
This report, prepared for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, documents and analyzes boat traffic within the canals of Venice.  The three major aspects of the project were to gather an overall idea of Venetian boat traffic, relate the traffic to structural damage, and create a database to store information so that it may be utilized by future groups. It was concluded that action must be taken to curtail the structural damage problem along the canals of Venice. This project acts as a solid base so that other groups may utilize the information already gathered, and proceed on to further study the detrimental effects that motorized boat traffic has on the canal structures.

Description:
The canals of Venice function as the city's only sewage system and major system of transportation.  All of Venice's supplies, food and clothing are transported into the city via boat.   Ambulance, fire, and police services are also operated by boat.  The canals are Venice's lifeline; without the canal system working properly the city would be practically inhabitable.
     The goal of this project was to contribute to the conservation of Venice by quantifying motorized boat traffic's detrimental effects upon the structures bordering the canals of Venice.
     The project group first determined the amount of boat traffic that existed and where the densities were greatest.  Once an abundance of data was collected, methodologies for the manipulation, presentation, and archival of this data were established.
     After the collection of information pertaining to boat traffic densities, a method for determining each boat's individual effect on the surrounding structures was created.  Wake heights of each class boat were studied in relation to their velocities.  Conclusions from this compiled information sugested that the greatest offenders of producing large, powerful, damaging wakes were the boats with 'V' shaped hulls, carrying maximum cargos while travelling at maximum speeds.
     The project made recommendations for future project teams to more quickly obtain data and suggested topics for future IQP's, including: one focusing on wakes and their correlation to structural damage; one focusing on the harmful boat types; and one investigating the wake heights after dark, when more speed laws are broken.


TITLE:
Structural Damage on the Canal Walls of Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Greg A. Kirkos
Marc Nicolazzo
Glen V. Zoladz

KEY WORDS:
UNESCO, Canals, San Polo, Santa Croce, Dorsoduro

Referenced Material:
A Study of Tide Flows, Mud Buildup, Boat Traffic, and Structural Damage on the Cannaregio Canal Subsystem (D91)

Original Abstract:
This study offers an evaluation and quantification of the structural damage on the canal walls of Venice, with particular attention to the San Polo, Santa Croce, and Dorsoduro Sestieres, to illustrate how much of the Venetian infrastructure is literally falling to pieces.  Photometric techniques long with a detailed archival system was used to quantify both the extent of and distribution of this damage, with efforts made to correlate such damage to boat traffic and the deteriorating effects of boat wakes.  Highly damaged canal walls were explained by analyzing the traffic level within the canal, the nature of the building material of the canal walls, and the extent of mud buildup on the canal floor.

Description:
When canals are not dredged often enough, the sewer outlets clog and the pipes that lead to them burst .  This disperses sewage into the surrounding masonry, which weakens the mortar that holds the bricks in place.  This, in turn, causes structural damage in the canal walls.  Wake form motor boats and general water erosion also cause holes in the walls.
     The goal of this project was to illustrate and quantify the extent and distribution of structural damage along the canal walls and related structures (i.e. stairs, docks, etc.) in the sestiere of San Polo, Santa Croce, and Dorsoduro.
     The students recorded physical measurements, geographical position, shape, surface area, and its height with respect to the green line (avg. water level) of each sewer hole/structural damage studied. The damages were also photographed to provide a visual reference for future studies.  All of the collected information was put into a database and linked to MapInfo.  This stored information provided statistics for the 48 canal segments and thematic maps.  
     This information was compared with the C92 boat traffic IQP and correlations were made between the extent of the structural damage, the traffic level, sediment build up, and the building material.  It was found that both the building material and the level of boat traffic in a canal contribute to the state of the canal. Segment booklets were also produced from the information obtained.
     Recommendations were made for a standard naming system and for future project teams studying related topics. 
Information can be found in this project on: 
     -Canal wall damage
     -Structural Damage
     -The green line
     -Segments studied


TITLE:
A Geographical Information System for Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Brian A. Baker
Russell H. Beavis
Beth A. Newton

KEY WORDS:
Geographical Information System, UNESCO, San Polo, Santa Croce

Referenced Material:
Venetian Cartography (C 91); A Hygenic, Physical, and Dynamic Study of the Inner Canals of Venice (D 91);

Original Abstract:
The C'92 IQP, A Geographical Information System for Venice, Italy, continued and expanded the work began by the E'91 IQP, Venetian Cartography, to create a detailed, computerized map of Venice.  The final GIS will utilize menus to access databases and display information ranging from scientific to cultural in nature.  We completed much of the detailed map and outlined the necessary steps to link the map with the databases.  We developed a computer-aided data entry process (CADE) and additional programs that future groups studying Venice will use to record and display their information.

Description:
Geographic Information Systems have become popluar tools in the last few decades.  The city of Venice finds two benefits of such systems.  Scientists and urban researchers find such systems appealing as tools to help analyze information that pertains to specific geographical locations.  Tourists benefit from such a system by being able to learn their way around a city.
     The goals of this project were; to contiue the development of a digitized map f Venice, enhancing where possible (A continuation of the Venetian Cartography IQP); to simplify and standardize data collection and entry; to simplify the procedure of booklet and data preparation; to standardize the database and its applications; and to further the development of the Venice GIS project.
     This project added to the Venetian Cartography project's database and maps.  They documented the geocoding procedure and used it to study a substantial portion of the data collected.  They linked the data collected in C Term of 1992 to points on the map.  In addition, they developed a "paper keyboard" to design and scan in forms that could be filled out by hand.  The project group updated prior databases to make the information compatible with their system.  They developed templates for databases for future IQP groups to use.  This project developed a platform for all data gathered in Venice IQP's.  This would provide access to any and all information obtained by WPI projects in Venice at the click of a mouse.
     Recommendations were made on how the program they developed could be used and further developed.


TITLE:
A Topological and Hydro-Dynamic Study of the Canals in the San Marco Area

AUTHORS:
Kristi Henrickson
Danielle Luongo
Hollybeth Normandy

Referenced Material:
A Study of Tide Flows, Mud Buildup, Boat Traffic, and Structural Damage on the Cannaregio Canal Subsystem (D91); A Static, Dynamic Study of the Canals of Venice (C92); Hygenic, Dynamic and Static Study on the Canals of Venice Italy (90)

Original Abstract:
The canal system of the San Marco sestiere of Venice was studied with respect to its physical properties and flow behavior.  Throughout the study, systems for the measuring, recording, and storing of data were developed and improved.  A quantitative model for the system was developed which drew conclusions of mud accumulation and speculated upon flow patterns and, ultimately, the future of the canal system.

Description:
The city of Venice relies on its canal system for sewage disposal and transportation.  Unfortunately, this system has been seriously neglected over the past 30 years and sediment is building up on the canal floors at a rapid rate.  Traffic and health problems are a result of mud accumulation exposed at low tides.  
     The goal of this project was to quantify the topological and dynamic characteristics of the canals in the sestiere of San Marco.  Topological characteristics include those that do not change, or change very slowly over time (i.e. length, width, depth, etc.).  On the contrary, dynamic characteristics are those that vary rapidly with time (i.e. flow velocity, flow direction, water height, etc.).  
     This project team built upon the data collected from previous projects.  They utilized and combined parts of previous methodologies and created an updated system of collecting large amount of data.  Methods were also devised and improved for manipulation, presentation and archival of this data using appropriate computer software.  The team also spent a day with middle school students performing canal measurements to initiate an awareness of the problems that exist and the possible solutions.  
     By the end of the term, the physical dimensions of the canals in San Marco were quantified and the accumulation patterns analyzed. The complete set of mud depth measurements yielded a "picture" of each canal floor.  It was found that the mud build up was the greatest along the sides of the canals and in the mid-section of the canal.  The canals had the least accumulation where there was a lot of traffic, including the middle of canals, their mouths, and at canal intersections. The following two conclusions were also made throughout the course of the project.  The first was that there was a relationship between the lunar phase and the behavior of tide heights and flow velocities.  Also, winds were found to have a direct affect on tide velocity by making some measurements difficult or possibly erroneous.

This report contains information on:
     -The history of Venice pertaining to the canal system 
     -Organizations, specifically UNESCO
     -Tides
     -Flows
     -Dredging
     -Recommendations and suggestions for future projects


AUTHORS:
Brian Card
Matthew Hannery
Michael A. R. Kaliski
James Samsrook

KEY WORDS:
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization; Traffic, Canal, Walls, San Marco

Referenced Material:
A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic in the Venetian Canals (C 92)

Original Abstract:
This report, prepared for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), documents and analyzes boat traffic within the canals of Venice.  The four major aspects of the project were: to develop an overall idea of Venetian boat traffic, relate the wakes created by the traffic to structural damage and greenline elevation, create a database to store information that could be used by future groups, and create a Paper Keyboard procedure to expedite data entry.
     It was concluded that some action must be taken to halt, or at least slow the decay of the canals of Venice.  This project is a solid base for further work to be done by other groups, either on more in-depth studies, or evaluations of possible solutions.

Description:
The canals of Venice serve many purposes; they are a source of routes, transportation, and sewage disposal.  All of Venice's goods, such as food and clothing, are ultimately delivered by boat throught the canal system.  Vital public services, such as ambualance, police, and fire protection depend upon the canals as well.  A deterioration of the canals leads to a deterioration of all these services and purposes.  Without these utilities, the quality of the life in Venice is reduced, ultimately to an uninhabitable level.
     What must be done, in regard to boat traffic, is to scientifically prove or disprove a connection between boat traffic and structural damage, and make this information clear and readily available to the public.  This project, as part of an on-going series, was conducted in the hopes that the city may be galvanized into action before its uniqueness is lost to the world, and to its people.
     It was suggested in the project that certain methods be implemented to slow the deterioration of the canal walls.  Local boat traffic laws, such as routes, speed, and taking corners, should be more heavily enforced.  Also, new cargo routes by train were suggested, and efficiently filling the boats making deliveries would decrease the number of wakes per day.  Finally new hull designs and electric motors were recommended, but are costly and time consuming.
     The social impact of this problem is very much two-sided.  While this project weighed the needs of persuing Venice's structural condition, maintaining its economic functions had to be considered before proposing any answers.
     Information contained in this project inludes boat traffic, tide heigts, wake heights, boat maneuvers and documentations and correlations of each.


TITLE:
Analysis of Structural Damage to the Canal Walls of Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Timothy Cupples
Garret Trombi
George Willwerth

SPONSORS:
United Nations Educational, Scientifc, and Cultural Organization

Referenced Material:
Structural Damage on the Canal Walls of Venice, Italy (C92)

Original Abstract:
This study presents an analysis and quantification of the different types of damage on the canal walls of Venice. The project area involved is the San Marco Sestiere and the boundary between this area and the San Castello Sestiere. Photometric techniques, coupled with an intricate archival system, were used to evaluate the extent of damage within the canals. Building materials, traffic levels and mud build-up were analyzed along with structural damage, in an effort to relate these causes to the existing damage. The research developed in this project will provide the information necessary to evaluate the extent of damage, the causes for this damage, and the social ramifications resulting from this damage.

Description:
The Venetian canals serve two main purposes: the first as an effective transportation system, the second as a sewage removal system.  However, with the passage of time, large wakes from boats combined with the impact damage caused by careless drivers in the canals have caused incredible damage to the foundation of the city.
     This project evaluates and quantifies the extent and location of this structural damage along the canals of San Marco and Castello sestieri of Venice, Italy.  The social consequences of such damage are also examined.
     Through a process known as photometrics, data on all sewage outlets in the project area were obtained.  Each entity was photographed from a boat at low tide and assigned a record number.  Included in each picture was a scale that allowed the area and position above sea level of the entity to be calculated by measuring the dimensions of its photograph.  The students then classified the each sewer hole according to its type and condition.  This information was later compiled into a database linked to MapInfo.  The position of each sewage outlet and damaged area was located on a MapInfo layer with symbols indicating the type and condition of each.  These damage statistics were compared with traffic levels, mud buildup, and type of building material in order to determine any correlation that may have existed.
     An important finding of this project was that built-up mud along the canal walls blocked sewage outlets causing pipes to burst.  The sewage that flowed into the surrounding wall loosened mortar and bricks.  In addition, the material a wall was constructed of affected its ability to resist damage; brick was far more susceptible to damage than stone.  
     The project recommended that proper maintenance be undertaken immediately.  Moreover, it recommended that protective barriers be erected to guard against impact damage by boats.  Finally, the development of educational programs to raise public awareness to the problem and inform them of the responsibility of proper upkeep of these canals was highly recommended.


TITLE:
A Geographical Information System for the Canals of Venice

AUTHORS:
John Cutonilli
John A. Roy
John B. Thornton

KEY WORDS:
Geographical Information System; San Marco

Referenced Material:
Venetian Cartography (E 91);
A Geographical Information System for Venice, Italy (C 92)

Original Abstract:
The D'92 IQP Geographical Information System (GIS) for the canals of Venice, continued and expanded the work began by the E'91 Venetian Cartography and C'92 GIS for Venice, Italy projects.  The final GIS will contain a detailed computerized map of Venice, with the ability to access databases and to display information of scuentific and cultural nature.  This project added various sections to the computerized map, including canal information about the San Marco sestiere, such as tidal/velocity, traffic, damage/sewage, bridge and other info.  Additionally, our group created separate menus to browse through scientific data in MapInfo or D-Base to allow a complete look at all known data concerning the canal system of Venice.

Description:
The E'91 Venetian Cartography project began developing a geographical information system (GIS) for the Venice Project Program and the C'92 project, A Geographical Information System for Venice, Italy, furthered the advancement of this GIS.  The main objective of this project is to advance the work that has already been completed on the system.  The end result of this on-going project will be a system that provides easy analysis and cataloguing of data collected pertaining to the city of Venice.  Upon its completion, a software package containing a computerized map of Venice with all of the collected data will be available for the city of Venice.  Its uses will include tourist boths and geographically-based research being performed on the city.
     This project added to the mapping system by creating a detailed menu for the GIS.  A suggested menu flow-chart was outlined by the C'92 project.  However, this year's tem analyzed the current menu, enhanced it, then implemented it.
     A Geographical Information System for Venice provides a state-of-the-art platform for the collection of data.  Databases containing information on museums, art, and churches as well as the canal data geocoded by this group will be useful to both the tourist and the reseacher.


TITLE:
Multimedia Applications in the Study of Canals

AUTHORS:
Gregory P. Bloom
Erwin A. Landivar
Roberto B. Villa

Referenced Material:
A Topological and Hydro-Dynamic Study of the Canals in the San Marco Area (D92); A GIS for the Canals of Venice (D92); A Hygenic, Dynamic, and Static Study on the Canals of Venice, Italy (C90);A Study of Tide Flows, Mud Buildup, Boat Traffic, and Structural Damage on the Cannaregio Canal Subsystem (D91); A Static and Dynamic Study of Canals in Venice, It (C92)

Original Abstract:
The waterways in the Castello Sestiere of Venice were studied in order to classify each canal.  Hydro-dynamic and topological data was obtained as well as other information which aided in developing a useful quantitative model.  This model was used to draw conclusions about the state of the canals and their ability to properly function.

Description:
This project addresses the problems faced by the Venetian community with regards to its canal system.  This unique city relies entirely on its waterways for transportation and sewage removal.  Thus, a great burden is placed upon the system to remove all sediment and debris which accumulates and which disturbs general boat transit.  The canals are not self-sustaining, perforoming such a difficcult task, and they need to be periodically maintained.  With proper upkeep, the canal system allows for relatively clean city.
     Faced with such issues of aesthetics, health concerns and transportation difficulties, a major campaign was set up to study all aspects of the Venetian waterways, concentrating on the region known as Castello.  This was done in an attempt to quantify the degree of emergency in which the city finds itself.  OF specific interest in this study was the analysis of the hydrodynamic and topological characteristics of the canal network. 
     This project helped a program to expose Middle School students to the dynamics of the canals.  Twelve to fourteen year old students from schools all over Venice participated in a "day of canal measurements" on June 2nd, 1992.  The project then interpreted the results on the current flow.
     The project also suggested a solution to Venice's parking problems.  Some boats park in a canal that isn't wide enough to allow another boat to pass.  This causes problems to traffic flow, delivery times, and especially emergency vehicles.
     Information contained in this project includes tide heights, canal depths, bridge heights, and canal flows of the sestiere of Castello.


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic on the Canals within the Sestiere di Castello di Venezia

AUTHORS:
Mark S. Densmore
Anthony G. Doherty
Michael A. Gallagher

KEY WORDS:
Traffic, Castello, Maneuvers, Automatic Boat Counter, Wake Height

Referenced Material:
A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic in the Venetian Canals (C 92);
A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic in the Venetian Canals (D 92)

Original Abstract:
The purpose of this report is to document and analyze the effects of motorized boat traffic on the Venetian canals, with the ultimate goal of trying to preserve this unique, and threatened treasure.  The three major aspects of the project are: to study boat traffic patterns and traffic intensities within the Sestiere di Castello di Venezia, correlate the size of the wakes generated by all types of boats, in order to determine the possible culprits for the structural damage to the canal walls, and finally to create various databases to store this information so that it may be utilized by future groups.  It is hoped that these documented effects will provide an impetus and solid foundation for the social, political, and economical actions required to prevent future damage to the canal walls, ultimately preserving the city of Venice.

Description:
The city of Venice does most of its travel and deliveries by boat through its many winding canals.  Over the years, the introduction of motorized boats into the city has produced many problems in the delicate system.  One of which are the wakes produced by passing boats that reach a level higher than the anticipated high tides, thus deteriorating the canal wall brickwork on the buildings along these canals.  
     The purpose of this project was to gain an understanding to the flow of traffic through the city of Venice and the effects of such traffic bearing on the structures of the city forming the canal walls.  It accumulated necessary scientific evidence to assist in the informed decision making that will be required to ensure this city's longevity.
     The project concluded by stating two priciple solutions to the problems plaguing the deterioration of the canal walls caused by the motorized traffic in the city of Venice.  One is the need to limit the amount of vessels producing excessive wakes, the other is to make these documented effects available to the public in hopes of providing a stimulus and basis for the social, political, and economic actions required to prevent further damage to the canal walls, ultimately preserving this unique city.
     Information contained in this project includes traffic documentationm wake heights, illegal maneuvers by boats, and the types of boats for each.


TITLE:
Analysis of Structural Damage to the Canal Walls of the Sestiere Castello di Venezia

AUTHORS:
Chad R. Binkerd
Ralph A. Maselli II
Scott H. Stoddard

KEY WORDS:
Structural Damage, Canals, Walls, Castello

Referenced Material:
Structural Damage to the Canal Walls of Venice, Italy (D92)
(Some other unreferenced IQP)

Original Abstract:
This project catalogs, quantifies, and evaluates the sewage outlets and structural damage found along the canal walls in the sestiere Castello di Venezia.  Utilizing photodocumentation and an intricate archival system, the information collected can be easily accessed for use in facilitating the restoration of the canal walls.  Also, social aspects are addressed in the creation of a program for Venetian school children aimed at educating them about their canals.

Description:
Today, the canals and their surrounding walls are threatened on numerous levels.  Sediment buildup in several areas has reached such high levels that passage is impossible during low tide.  Wakes from speeding boats are continuously eating away at the mortar which holds the walls together.  Factors such as these combined with the lack of large scale repair efforts make the canals of Venice pale in comparison to their former impressiveness.
     The purpose of this project is to quantify and evaluate the structural damage and sewage outlets along the canal walls of the Castello sestiere.  Correlations were made between these findings and external factors such as mean sea level, the green line, and construction materials.
     An alarming trend was revealed in the study of the structural damage and sewage outlets during this project.  The present generation of Venetians are exhibiting an inexcusable lack of respect for the canals which make their city unique.  The instances of illegal sewage outlets are becoming greater every day, as are the occurrences of impact damage.  It was recommended that regulations be enforced more strictly in an attempt to alleviate all cases of exposed sewage outlets.  The majority of these pipes, when illegally routed through drain pipes, do not even reach the high tide mark.  The spewing of raw sewage through these pipes in neither visually appealing nor healthy.
     Also, in an effort to lessen the cases of impact damage, regulations should be imposed to restrict oversized boats from passing through narrow canals.  This will prevent the frequent damage done to corners and steps when a boat forces its way through a tight corner or hits a rive.  These suggestions should help to begin the process of a canal preservation.


AUTHORS:
Tracy Adamski
David Guidice
Eduard J. Iorio
Lara K. Papesca

Original Abstract:
Sponsored by the Venetian cultural organization Archeo Venice, this project group cataloged information on external art in the sestieri of San Polo and Santa Croce at the Venice project center utilizing databases.  Through the use of formulas developed by the project group, cost estimates as well as prioritized lists for restoration were generated. Computerized maps, slide shows, school projects, and ideas for rasing funding were all by-products of the project.

Description:
Rising from a fisherman’s village to a world power over the course of a millenium, the city of Venice is unique in nature.  Providing a crucial link between the East and the West civilized worlds, Venice thrived in its own time.  Its distinctive character being the result of its receptivity to a multitude of cultural influences, Venice is an unusual city of beauty.  Although the power of the Venetian republic has faded, its cultural legacy lives on through its architecture and its works of art.  Most indicative of the ancient Venetian’s artistic taste are the pieces of external art, which adorn many structures in the city.  However, these pieces face an uncertain future because they are battered by the elements, corroded by pollution and are in dire need for repair.  Usually passed by restorers for more tourist frequented pieces of Venetian culture, the outdoor art in Venice is in a desperate position.  If this neglect is continued, these historical pieces will soon pass into oblivion.  
     The purpose of this project was to continue the preceding IQP and facilitate the restoration of external art in Venice.  In addition, the project group desired to take additional measures to educate the Venetian people of their precious heritage.  
     The project group developed three databases.  One database focused on the artistic information about the piece such as its type and century of creation. The second database generated had such information as the height of the piece of the ground and the material from which it was made.  The third database served as a summary database linking the two prior databases providing complete information on each piece.  In addition, this project group developed formulas to evaluate the data collected.  Complex formulas were derived to estimate the cost of restoring each piece of external art.  From the application of these formulae, they were able to determine the average cost of restoration per piece and derive the greatest source of expense.  With this information, they were able to make suggestions on how to reduce the cost of restoration.
     Moreover, they refined these developed databases by making them interactive allowing easy access to the gathered information.  Pieces of external art were placed on a computerized map of Venice.  In addition, slides were taken for the use of the Archeoclub of Venice to publicize the group’s findings.  Finally, a school program was developed to help educate the youth of Venice of the fantastic cultural legacy surrounding them.  Through these efforts, their goal of informing the Venetians of their valuable heritage could be accomplished.  Through educating the public, it would be possible to generate the funding necessary to save the irreplaceable pieces of Venetian history.
     Included in their recommendations were an Archeoclub slide show, tax incentives for restoration businesses, methods to reduce scaffolding costs, a treasure hunt to educate Venetian children, and the advantages of interactive computer programs.


TITLE:
Infrared Reflectoscopy: Non-Destructive Analysis of Works of Art

AUTHORS:
John C. Belfonti
Kern S. Corrigan
Cory R. Jobe

SPONSORS:
Soprintendenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici

KEY WORDS:
Art, Soprintendenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici

Referenced Material:
Museums of Venice (E91); Acid Fog II (C91)

Original Abstract:
This project was developed to aid in the non-destructive analysis of artwork known as Reflectoscopy. The main goal was to streamline the Reflectoscopy process which includes the creation of an image database, a file naming convention, and macro programs which maximize efficiency. The study of social impacts of Reflectoscopy included surveying the users of the Reflectoscopy exhibit at the Palazzo Grassi, analyzing the resulting data, and designing a demonstration and brochure explaining Reflectoscopy.

Description:
People view the importance of art differently, some see it as an integral part of society, and others regard it as less significant.  It is vital to develop an understanding among society by communicating the importance of art and the necessity for its preservation.
     Mr. Paolo Spezzani is one who is on the forefront of communicating this importance and restoring treasured works of art.  He is an expert in Infrared Reflectoscopy a method used to obtain data from paintings without causing them harm.  As the importance of preserving ancient artwork is becoming realized, his work is becoming more popular.  With such an increase in demand, he has found that he is in need of improvements in the preparation, archiving, manipulation and presentation so that he can more efficiently perform his services.
     The goal of this project is to streamline the Reflectoscopy process, which includes the creation of an image database, a file naming convention, and macro programs that maximize efficiency.  To accomplish this, the group identified repetitive tasks and proposed prototype methods to automate these procedures.  Secondly, they developed an efficient database for the storage of these results.  Finally, they studied the social impact of the Infrared Reflectoscopy applications.
     They developed software and databases that automated the Reflectoscopy process and transferred images from the database to image manipulation software.  In addition, they developed a computer demonstration of Reflectoscopy, which was featured at Palazzo Grassi in Venice.  Methods of informing the public of this important work was improved by developing an advanced computer program for demonstration and an informative brochure.  Surveys were given to users at the demonstration to obtain information on how the program could be further improved.


TITLE:
A Comprehensive Review of the Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute Venice Canal Studies

AUTHORS:
Jocelyn Bessey
Enrico Cafaro
Victoria Klun
James McElroy Jr.
Jennifer Shaw

Original Abstract:
This study, prepared in part for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, presents a comprehensive review of the past twelve IQPs which have studied and gathered extensive data on the canals of Venice, Italy.  In addition to this summarization, this project team has collected data in missing areas in order to further complete an accurate documentation of the entire canal network. This project represents the first thorough examination of previous studies, systematically organizing and standardizing all findings so that future canal studies can proceed according to a rigorously defined methodology.

Description:
Venice’s vital waterways have, for centuries, served dual purposes: as a transportation medium and as a waste removal system.  It is only with constant and systematic maintenance that these canals can meet the demands of the city.  However, for the past three decades, the canals have suffered from serious neglect.
     Up until the start of this IQP, WPI had completed twelve projects related to the canals with the intent of gathering information about the inter workings of the canals.  With this information, it would then be possible to properly address areas of neglect and damage and determine possible actions for the prevention of future problems.
     This project summarized each individual aspect of canal analysis and suggests to future groups the process of data organization which will most properly and efficiently illustrate a complete representation of the canal network.  In addition, they systemized past procedures and methods developing a universal system to prevent future discrepancies and allow for precise representation of similar data.  Moreover, missing areas of study were determined and data was collected in these areas.  This included information in the sestieri of S. Croce, Dorsoduro, and Cannaregio.  Also provided is a complete and corrected segment code naming system.  The project includes (in catalog form) a listing of all coding errors from prior projects.  Plus, an indication of which types of data was gathered for each segment was also included. 
     The project concluded with a summary of results indicating the importance of their findings for future modeling.  For example, by manipulating the data, the opening of rii terra, construction of new canals and the possibility of canal closings can be simulated in a model before any of these procedures are actually attempted.  It was intended that through these efforts, there would be a significant contribution to the restoration and preservation of the unique city of Venice.


TITLE:
Computer Applictions in Lagoon Archeology

AUTHORS:
John Berry
Gerald Ducharme
Charles Merry
Brian Rapids

KEY WORDS:
Lagoon, Archeology, Archeoclub, Lazzaretto Nuovo

Referenced Material:
Reutilization of the Island of Lazzaretto Nuovo (E89); Lagoon Archeology I (E90) and II (E91)

Description:
Venice has such a unique, incredible and glorious history that the ultimate goal of the archeologists of Venice is to discover and preserve this history.  It was the intention of this IQP to aid the archeologists in this endeavor, primarily by introducing them to new methods of finding and cataloging historic sites and artifacts.  This project group performed several preliminary surveys of various underwater sights.  By confirming or disproving the archeological significance of each sight, they assisted local archeologists in their work.  In addition to their underwater surveying, they demonstrated the extensive capabilities for computer applications in the field of archeology, particularly by creating a computerized archeological mapping system and artifact inventory.  Furthermore, the overall status of their homebase, the Lazzaretto Nuovo, was evaluated contributing to the improvement of its appearance.  Finally, by helping in the running of the archeological youth camp situated on the island, they helped to raise the consciousness of young Italians to the importance of their historical heritage and the necessity to preserve it.
     The use of computers proved to be a powerful tool in assisting the archeological process.  The project group made strong recommendations for further work with the Archeoclub on the Lazzaretto Nuovo as well as with their program for educating young Italians about their heritage.


AUTHORS:
Krogen Carreno
Gaetano J. Fichera
Robert Van Kirk

SPONSORS:
Forum di Venezia - WPI; Eurosolar; United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

KEY WORDS:
Solar Power, Lagoon, Vignole, S. Erasmo, UNESCO, Eurosolar, Forum di Venezia, Bissa

Referenced Material:
Solar Photovoltaic Applications in Venice (90)

Original Abstract:
This study examined the feasibility of solar powered canal markers for the city of Venice using information gathered in Italy about solar energy.  It is the opinion if this project group that the installation of solar powered canal markers will be a stepping stone for other solar applications in Venice.  Furthermore, solar power presents a promising energy alternative to the present methods, and its importance will increase with the pollution of the earth’s environments, and its depletion of fossil fuels.

Description:
Several of the channels leading to outer islands of Venice are not illuminated because it is expensive and difficult to run the power lines along the canals.  The lack of light makes it difficult for the boats to operate without daylight.
     The purpose of this project is to design a network of canal markers to illuminate at night-time the canal la Bissa and part of the canal delle Vignole which lead to the island of Sant' Erasmo; a solar powered system will be compared to othe alternatives.  It compared costs of installment and operation, reliability, and improvement in the quality of life in their users.
     For the people of Sant' Erasmo this would prove to be a great economic and practical assistance.  It would also provide the city of Venice with valuable experience in the management of renewable sources of energy.
     Information contained in this project includes a fifty year cost analysis of the proposed lighting systems.  It also contains statistics on photocell outputs, light bulb energy charts, and various diagrams on current and proposed means of illumination.


TITLE:
Buildings and Information of the Canals of Venice

AUTHORS:
Ann Cournoye
Anthony Marino
Domenico Paduano

SPONSORS:
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization; The Forum of Venice; The Commune of Venice

KEY WORDS:
Bulidings, Art, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization; The Forum of Venice; The Commune of Venice.

Original Abstract:
Through the given information provided by the city of Venice along other with other groups including UNESCO and the Forum of Venice, the project team created a feasible way to assess buildings and document art work.  The project team compiled  forms and took photographs to get the necessary assessing information so as to prioritize the present condition of buildings on the canals of Venice.   A user friendly database was created and used to store the information.  A brochure and poster were created to educate the public on various issues related to the problems of the Venetian canals and on the public work operations.

Description:
Since the floods of 1966, there has been a greater realization of the necessity to take evasive action towards the restoration of the precious city of Venice.  WPI students have completed several studies on the boat traffic, structural damage, chemical composition, and hydrodynamic flow of the canals.  
     The main objectives of this project team were to determine the inexpensive and reliable way to assess and document buildings, document the condition of artwork along the canals, create a database that contains the collected data, and design a brochure to inform the public on the closing of the canals.
     The project established an efficient method of documenting the art and buildings along the canals.  In particular, artwork was classified as decorative or destructive so as to differentiate the possible types of restoration needed for each piece.  They also further developed methods for determining the structural integrity of the 72 buildings they collected data for.
     The team developed graphs and tables to easily digest the data gathered.  They developed algorithms that best represented the conditions and state of repair of the buildings.  In addition, they compiled a list of the ten worst and the ten best buildings and presented them in their final report.  Finally the group developed two information packets designed to inform the public of the issues faced in the Venetian canals.  With these publications, it would be possible to raise support from the public for future restoration efforts.


AUTHORS:
Samantha Davis
Marco Fideli
Zachary Oser

Original Abstract:
The primary goal of this project was the creation and implementation of tools which would improve the organizational structure of the Venice Project Center.  A database and template were created to consolidate and standardize all the past, present, and future work of the Project Center.  Through a creation of a World Wide Web page, the public image of the VPC was enhanced.  Also towards this end, numerous papers detailing various aspects of the VPC were written and informational packets, summarizing each of the IQP’s, were completed.

Description:
In 1995, fifty projects had been completed through the Venice Project Center.  A project needed to be completed that organized these projects so that the information could be easily accessed and distributed.
The main goals of this project were:
     1. To bring organization to the VPC through methods such as the creation of an all inclusive database describing each individual project.
     2. To make the information about the VPC more accessible by the public through the creation of informational packets about the VPC and its projects, the creation of a WWW page, and through the write up of this document.
     To achieve these goals a background was created on the history of the Venice Project Center and the projects completed through the center.  Packets on topics studied (art, canals, and environment) were also created containing the title, authors, advisors, abstract and executive summaries of each project.  This information was also put into a database.  A web page was also designed and implemented to serve as a primary source of information for anyone interested in the Venice Project Center, the work it has done, and/or the topics of study.  Templates were also created for better organization of the IQP documents.  Accomplishments of the VPC were also outlined in the categories of art, canals, and education.
     Recommendations were made to continue the work initiated in this project to include updates and new ideas, such as an annual newsletter.
Information can be found n this project on:
     -The history of Venice and the Venice Project Center
     -Each individual IQP completed from 1988-1994


TITLE:
A Computerized Catalog of the Well-heads of Venice In the Sestiere of Dordoduro

AUTHORS:
Alexander Boriakoff
Ian Buckley
Kristen Magnifico

Referenced Material:
Outdoor Art Inventory of S Marco (E93); Archeoclub Inventory I and II (E91, E92); Inventions for Venice (E91)

Original Abstract:
This project, conducted in conjunction with the Venice Project Center of WPI, presents the results of our extensive evaluations of the state of deterioration of the public well-heads of the Venetian sestiere of Dorsoduro.  In addition, we created an algorithm which analyzes raw data recorded during field work and determines the benefit to the community from the restoration of each well-head.  We rated well-heads of Dorsoduro in terms of benefit from restoring them and determined their priority for restoration.  We evaluated the plausibility of converting the cisterns of the wells into a reservoir for fire fighting measures.  Also, as the first project concerned solely with the well-heads of Venice, we established a methodology, a comprehensive rating scheme, and a thorough process for the analysis of data to be used by future projects concerned with Venetian wells.

Description:
This project was an extension of the outdoor projects that had been completed prior to 1995.   The well heads of Venice contain artistic and historical value, as well as a source of fresh water.  Each one is decorated with such unique designs as coats of arms and inscriptions.  However, there was no documentation of these important pieces of outdoor art. 
The goals of this project were to: 
     1. Document the condition, location, and general characteristics, such as measurements, materials, directional orientation, décor, condition, and evidence of prior restoration
     2. Establish a restoration system and priority list
     3. Assess the wells usefulness for fire-fighting
The project team achieved all of their goals.  A detailed methodology was established for future projects.  Data was collected and photographs were taken for each well-head and entered into a database. Computerized maps were also created showing each well-heads location.  The team also created an algorithm that generated a scaled ranking system that was used to form a priority list indicating the order and relative benefit achieved through each restoration.  A fire protection analysis was also completed and it was determined that there would be many problems if implemented.

This IQP contains:
     -A history and background of the well-heads of Venice
     -Information on determining cistern volumes
     -A prioritization scale system
     -Algorithm information
     -A cost analysis
     -A fire protection analysis


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of the Traffic, Cargo Deliveries, and Docks within the Insulae of Santa Maria Formosa and Frari

AUTHORS:
Kevin Doherty
Joseph Maraia
Carlos Parodi
Flavia Souto

SPONSORS:
City of Venice; United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

KEY WORDS:
City of Venice; United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization; Santa Maria Formosa, Santa Maria Frari; canals

Referenced Material:
A Documentation and Analysis of Docks, Cargo Deliveies, and Boat Traffic within the SM Zobenigo Insula (C92); A Doc and Anal of Public and Overnight Boat Parking on the Canals within the SM Zobenigo; A Doc and Anal of Boat Traffic in Venetian Canals; A Topological/ Hydro-Dyn Study and GIS in Castello Area (E92); A Doc and Anal of Canals in Castello

Original Abstract:
This project provides the city of Venice with an in depth study of the present traffic flows, delivery patterns and docking facilities of the canals surounding the islands of Santa Maria Formosa and Frari.  It forcasts the impact on traffic, deliveries and docking, of the closure of segments of these canal systems.  Data was gathered, analyzed, and methods developed, to provide alternative traffic and delivery routes during the canal's closures.

Description:
This project was designed to assist the city of Venice with its canal restoration schedule.  It consists of in depth studies of traffic, delivery patterns, and docking facilities in the canals of Venice.  These studies were performed in the insulae of Santa Maria Formosa and Frari, as they were the next two islands where canals are scheduled for restoration.  The purpose of these studies was to develop alternate routes for traffic and deliveries during canals closure.  Docking spaces were cataloged and alternative docking sites were suggested.  It was the aim of this project to anticipate problems and complications resulting from canals so that solutions could be planned accordingly.  The team also cataloged all the docks around Santa Maria Formosa and Frari insulae.
     No maintenance work has been done to the canals surrounding these islands in the past thirty years.  Many problems have arisen, including; mud sedimentation accumulation, which has decreased the depth of the canals and interferes with boat traffic, as well as obstructing sewer outlets.  Foundations have begun to deteriorate, threatening the collapse of buildings.  Health issues have become a concern.  These problems, together with those caused by nature, ie high tides, makes the canals situation critical.  It is of great importance for the city of Venice to clean its canals while minimizing the inconvenience it will cause to the people.
     Suggestions of a prioritized order for canal closures were made, as well as the notification to the public of these closures upon implementation to allow maximal ease and minimal traffic.  
     Information contained in this project includes tide flows, traffic flows, types of boats, and bypass routes for various canals in the insulae of Santa Maria Formosa and Frari.


TITLE:
A Computerized Catalog of Outdoor Art in Dorsoduro, Venice

AUTHORS:
Jesus M. Beltran
Erin E. Brophy
Alex Cardenas

KEY WORDS:
Archeoclub of Venice; Dorsoduro; Outdoor Art; Catalog

Referenced Material:
An Outdoor Art Inventory of the San Marco Sestiere (93); An Outdoor Art Inventory in the Sestirer di Castello (94)

Original Abstract:
In this project a computerized catalog was created of all outdoor art pieces in the sestiere di Dorsoduro in Venice with accompanying photographs and conservation ratings.  Each piece's condition and importance was assesed and its cost of restoration estimated.  Using a procedure reported in the psychology literature, weights were determined for each conservation and imprtance factor and used to calculate a "resoration benefit" for each piece.  This benefit was devided by the restoration cost to determine each piece's priority for repair.  All this information was entered into the catalogue and should contirbute to the eventual restoration of the pieces of outdoor art that would benefit the most form repair.

Description:
Outdoor art can be found everywhere in Venice.  Many pieces hold historical, as well as artistic value.  Still, this art tends to be overlooked and neglected in favor of the better known sites. The purpose of this IQP was to expand on the work done in the prior five projects on this topic by creating a computerized catalog of outdoor art (Dorsoduro) and to prioritize these pieces so that the limited funding can be appropriately distributed.  
     The team added several categories to the field form used in past projects to make their data more accurate.  Next, equations were developed to determine the state of decay, the importance rating, and restoration cost estimates.  This information was organized into three databases dealing with technical aspects, artistic aspects, and location.  The data was analyzed and many correlations were made including types of art with the worst state of decay, prominence of types of pieces, and piece by piece state of conservation. A weighting system was developed through the statistical technique known as regression analysis. Algorithms were established to find a piece’s conservation number, benefit of restoration, and cost of restoration in order to rank the pieces. Conclusions were made on what pieces of outdoor art would benefit most from restoration.  
     Recommendations were made for better equipment and future projects. 
This project was considered the best IQP completed in 1995 and won the  Presidential IQP Award for that year. 

This IQP contains:
     -Information on outdoor art (definition, types, etc.)
     -Causes and types of deterioration
     -Statistical analysis methods
     -A detailed literature review on articles used (i.e. Science, Values and Human Judgment; The Conservation of Antiques and Works of Art; and Art Restoration)


TITLE:
A Study of Water Quality in the S.M. Formosa Insula:
Introducing a Citizens Monitoring Program in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Jennifer M. Johnson
Theodore Kabissios
Jose J. Vargas

KEY WORDS:
Canals, Lagoon, Walls, Sewers, Forum per la Laguna, Water Quality, S.M. Formosa Insula

Referenced Material:
Structural Damage on Canal Walls of Venice (C92);  Analysis of Structural Damage to Canal Walls of Venice, Italy (D92);  A Hygenic, Dynamic, and Static Study of Canals of Venice, Italy (D90);  Le Sponde dei Canali di Castello, Venizia (E94);  The UNESCO Venice Lagoon Ecosystem Project (E93)

Original Abstract:
This project, completed at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Venice Project Center, presents an in depth evaluation of the sewage system and water quality in the canals of Venice, Italy.  Through a series of on site field testing campaigns using a variety of techniques and instruments, extensive data was collected on the Venetian sewage system and canal water quality.  This data was analyzed statistically to identify the determinants of the quality of water in the canals of Venice and the impact of water quality  of the Venetian sewage system.  Recommendations were made for improving water quality and establishing a future Citizens Water Quality Monitoring Program in this great historical city.

Description:
Venice's natural sewage system consists of a very simple piing network running directly from the buildings to the canals via thousands of sewage outlet holes located on the walls of each canal.  Decades of neglect, lack of general maintenance, and even boat traffic collisions have left many of these outlet holes in poor condition.  This has resulted in the slow transformation of some of the canals into rather displeasing and foul smelling areas.
     This project continues in part the assessment of holes damage and then takes the study further to include the water quality in these insula.  The goals of this project were:  1.)  To collect water quality data to find correlations between the different parameters and physical properties, and 2.)  to give useful and well-informed recommendations for a volunteer citizen's monitoring program in the Venetian Lagoon.
     Data was collected on the canals with regards to; tide height, secchi depth or turbidity, flow velocity and direction, water temperatures, pH, and salinity.  All of this information was entered into a database and used for further analysis.
     Suggestions were made for the citizen's monitoring program, including guidelines for data collection.  For this project to be best utilized, a continuing survey of canal statistics need to be taken frequently, and examined in the same manner for comparison.
     Conclusions were made that salinity is inversely related to water consumption, and directly related to the volume of the canal as well as its flow velocity.  Since all fresh water in the canals originates from sewage, this data will be very useful to Venice in establishing a regular mainenance schedule for the excavation of the canals.


TITLE:
Computerized Catalog of Venetian Decorative Keystones

AUTHORS:
Minn Ayetut
Frank Chi-Yuan Chou
Takehiro Kawano

Referenced Material:
Outdoor Art Inventory of S Marco (E93); Outdoor Art Inventory of Castello (E94)

Original Abstract:
This IQP is concerned with the preservation and restoration of decorative keystone heads in Venice, Italy.  The first computerized keystone catalog was created.  It included the keystones on public bridges in all of Venice and the keystones on the doors and windows of Sestiere de Cannaregio.  Computerized databases, mapping, and scientifically derived formulae were used to calculate the restoration priority of the keystones and to estimate the restoration cost.  The project concluded with suggestions and recommendations to the future IQP groups.

Description:
Since the flood of 1966, Venice and various private organizations have begun to take action to preserve the precious city. Among these efforts have been endeavors to restore prominent outdoor art.  However, it is often that the smaller, less significant pieces of outdoor art are neglected.
     WPI students completed projects that create computerized catalogs of outdoor art in two Sestiere of Venice prior to this project.  However, neither IQP had addressed keystones.  In addition, there was no literature found which documented each keystone in Venice.  Therefore, it was necessary to comb every corner of Cannaregio.  The keystones are a part of a structure in addition to serving as outdoor décor.  As a result, the data collection sheet used for each piece was modified from those from prior projects to include structural assessment parameters.  This information was then cataloged in a computer database.
     Finally, with regression analysis, the benefit of restoration of each piece was calculated.  The estimated restoration cost was calculated by modifying the formulae created by past projects.  Subsequently, a list of decorative keystone heads that warrant the most attention was compiled.
     The most important objective of this project was to encourage public support for the restoration of the keystone heads.  It was intended that through their effort, the public would take greater notice of the keystone heads and prevent them from losing their artistic and architectural values.


TITLE:
Computerized Catalog of Venetian Bells and Bell Towers

AUTHORS:
Dianna Carlson
Rebecca Prince
Susan Roosa

KEY WORDS:
Bell Towers, Cannaregio, Lido, Dorsoduro, San Marco

Referenced Material:
Churches of Venice I and II (E90, E93); Computerized Catalog of Outdoor Art in Castello (E94); Outdoor Art San Marco (E93); Venetian Bells and Belltowers (E94)

Original Abstract:
In order to create a prioritization method for Venetian bell towers, data was gathered and analyzed from all the bell towers in Cannaregio and Lido along with one from Dorsoduro and San Marco.  A bell tower database and MapInfo layers were completed for easy storage and updating of the collected information.  Finally, a prioritization order was found using regression analysis.  With these results and conclusions, an attempt can be made to attract supporters and begin this new Venetian restoration project.

Description:
Venice has a rich and glorious history. From its beginnings as a few lonely islands in the lagoon of the northern Adriatic Sea, to its rise as a world and its contribution in the evolution of art, it has made a serious mark on the pages of world history.  Although the Republic no longer stands, its culture is still present in its artwork and architecture.  However, in the past century, pollution and erosion have taken its toll on these ancient works.  Among the suffering pieces are the precious bell towers that rise above the city. Although restoration efforts have been instituted throughout the Churches of Venice, it is often that the bell towers are overlooked because of their massive size and little decoration.  Many have ceased to ring and function due to such neglect.
     The main objective of this IQP was to design a system to prioritize the bell towers of Venice according to their need for restoration.  A method was determined for evaluating both the interior and exterior of the bell towers.  All of the bell towers in Venice were located and placed in a map of the city using MapInfo.  In addition, the towers were prioritized according to their need for restoration.  The group was allowed access to three towers.  They gathered internal data in these towers and realized that the inside can be in entirely different condition than the outside.  They concluded that it was vital to evaluate each tower both inside and out.
     They developed an in depth catalog database containing photographs and all pertinent information gathered for each tower.  These databases were linked with MapInfo so that upon selecting a site on the map with a mouse, one can view all of the information associated with the selected tower.  
     Simple restoration methods were recommended to improve the current condition of the bell towers studied.  It was intended that, through this project and the computerized catalog, the efforts of restoration organizations be enhanced leading to the eventual restoration of all Venetian bell towers allowing them to remain a part of the Venetian lifestyle.


TITLE:
Reutilization of the Cardazzo Complex in Cannaregio, Venice

AUTHORS:
Noel Bolduc
Camilla Canepa
David Goncalves
Ricardo Perea

Referenced Material:
Study of the Applicability of Pollution Control Technology on the Island of Murano (E91);
A Feasability Study for the Relocation of the University of Venice to Abandoned Lagoon Islands (D90)

Original Abstract:
This project, completed at the Venice Project Center and sponsored by the Instituto Veneto per il Lavoro (IVL), explores alternatives for the reutilization of the Cardazzo Complex, a group of buildings owned by the IVL and presently not in use, as a center for the training of craftsmen.  Working from background research on artisan skills and their role in preservation and restoration of art and architectural treasures, interviews, and the goals of the IVL, several reutilization scenarios were developed.  Recommendations are made which fit the constraints imposed by market realities, political consideration, and the physical limits of the facilities.

Description:
The Cardazzo Complex was an abandoned group of buildings owned by the IVL.  The organization intended to utilize the building to benefit and educate local artisans of Venice and possibly attract new artisans to the city.
     The primary purpose of this project was to provide the IVL with a plan for the complete reutilization of the Cardazzo Complex, focusing on "artistic craftsmanship".   Individual artistic crafts have been slowly dying out in the Veneto region as a result of computerization and mass production.  The organization hopes to use the complex to train artisans artistic and practical crafts to reverse this trend.
     The project group toured a similar  facility to determine what necessary accommodations would be needed at the complex.  They analyzed each of the rooms in the complex and then determined the criteria for eliminating impractical trades.  After impractical trades were eliminated, the remaining crafts were then narrowed down to twelve finalists by comparing the facilities needed for each trade, the craft's economical potential, and the availability of instructors for each.
     The possible scenarios were then determined.  The main scenario focused on the instruction of artistic crafts, the second added the demonstration of artistic crafts, and the final focused on the instruction of artistic crafts to non-artisans.  The use of each floor of the complex is described in detail and a suggested timetable is provided.  Finally, the project addressed marketing issues for the IVL to consider and the different possibilities for funding the reutilization plan.


TITLE:
"Sustainable Venice": 
A local implementation of Agenda 21 in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Rick Crispo
Jamie Richard Murdock
Alexandru Catalin Nemetz

Original Abstract:
The Forum for the Lagoon of Venice is sponsoring this project to establish a basis for implementing a Local Agenda 21 Sustainability Program for Venice, Italy.  The main accomplishments were the creation of an indicator list, establishment of a ranking system for indicators, identification of data sources and the creation of a prototype letter of agreement with them.  To involve the public, an educational campaign was outlined containing an educational brochure, intermediate package and road show, technical report and survey.

Description:
The Forum for the Lagoon of Venice is sponsoring a preliminary project to lay a foundation for the implementation of sustainability in Venice, Italy.  Success of sustainability on a global scale depends on the creation of many smaller sustainable communities.  As this movement gains momentum more and more cities will create similar programs, thus creating a sustainable global community. 
Sustainability is a concept that was bred out of the environmental movement and  is unique in that it recognizes that the environment is not a single independent system. It is effected by and affects every system it comes into contact with (i.e. society, economy, technology, etc.).  Sustainability tries to find a balance between these relationships that permits life to continue on this planet indefinitely.
     This project outlines the standard guidelines that must be followed  by the city of Venice if sustainability is to be implemented.  These guidelines form only the skeleton of a sustainable community.  The details of this ‘skeleton’ are filled in primarily by the residents because public participation is the first priority in developing a sustainable community.  Collecting citizen opinion on what constitutes sustainability in a particular community  identifies the key concerns of the community which can be monitored over time by ‘indicators’.
     For collection of data for the indicators, emphasis was placed on creating strong connections with reliable data sources.  It is of paramount importance that the data is correct, periodical and readily available with a low cost/benefit collection ratio.  Some of the major data sources identified as critical are: Aziende Multiservizi Ambientali Venezia (AMAV) which provide data on municipal waste creation, and the Statistical Office of Venice with population and housing information, etc.  A prototype letter of agreement with these data sources has been drafted to facilitate future collection.
     Sample data was collected on Population and Tourist Presence per Resident Ratio indicators.  The results show that 1951 was the last year that the overall population of Venice has risen, decreasing at a steady rate since then.  For the tourist per resident ratio indicator, the trend shows constant increase in the ratio, due to both population decrease and tourist presence increase.  All of the indicator related results have been stored and organized in a database.  
     In order for the implemenation of sustainability to be successful, public awareness and involvement must be present at all times.  To address this issue, this project created a methodology to educate, and obtain feedback from, the citizens of Venice.  This methodology is a frame for future projects to develop and implement the actual public campaign.


AUTHORS:
Renee Kim Charpentier
Matthew Brent Greenfield
Jennifer Ann Lowell

Referenced Material:
Re-Utilization of the Island of the Lazzaretto Nuovo; Organic Farming in the Venetian Lagoon; .  Wetland Management for the Lagoon Park Proposal in Venice, Italy; Forum per la Laguna di Venezia; A Feasibility Study for the Relocation of the University of Venice to Abandoned Lagoon Islands; Lagoon Archeology;

Original Abstract:
This project, undertaken at the Venice Project Center and sponsored by the Forum per la Laguna di Venezia, provides the elements for the compilation of an informational and educational CD-ROM on the Northern Lagoon of Venice.  Histories of the lagoon and its islands were reviewed and sites were visited, where photographs and short video clips were taken.  As a result, several informative animations and computer graphics were designed. This CD-ROM will be distributed by the Forum as a promotional means to revitalize this virtually abandoned area.

Description:
The main objective of this project was the compilation of an interactive CD-ROM on the Laguna Nord (Northern Lagoon of Venice).  Through the production of this CD three minor goals were accomplished.  First they hoped to educate the public on the Northern Lagoon of Venice.  They planned for the CD to be used in public schools, by businesses, by those interested in touring Venice, or by anyone else who wishes to learn more about the lagoon.  Secondly, they hoped to alleviate part of the touristic pressure which plagues the city of Venice.   The  CD-ROM was designed tol spark an interest in the Laguna Nord in those visiting the Veneto region of Italy.  If people are able to learn about the extensive history and environmental beauty the Venetian Lagoon holds, they may decide to indulge in exploring the area.  Finally, by bringing tourism to the lagoon, they hoped that it would spark economic growth within the lagoon islands.  Many of the islands of the Laguna Nord were once lively communities, but have crumbled over the years due to their gradual abandonment.  Local organizations have taken interest in restoring these islands which hold great potential in attracting the Venetian tourist.
     The final section of our Results presents conceptual designs for eleven animations to be created for the CD-ROM.  These animations deal with the following topics:
     -The genesis of the lagoon
     -Human alterations to the lagoon
     -Changes in water level over time
     -Astronomical tides and meteorological effects
     -Touristic flows
     -Animated timeline
     -The sinking of Venice
     -Population demographics
     -The history of pollution
     -Archeology in the lagoon
     -The building of Venice


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Canal Boat Parking within Santa Maria Insula and Santa Maria dei Frari Insula

KEY WORDS:
Canals; COSES; S.M Formosa; S.M Frari; Parking

Referenced Material:
A Documentation and Analysis of the Traffic, Cargo Deliveries, and Docks within the Insula of Santa Maria Formosa and Frari (E 95)

Original Abstract:
This project contains an emphasis on the improvement and organization of parking spaces within and around the insula of Santa Maria Formosa and the insula of Santa Maria dei Frari in times of scarcity due to canal closures.  In correlation with COSES and the City of Venice, organizational tools consisting of databases and maps are created.  The integration of existing data with the production of canal boat parking solutions will seek to maintain original, uninterrupted traffic flow patterns.  The challenge inherent in this project is that a solution is rarely simultaneously optimal with respect to all the different criteria to be considered.  The final solution is therefore dependent on the organizational tools developed; thereafter improving and organizing the parking spaces within the canals after dredging and maintenance.  The organization and the management systems of canal boat parking and canal traffic are then used for municipal purposes in Venice.

Description:
This project focuses the management boat parking both under ordinary circumstances and extraordinary circumstances during canal maintenance.  In particular case studies were completed on the canals surrounding the areas of Santa Maria Formosa and Santa Maria dei Frari in the Venetian boroughs of Castello and San Polo, respectively.  The project provides an initial methodology for the improvement of parking spaces.  The optimum distance between a parked boat and a dock, the minimum canal width, the minimum canal depth, and the minimum height allowed by bridges in the canal are determined to allow proper allocation of parking spaces and uninhibited traffic flow.  To find the optimum distance, several considerations and criteria are being stressed which include mud accumulation, traffic, and existing parking sites.  The creation of a comprehensive database system is the main goal of this project.  Such databases will help all studies of parking, traffic, and canal related projects in a significant way.  Information on canals nowadays is so fragmented that the collection of it in Venice has become a project in itself.  The project will be used by the sponsor, COSES, who will submit the final results to the City of Venice.
     Working along with COSES to organize parking and boat information, this project provides a basis for the improvements in the management of spaces within the specified canals surrounding the insulas of Santa Maria Formosa and Santa Maria dei Frari.  Data collected in the field was performed to integrate City Hall’s with WPI’s databases; also field work was done to complete missing data given by City Hall.  Databases were created and improved; information and raw data provided by the city of Venice were organized, classified and stored in easy to use files.  The same files were then integrated into a Geographical Information System (GIS) where the information gathered is displayed in an organized manner.  The GIS system used in this project was a mapping software package called MapInfo.  Actual parking sites were collected and transferred into a MapInfo layer where an aerial view of the whole insula can be seen and a better perspective achieved.
     Parking space has a profound impact on the organization, economic, and social activities of the Venetian society.  With the use of central place theory, the geographical problem of how land is allocated among human activities competing for it, can be dealt with.  In this project, the such theory is applied toward parking spaces and the underlying economics of the demand and supply for them.  An organized system to manage the parking space allocation during normal times of canal closure due to construction and maintenance is thus developed.
     One of the outcomes of this project is the initial development of a simulation algorithm that will allow the user to relocate parked boats to other sections of a canal when needed.  The algorithm will be based on the files created in Access and MapInfo.


TITLE:
A Preliminary Feasibility Study of the Implementation of a HIFLO Vacuum Sewerage System within the City of Venice

AUTHORS:
Martin Felices
Lauren Goodfellow
Jay Johnston
Sonali Maheshwary

KEY WORDS:
Santa Maria Formosa, Santa Marta, Sewers, Canals

Referenced Material:
Analysis of Structural Damage to the Canal Walls of he Sestiere Castello di Venezia (E92);
A Study of Water Quality in the Santa Maria Formosa Insula;
COSES IQP (E96)

Original Abstract:
This study, sponsored by Alan Hassett, president of the Oak Hill Company, analyzes the feasibility of the implementation of a HIFLO vacuum sewerage system in Venice.  In depth valve and piping schematics were made for the islands of Santa Maria Formosa and Santa Marta.   From these schematics, thorough cost estimates were projected.  A form of implementation was recommended to the city.  This is a preliminary feasibility study that may lead to the implementation of a vacuum sewerage system in Venice.

Description:
Venice has neglected canal maintenance and excavation and the sediment that is building up is causing structural and ecological damages.  The goal of this project was to propose a sewerage system to prevent further damage to the canals, buildings, and ecological environment while preserving the historical areas.  This system would provide a low maintenance alternative to the city as opposed to the "emergency repairs" method that was used as the current system.
     This project established a solid background for the current and proposed HIFLO vacuum sewerage system.  Then applicability, cost and social impact were analyzed through general research and surveys.  Three implementation options were then proposed.  Schematics were created by using MapInfo to show the proposed vacuum piping for each of these options, as well as the locations of the pumping stations.  Cost estimates were then made for each option.  Conclusions are made on the advantages and disadvantages of each option and one is ultimately recommended for each test island studied. This project was considered the best IQP completed in 1997 and won the Presidential IQP Award for that year.
Information that can be found in this IQP is as follows:
     -The sewer system in Venice, 1997
     -Vacuum sewer technology, specifically, the HIFLO system
     -Methods of calculation and analysis of each option


TITLE:
The Development of a Prototype for an Automated Ambulance Dispatch System in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Stefan James Caporale
Max Cergneux
William Freed
Anna Lisa Matzal

KEY WORDS:
Ambulances, Bridges, Canals, Docks, Traffic, San Marco, Thetis

Referenced Material:
Analysis of Structural Damage to Canal Walls of Sestiere Castello (92); A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic in Venetian Canals (D, E 92); Analysis of Venetian Canals (93); Analysis of Structural Damag to Canal Walls of Venice, Italy (93); Automatic Data Acquisition System for the Canals of Venice (95); Canal Boat Parking (96)

Original Abstract:
This project (Sponsored by Thetis, a private consortium of marine technology firms based in the arsenal of Venice) evaluates the current ambulance dispatch system of Venice and proposed an improvement.  A prototype of a computerized dispatch system, using TransCAD software, acounts for all delaying factors unique to Venice, e.g. traffic patterns of gondolas and cargo boats in the canals, tide changes which alter bridge heights, sediment accumulation which alters canal depths.  The prototype moreover plots the quickest land routes from the nearest dock  to the emergency, thus overcoming some of the mystery of Venice's sestiere address numbering system.  The project concludes by recommending city wide adoption of the dispatch system system for all emergency services.

Description:
Venice is a city constructed on many little islands in the large Venetian Lagoon.  Canals run through these islands and many boats travel their waters for personal and business transportation.  The canals vary in depth, width, and the amount of traffic on them, therefore every canal is not always accessible to any boat.  Traveling through water is not as efficient as travelling on land and is especially a problem for emergency vehicles which need to be fast and efficient when reaching an emergency location.
     The overall goal of this project was to develop a working prototype of a computerized dispatch system for the San Marco sestiere of Venice.  In order to accomplish this, past information on the widths and depths of bridges, tide changes, and traffic had to be researched from past projects.  Next, this information was related to the dimensions of the ambulances to determine accessability.
     Once this inormation was placed into databases, it was then used for the implementation of a prototype for the emergency dispatch system.  It shows the fastest routes to an emergency, with detailed maps to the location.  This helps solve the mystery of the numbering system for buildings in Venice.  Sites will be reached faster, and that is always a consideration when rushing to an emergency scene.
     This project contains the datasheets used when planning the routes with included information on bridges, canals, streets, traffic, etc.  It also has the program created to be used by dispatchers to easily direct boat drivers to the emergency location.


TITLE:
Optimization of Cargo Boat Deliveries Through the Inner Canals of Venice

AUTHORS:
Karolyn Amlaw
Carie Lin Kervin
Ignacio Mondine
Charu Vepari

SPONSORS:
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, University of Venice; 
Artisans of Venice

KEY WORDS:
San Marco, Canals, Deliveries, Cargo, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, University of Venice;  Artisans of Venice

Referenced Material:
A Doc + Anal of Boat Traffic in the Venetian Canals (92); Doc and Anal of Traffic, Cargo, Del + Docks Within the Insulae of SM Formosa + Frari (95).

Original Abstract:
This Interactive Qualifying Project prepared for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization provides a proposal to optimize the cargo boat delivery system in Venice to decrease the traffic congestion and reduce the wakes that destroy the canal walls, using San Marco sesitiere as the prototype.  An analysis of all physical restrictions in the San Marco sestiere that interfere with the smooth transport of cargo has been completed, including dock measurements, delivery utilization, bridge heights, minimum canal depths and widths traffic behavior and parking space information.

Description:
Boats are needed for trade and transportation and causes much traffic congestion.  Due to physical restrictions, such as bridge height and canal depth and width, many canals cannot be use by larger boats.  Parking spaces and deliveries at docks also take up space and prevent the passage of other boats.  As a result, larger canals experience more traffic and wakes are created that slowly deteriorate the canals walls and building foundations.
     The goal of this project was to optimize the traffic flow of cargo boats through the canals in an effort to decrease the traffic congestion and subsequent environmental damage within the canals.  
     They achieved this goal by organizing the existing data that had been collected in similar projects prior to1997 into a database.  Data was also collected concerning delivery restrictions such as canal measurements, traffic data, dock dimensions, delivery data, parking information and bridge dimensions in the sestiere of San Marco.  This new information was added to the database and a delivery system was proposed.
     Recommendations were made in the form of an optimization plan that satisfied the ecological, economic, and personal factors involved in this process.  Respectively, they suggested implementing electric boats to reduce pollution and structural damage.  Also, an efficient delivery system would greatly benefit the businesses that received the cargo.  The plan was also designed to preserve the jobs of the workers. Suggestions were also made concerning dock improvements and future projects. 

This IQP contains information on:
     -Boats and Traffic
     -Docks and Deliveries
     -Parking Spaces
     -UNESCO (App O)


TITLE:
Development of a Computerized Decision Support System for the Scheduled Maintenance of the Inner Canals of Venice.

AUTHORS:
Carlo Cioffi
Vicky Dulac
Jose Marsano
Robert Reguero

SPONSORS:
Commune di Venezia; United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

Original Abstract:
This project provided the Comune di Venezia with a preliminary decision support system (DSS) for planning canal maintenance.  The project first regularized previously collected data and established fields and processes for further collections of canal characteristics (dimensions, traffic flows, hydrodynamics, hygiene) as well as docks, bridges, and parking spaces.  Then the project created a menu driven DSS providing access to all the data for decision makers.  The project concluded with recommendations to the technical team that will implement the actual DSS.

Description:
The city of Venice is aware that maintenance of the canals is essential to the survival of the city. Emergency closures brought about by a lack of planning not only cause traffic problems, but make maintenance less efficient.  
     The goal of this project was to produce the design for a decision support computer program for the Comune di Venezia to use in the scheduling of canal maintenance.   To achieve this goal, the project team analyzed, corrected and organized the existing data.  Then they added another set of data and entered it all into a database.  Once the data was organized they began the designing process.  They decided to use a visual interface based system.  The resulting system could analyze the entered data to maximize traffic flow and maintenance speed, as well as provide cost estimates for the repairs.  
     Many recommendations are made in areas including the parking of boats, the measuring of sediment, the condition of the canal walls, and the collection of the dimensions and location of the docks.  

Information can be found in the following areas:
     -The canal history of Venice
     -General information on DSS
     -A developed DSS screen by screen explanation
     -Description of boat types


TITLE:
A Computerized Catalog of Flagstaff Pedestals in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Kimberly M. James
Michael C. Malchiodi
Jonothan M. Reynolds

SPONSORS:
City of Venice - Department of Public Works

KEY WORDS:
Outdoor Art; Flagstaff Pedestals; Department of Public Works; Giudecca; Cannaregio; Castello; San Marco; San Polo; Dorsoduro; Santa Croce

Referenced Material:
A Computerized Catalog of Outdoor Art in Dorsoduro, Venice (E95); 
A Computerized Catalog of Well-Heads of Venice on the Sestiere of Dorsoduro (E95);
A Computerized Catalog of Venetian Bells and Belltowers (E95)

Original Abstract:
This project, in collaboration with the Ctiy of Venice, Department of Public Works, developed a computer catalog of Venice's flagstaff pedestals.  This catalog encompasses the locations, dimensions, state of conservation, subjective cultural values, and pertinent digital photographs of each pedestal.  Through regression analysis, a prioritized list for the restoration of the pedestals was was established.  The project concludes with recommendations made for maintaining and re-introducing flagstaff pedestals into Venetian society as they were originally intended, to fly the flags of Venice.

Description:
The problem addressed in this project was the fact that there were 55 pedestals in Venice, none ofwhich were catalogued in any way, or systemetized in order of their importance for restoration.
     The goal of this project is to continue the cataloguing of public outdoor art for the city of Venice, focusing on its flagstaff pedestals.  This goal was achieved by locating every pedestal in the city.  The necessary information gathered was divided into objective elements, which were physical characteristics, and subjective elements, including cultural values.
     Once this information was found, a prioritization of the pedestals was then developed based on the state of conservation information, and all historical and cultural information for each pedestal.  Then a cataloguing system was developed including the location, pictures of the pedestal, a prioritization of pedestals for the restoration process, and the raw state of conservation data for each side of the pedestal.  Also, suggestions for re-introducing pedestals not currently in use were made.  The society would greatly benefit from the utilization of a historically and culturally significant flag system.


TITLE:
Multimedia Catalog and Visitor Information Management Plan for the Collections of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
FahKenneth C. Bonanno
Go Ishikawa
Glenn R. Thoren
Lindsay E. Voss

SPONSORS:
Città di Venezia, Direzione Musei Civici

KEY WORDS:
Buildings, Palazzo Ducale, Città di Venezia, S. Marco

Original Abstract:
This study, sponsored by the Palazzo Ducale, is a cooperative effort between the WPI project group and the Palazzo Ducale, a Civic Museum of Venice.  These efforts include the development of cataloging and labeling systems for all of the museum exhibits and the development of improved communications between the museum management and the public through a web page and a visitor survey.  Based on the analysis of the data gathered, we offered suggestions for the implementation of these developed programs


TITLE:
The Inventory and Analysis of the Bridges and Pedestrian Traffic in Dorsoduro, San Polo, and Santa Croce Sestieri of Venice

AUTHORS:
Ashley Deliso
Rahul Bahn
Stephanie Hubbard

KEY WORDS:
Bridges, S. Polo, S.Croce, Dorsoduro, Insula

Original Abstract:
The purpose of this project was to analyze the bridges of Venice in the sestieri of Dorsoduro, Santa Croce and San Polo.  This analysis included documenting and evaluating various physical dimensions and observations on the conditions of each bridge, as well as collecting data on the flow of pedestrian traffic and cargo deliveries over selected bridges.  From this we created a comprehensive catalog, which contains the measurements collected, as well as photographs of each bridge, and a map of the location.  Appropriate thematic maps and graphs detailing the accessibility, conditions, and traffic flow of bridges were constructed using the data we collected.  It is expected that the data collected for this project will benefit Insula S.p.A. in various ways, including, but not limited to, providing information that will aid them in the process of restoring bridges, allowing them to plan appropriate detours for pedestrians while renovations are taking place, and helping with the issues of handicapped accessibility.


TITLE:
Planning and Implementation of Campaigns for the Quantification and Analysis of Venetian Lagoon Traffic

AUTHORS:
Addi Butler
John Casill
Samuel Castillo
Turgut Sarioglu

Original Abstract:
This project provided the Province of Venice with information on traffic flow and its effects on the Lagoon surrounding the island of Venice.  Data was gathered at various sites around the Lagoon and analyzed.  New and modified routes for public transit and methods to regulate and police traffic are discussed.  Finally, a standard for future boat counts that will take place in the Lagoon is provided.


TITLE:
Analysis of Sewer Holes and Canal Wall Damage in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Kristopher T. Babic
Grant G. Leeds
Stylianos Sidiroglou
Michael Borek

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by UNESCO, is an analysis of the canal wall damage and sewer holes of the Sestiere of Castello in Venice, Italy.  A database of previously catalogued data was checked for accuracy and for increases in damage size.  Any unrecorded holes or damages were also catalogued at this time.  From the information we obtained in the field, an in depth analysis was performed revealing correlations between various factors present in the canals and canal wall damage.  For example:  sediment buildup Vs traffic.  The amount of sewage output into each canal was also calculated and from this information the canals with highest concentrations of sewage could be determined.  Recommendations were made to provide possible solutions to the problems of sewage disposal and canal wall damage.


TITLE:
Monitoring and Analysis of the Cargo Delivery System in the Sestieri of S. Polo, S. Croce and Dorsoduro, Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Stefano Ceriana
Dan Nashold
Joan Olender
Matthew Poisson

Original Abstract:
Our project focused on the monitoring and analysis of the cargo delivery system in the sestieri of San Polo, Santa Croce, and Dorsoduro in Venice, Italy.  We located and evaluated every dock in three sestieri, while monitoring the busiest docks.  From this we were able to determine the location, type and amount of cargo, and time these deliveries occurred.  Also, we were able to use our data to recommend alternate routes in the event of canal closures.


TITLE:
The Venice Project Center’s Tenth Anniversary:

AUTHORS:
James M. Behmke
Tanya Corrado
Gabriel Flores

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by WPI’s University Relations, illustrates how Venice and its participants are influenced by the Venice Project Center. The history of Venice and the VPC was documented, and recommendations were made for presentation through an exhibit, publications and web site.  A database was created containing information and descriptions on each project completed between 1988 and 1998.  This project will serve as the foundation for the Venice Project Center’s 10th Anniversary celebration planned for the summer of 1999.


TITLE:
Safeguarding the Churches of Venice, Italy: a Computerized Catalogue and Restoration Analysis

AUTHORS:
Brian C. Donnelly
Brynn G. Hart
Matthew J. Pilotte
Thomas C. Scherpa

Original Abstract:
The intent of this project was to contribute to the preservation of the churches of Venice.   The goal was to develop a comprehensive catalogue of all the churches of Venice, based on the original catalogue produced by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1968. The new catalogue is a searchable database with updated information that is accessible from the World Wide Web.  To achieve this goal there were three main objectives: computerization of the existing catalogue, updating the catalogue, and the creation of an Internet version of the catalogue so that the information may be distributed the world over.

Description:
After the flood of 1966, UNESCO promoted an International Campaign for the Safeguard of Venice. As part of this campaign a catalog of all churches, convents and palaces was developed. The paper catalog has been very useful over the years and has become a sort of "treasure" in itself. It is 30 years old and needs to be computerized and updated. The studden will do just that. The goal is to produce a computerized catalog of alla Venetian chuches (about 100) based on the existing paper catalog, on a past project by WPI students, and on field work for updates, including a GIS  and series of web pages.


TITLE:
Estimation of Excursionist Tourists in the City of Venice

AUTHORS:
Eduardo Braghin
Carlos Roberto Calvo
Ark Gozubuyuk
Mark Bartholomew Hodos

Original Abstract:
Venice is one of the most visited cities in the world.  About 11 million tourists go there every year.  Because Venice has a limited amount of space and hotel prices are also relatively expensive, many tourists spend only the day and leave at night.  The number of this kind of tourist, excursionists, is not known.  In an attempt to estimate the yearly number of excursionists in Venice, this project was completed at WPI’s Venice Project Center for the Azienda di Promozione Turistica (APT), which is responsible for the management of tourist flow in the entire Venetian Lagoon.

Description:
Venice is a prime destination for tourists of all nationalities. It is estimated that at least 10 million tourists visit Venice every year. However, while it is fairly easy to know how many tourists sped the night in Venetian hotels, it is very hard to estimate how mani people visit Venice for the day. While sleeping elsewhere (where it is a lot cheaper!) The estimaters are therefore very rough. In light of the upcoming Jubilee year, the APT is very interested in quantifying tourist day-trippers in a more concrete way. The students will carry out sample counts at the main termianls in order to provide better estimates than those currently available. They will also use ingenuity to tap into other sources of quantifiable data. The goas is to provide the best yet estimate of all tourists that visit Venice every year.


TITLE:
Quantification of Sediment Sources in the City of Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Alexander P. Borrelli
Matthew J. Crawford
James W. Horstick
Izzettin Halil Ozbas

KEY WORDS:
Pollution, Sediments, Wall Damage,VPC, INSULA, UNESCO

Original Abstract:
The overall goal for this project was to contribute to the organization of an efficient dredging schedule for the canal system in Venice, Italy.  More specifically, we collaborated in the validation of a sediment model designed to predict the flow and accumulation of sediment in the canals.  Location and status of sewer outlets and wall damage in the sestiere of Cannaregio were documented and the previously unresearched topic of the contribution of masonry debris to sediment was investigated.

Description:
Daily tides flush in and out of Venice, cleansing the city's canals where most of the domestic effluents are dumped. UNESCO, together with Insula S.p.a. and the PC, is trying to determine how much and how fast sediment accumulates in the canals, to guide the scheduling of planned maintenance. The actual influx of sewage into the calans nedds to be estimated in order to model the sedimentation process. The students will also catalog canal wall damage and measure its extent in order to establish a correlation between damage and other factors such as traffic and sediment levels, collected by past WPI projects. The goal is to contribute to the understanding of the root causes of canal wall damage and to estimate sewer loads for a subset of canals in Venice.


AUTHORS:
Nicholas Allgaier
John Bottino
Scott Kimbrel
Garrett Sutton

Original Abstract:
This project has contributed to the efficiency and effectiveness with which soil information is organized and studied in Venice, Italy by computerizing soil core sample data collected by several geotechnical companies.  A database was designed to store the data in such a way as to allow the soil information to be readily accessible.  After this computerization was complete, a map of all soil test locations was developed, in which the pertinent information for each test can be instantly shown by simply selecting the location at which that test was performed.

Description:
Over the years, as work was carried out for the maintenance of canals and buildings in Venice, the companies that carried out the work have made core samples of the underground soil to determine the type of subsoil on which to base the calculations for the structures being repaired or built. The analyses of these core samples have been archived by  Insula S.p.A., in the form of paper reports. These reports are very heterogeneous, but it would be useful to homogenize them and computerize them in order to arrive at a map of the underground soil in Venice. Given the fairly high number of samples in existence and given that the subsoil is not prone to change much in a short time, a map of the subsoil may eliminate the need for future samples, or at least indicate the areas where new samples would be useful. The students’ contribution will allow a more precise planning of future maintenance interventions, based on a more organized knowledge of the subsoil available at one’s fingertips. The goal of the project is to computerize the paper data and to use a specialized three-dimensional add-on to Mapinfo (called Vertical Mapper) to produce several layers showing the underground bands of various materials found unederneath Venice.


TITLE:
Information Management at the Palazzo Ducale

AUTHORS:
Jennifer Cooper
Michael Mahan
Alex Narvaez
Nathaniel Wieselquist

SPONSORS:
The City of Venice, Department of Civic Museums

Referenced Material:
Computerized Catalog of Palazzo Ducale's Armory

Original Abstract:
The Palazzo Ducale is a civic museum of Venice, Italy. It is both a wealth of historical information and a cultural experience.  To fulfill a need of the Palazzo Ducale, a computerized database was developed of the Palazzo Ducale’s armory collection.  This important resource will help the Palazzo Ducale as well as interested scholars.  To facilitate long-term planning and enhance the visitor experience, information was collected covering important museum characteristics via two surveys.  This project contributed to the enhancement of the visitor experience at the Palazzo Ducale.

Description:
Based on last summer’s pilot project, this project will continue to computerize the collections of the Doge’s Palace, concentrating on the armory and on the furniture.
This will involve the photographic documentation of the objects and the compilation of an alpahnumeric database, based on existing paper catalogs, where available. In parallel with the cataloguing work, the students will also conduct an extended and sceintific visitors’ survey patterned along the lines of last year’s.
The goal is to provide a useful and effective tool for the management of the collections for the internal use of the palace staff.


TITLE:
Hydrodynamics of the Inner Canals of Venice

AUTHORS:
Christine L. Biscotti
Andrea M. Emery
Maxwell Pistilli
Joseph A. Zsofka

Original Abstract:
The canals of Venice are in need of constant maintenance because of sediment accumulation on canal floors.  This accumulation of sediment results in problems for the city.  Canals become too shallow to allow boat passage, sewer pipes clog which cause them to burst and accelerate wall damage to buildings, and health risks increase because of the presence of raw sewage.  
A complete characterization of the water flow through the canals is necessary for the creation of an effective schedule that will prevent severe damage caused by sediment.  For this reason, a sedimentation model is being developed by the Institute for the Study of the Dynamics of Great Masses that is co-sponsored by Insula S.p.A. and UNESCO-ROSTE, the sponsors of this project.  Our goal was to measure the maximum flow velocity that will be used to verify the sedimentation model, and be combined with other canal data for the purpose of developing an improved canal maintenance schedule.
	Maximum velocity data were obtained and used to calculate the Flushing Index, a number that measures the relative flushing ability of water flow through a canal.  This number was then compared to sediment accumulation data.  We observed that those canal segments with higher Flushing Indices had lower levels of sediment accumulation than those canals with lower Flushing Indices.  This information will be useful in determining which canal segments will require more frequent sediment removal, allowing an effective long-term maintenance schedule to be developed that will minimize the problems caused by sediment accumulation.

Description:
Daily tides flush in and out of Venice, clenasing the city’s canals where most of the domestic effluents are dumped. UNESCO, toghether with Insula S.p.A. and the VPC, is trying to determine how much and how fast sediment accumulates in the canals, to guide the scheduling of planned maintenance. The Hidrodynamic of the canals are an important factor in this sedimentation process, since they determine how much of the suspended solids in the sewage effluent are transported eslewhere and how much settles at the bottom of the canal(s).
The students will contribute to the development of the sedimentation model by measuring tidal flows in many canals that have never been measured before and by re-measuring canals for which the data collected by other WPI teams is contradictrory or insufficient. The goal is to COMPLETELY characterize the hidrodynamiucs of ALL the canals of Venice, both with INCOMING and OUTGOING tide.


AUTHORS:
Lewis Blackwell
Meghan Fraizer
Adria Rizzo
Kevin Vello
Randall Wainwright

Original Abstract:
Our W.P.I. project entitled ‘Preserving Venetian wellheads’ had no official sponsor for this year. It consisted of extensive fieldwork in cataloging wellheads. This information was placed in a database and was used as a tool in determining restoration costs and determining the wellheads in need of care. We developed effective public awareness and educational programs for both young and old and provided restorations options for the wellheads maintenance.


AUTHORS:
Leonard Baker,
Marina Carboni,
Luis Flores,
Lisa Lanzillotti

Referenced Material:
Computerized Catalog of Antennas on Belltowers

Original Abstract:
In Venice, there are rising concerns related to the effects of cellular antennas on aesthetics and health. In collaboration with the Settore Sicurezza del Territorio, we evaluated bell tower structures to resolve this issue. By surveying all antenna and bell tower locations, we compiled data and useful information into functional databases that we created. In comparing the two locations, we found that belltowers are feasible antenna sites, and provided the Comune with motives to relocate present antennas.


TITLE:
The Forgotten art of Venice: Promoting the Conservation and Awareness of External Sculpture

AUTHORS:
Michael Bender
David Finnegan
James Koniers
Kevin Lee
Samantha O'Connor

Referenced Material:
Computerized Catalog of External Art in Venice

Original Abstract:
This project completed a decade’s worth of work by WPI students on the external sculpture of Venice. To help preserve this art, this project updated and completed a computerized catalog of the 2929 pieces.  Through analysis never before possible, we determined the overall state of the collection.  We identified the most endangered pieces and recommended corrective actions.  To create awareness of this art, we designed a school program, walking tours, and a web site.


TITLE:
An Assessment of the State of Tourism in Venice

AUTHORS:
Russell W. Caruso,
Marc P. Cryan
Amy E. Holton
Francesco Q.Pancheri
Marianne Schady

SPONSORS:
Azienda di Promozione Turistica di Venezia

Original Abstract:
This project, conducted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute in conjunction with the Azienda di Promozione Turistica, aims to assess the state of tourism in Venice.  It continued the research begun in 1999 by a WPI team, to actually count visitors coming to Venice for the day without spending the night, using a sophisticated methodology of visual identification.  From the summer data collected, a full year estimate was made of 7.5 million excursionists.  Additionally, a pilot face-to-face sample survey was conducted to characterize the excursionists by overnight plans, demographics, spending, and involvement in the celebration of Jubilee 2000.


TITLE:
Monitoring Pollution on Murano: an Analysis of the Artistic Glass Industry of Murano, Italy

AUTHORS:
Joshua C. Black
Brian Cavanna
Nicholas J. Cottreau

SPONSORS:
comune di Venezia, Settore Sicurezza del Territorio

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by the Comune di Venezia, analyzes the problem of pollution associated with the artistic glass industry on the island of Murano in Venice, Italy.  We obtained information to create a computer-based pollution monitoring system, which allows users to visualize and track the pollution on Murano.  This system will be used by the Comune di Venezia to help glass manufacturers come into compliance with Italian environmental regulations on air, noise, and liquid pollutants by December 31, 2002.


TITLE:
The Reutilization of the Minor Islands of the Venetian Lagoon

AUTHORS:
Nickie Buzzell
Amanda Connors
Seth Merkel
Chris O'Malley

Original Abstract:
The Reutilization of the Minor Islands of the Venetian Lagoon project, sponsored by the Environmental Department of the City of Venice, examined thirty-two small islands within the lagoon.  Through the collection of previously existing information and the integration of data collected in the field, the project team compiled extensive records with respect to the islands. Reutilization plans were developed through the analysis of architectural surveys, mapped ecosystems, previous proposals, and zoning and environmental policies, while maintaining the total sustainability of the Venetian lagoon.  Recommended island reutilizations include medical facilities, agricultural lands, and recreational parks.

Description:
The Isole Minori represent an unique aspect of the Venetian culture due to their rich history and their potential to benefit the Venetian society.  The minor islands are thirty-two small, uninhabited islands that are spread throughout the lagoon.  In the past, they were used for various reasons including military defense islands, monasteries, and hospitals.  Now, all that remains of these once proud islands are the overgrown branches of shrubs, which conceal the decrepit buildings and trash filled shores.  Rejuvenated, these islands could provide economical benefits, while at the same time preserving the culture and history that is Venice.
	The Environment Department of the City of Venice gave the project team the task of creating possible plans for reutilizing the minor islands.  The goal of the project was not only aimed at island reutilization, but also at the preservation of the culture and history of these islands and the protection of environmental balance within the lagoon.  Through the collection of previously existing information and the integration of newly collected data, reutilization plans and strategies of preservation were developed for the Isole Minori.
	The concept of Sustainability is a relatively new idea that seeks to maintain the balance between all of the interrelated aspects of society.  When a change occurs to one feature of society, it invariably affects the other aspects of the linked society.  The minor islands are a major part of the Venetian society and their reuse would most certainly have an impact on several facets of the community.  Any plans of reutilization must take into account not only the direct benefits of a plan, but also the indirect effects in order to turn these islands into a sustainable resource for future generations.  This project uses the concept of sustainability as a guide to the development of acceptable reutilizations while maintaining an ecological balance, economic stability, and the preservation of cultural heritage.
	The process of data collection and information integration occurred in three major steps.  All of the information collected both on and off site was entered into a comprehensive database.  The first step involved collecting information with respect to the minor islands that previously existed, beginning with information regarding the islands’ histories.  That information was compiled into a section of a database that contained the complete island histories and brief chronological summary.  Artistic renditions of the islands and other iconography were also added to the database.  
	The second step involved collection of information regarding the reutilization of the minor islands.  The two main focuses of this data collection were the zoning regulations, which involved the reconstruction of buildings in the lagoon, and environmental policy, which involved the protection of ecotopes as recommended by the European Union.  In short, the current laws in the lagoon require that no new buildings are constructed and that all buildings that exist now need be restored in the same condition and have the same use as it did in the past.  The environmental directive, called Natura 2000, recommends that small ecosystems within the lagoon, known as ecotopes, are not destroyed.  Finally, island visits were conducted where the ecotopes were mapped using a Global Positioning System, and the buildings and structures were surveyed for the possibility of preservation and reuse.
	 The final step of the project entailed the development of reutilization strategies for the minor islands.  All available previous plans for reuse were researched including the plans of the regional level of Italian government.  The municipal plan was unavailable due to the fact that it is currently under consideration and has not been approved by the city council as of yet.  Possible reutilization strategies were also extrapolated from a similar project conducted with the islands of Boston Harbor.  
	The steps of the Methodology yielded a great deal of results with respect to the minor islands history, architecture, and environment.  The complete record of all information exists within a comprehensive database with six sections: history, general information, building data, structure data, environmental data, and photo documentation.  The first of the six sections is comprised of a historical database with the complete island histories and chronologies, as well as iconography.  The next section outlines general information about the islands such as ownership and topography, which includes all physical properties of the islands such as land contour and surface area. Separate sections outlining information with respect to buildings and structures are present.  The data collected in the field concerning building reusability and structure state of conservation are located in these two sections of the database.  More specifically, the building and structure surveys yielded data on every building’s utilities and infrastructure and the specifics are located in the database.  The mapped ecosystems were extrapolated to maps that detail the areas and locations of all of the ecotopes on each island.
	The final section of the database contains the extensive visual documentation conducted on each island.  Throughout the island visits and off site information collection, detailed photography was taken of the buildings, structures, and ecotopes.  Photographs of the buildings, structures, and ecotopes are cataloged within the database.  Merging the information of all six sections of the database created an extensive catalog of information as one of the project deliverables.  
	Analysis of this data took place in a matrix created to relate reutilization strategies with the probability of implementing them in the lagoon.  This matrix, known as the Feasibility Rating Matrix, took all of the data collected in the field and all of the histories, laws, and regulations and rated them on a numerical scale in order to provide an accurate representation of island reutilizations.  The analysis, by way of the Feasibility Rating Matrix, took place in two major steps.
	The first step of the Feasibility Rating Matrix was to numerically rate certain criteria from the various tables of the comprehensive database.  A total of seven criteria were used in the matrix.  Island Ownership, Surface Area, Distance and Direction from Venice, Island Accessibility, Overall Reusability of Buildings, Overall State of Conservation of Structures, and Percent Ecotope were the fields rated within the matrix.  Prior to running the matrix, the data from the ten islands currently in use or under renovations were removed.  Ratings were based on a scale from 1 to 10.  A simple mathematical average represented an island’s feasibility rating.  Reutilization plans were also rated after requirements were developed.  Each reutilization plan was given a range for the seven criteria in the matrix.
	The final step of the Feasibility Rating Matrix was to cross-reference the reutilization plans with the islands that best fit the requirements.  The matrix compared the ranges from the strategies to the numerical ratings of the islands and simply matched them up.  A Reutilization Viability Factor was given to each plan and island.  The factor was based on the number of criteria falling within the range out of the total possible number of criteria met.  From there, reutilization plans were extrapolated.
	The conclusions and recommendations of this project mainly touch upon the general island reutilizations and the continued preservation of the Isole Minori.  We have recommended to the Environmental Department of Venice to confirm all of the data that we have collected due to some discrepancies with the buildings and structures, as well as mapping difficulties with the ecotopes.  We further recommended that public transportation be increased to the minor islands for the purposes of tours of the lagoon that should include visits to the minor islands, thus preserving their heritage and encouraging their reuse.  Finally, we recommended to the sponsor that the islands be preserved above all.  One possible reutilization plan for an island is to leave it as it is.  The total sustainability of the Venetian lagoon ought to be maintained.


TITLE:
The Management and Maintenance of the Venetian Verde Pubblico

AUTHORS:
Matt Bennett
Elisabeth Premo
Jarod Tavares

Original Abstract:
The project aimed to aide the Environmental Department of the City of Venice with the management and maintenance of public trees through deriving and field testing a surveillance methodology.  An interactive database and set of thematic maps were created to analyze and store collected data. The result was an extensive wealth of previously unavailable information and a technique to identify and assess trees and their economic and environmental value. The derived process was a starting point for Venetian maintenance projects.

Description:
INTRODUCTION

     The project “The Management and Maintenance of the Venetian Verde Pubblico” analyzed the current conditions of and derived a methodology to identify, catalogue, inspect, assess, and maintain Venetian public trees. No previous procedure for management or records of tree information existed; the extensive process revealed the overall need for a maintenance system. This project focused on collecting and analyzing information on 1012 trees from which overall conditions of 847 trees in the primary study area were determined. Field processes were refined through the data collection phase to render the most efficient and accurate manner in which future data may be collected. Additionally, organizational tools, a database including all the parameters from field data collection , and GIS maps, acted as main deliverables, along with the extensive quantity of raw data collected.
     Collected data was analyzed through a set of equations aimed at assessing economic, environmental, conditional and maintenance necessity implications. The analysis was used as part of the proposed maintenance methodology to demonstrate the overall need and benefits of implementing a tree management system. Through data collecting and analysis, an inclusive system for management and tools for assessment were established, and their eventual implementation will greatly improve the degree of concern given to and the future condition of the Venetian verde pubblico. 

RESULTS

Data Collection.

Data collection began with manually measuring the location of each tree in Sant’Elena, which was the primary study location. Using MapInfo GIS layers already in existence, and altering them when inaccuracies occurred (i.e. a missing building, a forgotten piece of a canal, inconsistent sidewalk shapes), each tree was plotted through a series of point references, perpendicular angles, and manually measured distances from a designated point to the approximate center of the trunk, after which the points were integrated into MapInfo, with the additional changes to the previous inaccuracies. Each point was then numbered with a temporary code for reference to the data collection form that was designed to include the necessary parameters for this study while also providing necessary categories for the database.
     Parameters categories were determined prior to beginning fieldwork, however, details within individual parameters, such as percent leaf damage and types of injury, were finalized following beginning field work. With the assistance of Bellinati Alessandro, a Venetian tree and plant specialist, over eighty tree species were identified along with prominent diseases, insects and causes of death. Following this initial instruction, data collection began. 
     Data collection encompassed 1012 trees, on Sant’Elena, Giardini, and through out the sestiere of Castello, 847 of which were assessed over complete parameters. (To observe these parameters in the actual data collection form, please refer to Appendix H. 
     The result of data collection was an extensive archive of both static and dynamic data, usable for assessing the current situation of trees in Venice, the effectiveness of current care methods, overall economic and environmental implications, and for the derivation of the deliverables resulting from this project.

Refining Field Methodology.

     The process of obtaining field data went through many changes in order to determine the most efficient and logical process of tree inspection and data collection. The number of people needed for one job, the units of measurement, and when each parameter should be assessed relative to the rest of the process were all considered prior to finalizing the methodology. What was determined was a field methodology, which provided this selective study and future studies a set of instructions and considerations for data collection and maintenance purposes. The final field methodology was implemented in this project to further test its validity with respects to the main tasks of mapping, measuring, assessing tree condition, and making recommendations to care for specific problems on individual trees. What was discovered was the entire process needs only two people who will collect data in three passes: measuring and mapping the placement of trees in a region, measuring the average canopy radius and the trunk circumference (at breast height (1.37 meters)), and assessing the other parameters by observing each tree. Not only is this the most efficient way, but it also provides an additional opportunity to become acquainted with an individual tree and to check the accuracy with which it was mapped.

Data Entry and Organization:

     Raw data was recorded on labeled maps and data collection sheets. Following the finalization of assessed parameters, an updateable database was constructed into which the raw data was entered. Each tree was assigned a specific code, which reflected: its status as a park tree, a campo tree or a street tree; the sestiere where it is located; the species of the tree; and an individual number within its growth region. The code also reflected street name and campo name as a five-digit abbreviation available for when it was relevant. This specific code defined the tree in the Access database and in the MapInfo GIS layers. 

Creation of a Database:
 
Figure 1 - Data Entry Form
     As one of the main deliverables, the database provides the city of Venice an easily accessible and usable system for implementing and organizing the data collected from actual trees. Its purpose is to take all of the information and archive it for future analysis and comparison. In addition, the database is updateable so data entry from field work may continue past Sant’Elena and Castello. Fields are equipped with information necessary for such expansions. The format of the database aids in reducing the amount of human error during data transferal from field forms by containing drop down menus from which condition codes or location codes, specific to the parameter, may be selected. This way, error from mistyping the sestiere code or similar static data (data which does not change over time) will be reduced. Additionally, the numbers used to identify the condition ratings (percentage of crown damage, degree of deadwood, etc.) are located in a drop down menu and are the assigned values as determined from the assessment of parameters in the data collection stage.
     The database also has a species identification appendix. Each species located in Venice is given its own page on which a picture of the mature tree, a close-up of leaf, bark, and any flowers, fruits or cones is located along with the species’ taxonomical and Italian names. Species-specific considerations are enumerated for management use; whether or not a tree may be pruned, which diseases it is susceptible to, insects, signs of death, and overall species characteristics are included in the field manual. 

Creation of GIS (MapInfo) Map Layers:
     The mapping step of the methodology was extremely important because, from these assigned points (representing each individual tree), the rest of the information was based. As data collection proceeded, assigned codes related collection form entry to the specific tree denoted on the map. These points were also the locations where the Access database is connected meaning all the data for a specific tree may be pulled up by mouse-clicking on that specific point while in an active MapInfo session. 
     The specific parameters from the database were integrated into individual maps to show a relative comparison between trees under the restrictions of that parameter, resulting in a set of maps comparing all field and extrapolated parameters. Relationships determined through MapInfo were used for analysis and for deriving the maintenance plan and recommendations. Map layers can be edited as the trees change, and are included with the database for use by the Environmental Department when determining which trees need attention immediately, on an annual or rotating care schedule, or where new trees may be planted and old ones removed. A total of six map layers were created. 

Data Entry:
     The entry process was tedious, however, the result was an extensive and usable archive of information on the 847 trees catalogued. Additionally, the result was an organized system to visually compare the trees and their conditions and status as well as view, through one simple inquisition, needed information.

ANALYSIS


     Following the data collection, entry and organization process, the raw data was analyzed to establish the overall health and condition of the tree, the need for maintenance, various patterns based on the parameters, and economic and environmental implications.

Overall Tree Condition.
     The overall tree condition was assigned a numerical value based on the parameters gathered from the field. An equation was derived and coded into Access through which the data stored in the database on an individual tree could be applied to render the rating.
The eighteen parameters and associated sub-parameters were assigned a value within each category, with the lowest value symbolizing health and good condition and higher values recognizing poor condition, thus establishing a range. The results of the field parameters were filtered through the values assigned and an equation to obtain the “% bad” a tree was. The “% good” of a tree was then compared with an integer range (0,1-5) and assigned a numerical value. Thus, the rendered percent showed the specific degree, based on the parameters of this study, of each tree while the integer range divided up these percents and assigned them a more meaningful value. The percent rendered was then applied to a second equation which was derived to exhibit the need for maintenance.
Maintenance Requirements 
     Maintenance requirements were established to present the Venetian environmental department an idea of which trees needed immediate concern because of dead branches and deadwood or would require greater attention over time due to obstructions and braces. In a fashion similar to determining the tree condition, a numerical representation was established to estimate the need for maintenance.
     The “% bad” of a tree was multiplied by fifty. This number took into account all the cavities, fissures, injuries and other influences was based on a one hundred twenty point total. The remaining seventy points were divided amongst obstructions (20 pts.), braces (15pts.), deadwood (10pts.) and dead branches (25 pts.). Ranges of severity were derived for each parameter and point values were assigned. After finding the total numerical sum from the condition rating and focal parameters, the result was transmitted through a second derived equation which rendered a percent defining maintenance need (higher percentage means greater need).

Comparing through Map Layers.
 
Figure 2 – Sample Species Distribution Map
     While providing a numerical value to indicate tree condition provides an overall assessment of parameters, specific characteristics were compared through observation and GIS MapInfo thematic map layers. Rendering a visual means to determine patterns amongst trees with afflictions, maps were made following queries run over the entire data set to select the desired trait. Species distribution was determined, and the results were used to compare the overall concentration of a species in a designated area and through out Sant’Elena as a whole. 
     This map was also used to compare the presence of the other parameters and to locate patterns of disease, fungi, death and damage. Examples of what was discovered included that species such as the Tilia had fungal presences resulting from insects; pinus neros had regions of deadwood and rot at the trunk base; acacia was highly susceptible to hollow trunk, massive cavities, and rot caused by insects; and leccio had leaf damage caused by insects. Other patterns located included presence of death in concentrated areas, cavities residing in deciduous rather than coniferous trees, and braces located on coniferous trees more than deciduous or flat-leaf evergreen.

Effectiveness of the Current Maintenance Processes
     The overall conditions of the trees rendered from the condition rating highlighted the need for more care. A total of 142 trees (17%) had condition ratings less than 60% of optimal health, meaning that attention is needed. Furthermore, the maintenance rating found that 136 trees currently have a 40% or higher need for maintenance and require immediate attention to some degree. Thus, the current maintenance process and the current amount of attention given to the trees in Sant’Elena is far less than what the conditions of the trees require. The information gathered presents a degree of rot and deadwood  which is great enough to have needed attention prior to this study. Additionally, the occurrence of unattended braces has caused severe damage on a number of trees; injuries like this could have easily been prevented if the brace had been resized as the tree grew or if the disconnected braces had been removed entirely.
     Numerous insurance claims have been posed against the city of Venice as a result of damage caused by trees. During the course of this project, two major occurrences of damage occurred: a tree fell on a car in Mestre and trees in Castello inflicted with colorful cancer were lost. Removal of such dead and diseased trees would have prevented these incidences and the human death which resulted.

Environmental Implications.
     Trees reduce a certain amount of toxins from the air every year relative to their DBH (diameter at breast height). To determine the amount of pollutants a tree removes from the environment, the trunk diameter is used in a series of equations and compared with tables relating DBH and toxin filtration potential, which first determines the amount of pollutants removed per tree in metric tons per year. Summing these values provided the total quantity of particles natural filtration facilitated for the trees in this study. An estimation of total filtration for the Venice island was also calculated.

Economic Implications.
Table 1- Cost Savings from Pollutant Filtration by Trees in Sant’Elena
     While canopy coverage and the resulting shade provisions decrease heat island effect and lessen overall temperature, thus reducing the energy needed to run air coolant machines, the extent of the public trees in Venice begin near enough to locations to make a significant difference was small, even in large park areas. The primary economic implications relied on trunk size and pollutant filtration and associated cost savings.
     The total quantity of environmental pollutants removed was compared with a table of the estimated cost to mechanically filter the pollutants.
Table 2- Estimated Value of Venetian Trees (in Euro)
The overall value of Venetian trees was found using an adaptation of the Trunk Formula Method (appraisal equation). Results are outlined in the accompanying table (all values are in Euros).  From a maintenance standpoint, the cost to continue and repeat the methodology derived was also estimated based on approximate man hours, number of workers required, and number of trees. The total estimated cost was 160,000 Euros (for the Venice island including Sant’Elena).

CONCLUSIONS

     The initial goals of this project were met by establishing an efficient and detailed field technique to gather information and consequently archive it in accompanying database and GIS layers. Later assessment of data showed economically and environmentally, the trees’ worth is extensive, however, they are not currently in ideal condition, and in many cases, pose possible danger. The degree of overall infliction suggests current maintenance practices are falling short of adequate. Implementing a new system would help to better understand the current overall state (all of the public trees on the island), target regions of highest concern and over time, improve the condition of the trees, while paving the way to an effective management system. Continuation of obtaining data on the trees and mapping and identifying species is essential for an overall assessment of patterns and influences. Patterns exist between various parameters and suggest cause and effect events, many of which are preventable by early intervention.
     The this project initiates awareness of the need for a maintenance program, and the provisions of the foundation for deriving a more detailed plan in the future, highlighting the need to tend to preventable afflictions and obstructions. The city of Venice needs to consider implement a new system to better care for trees. Tools and equations necessary for the continuation of the process, included in this report, enable Venice to continue data collection and subsequent identification of problematic occurrences, thus improving the overall health and value of the trees.


RECOMMENDATIONS

     Expanding the process to the rest of the Venetian trees would give a greater indication of the overall state of health, condition, and the degree of required care. Because the initial monitoring and entry of data into the database only shows the state of the tree at the time of data collection, inspection should occur every 2-5 years, and the information gathered, assessed to determine overall tree condition and need for maintenance and implemented into the database. Changes in tree size and decline in condition may be found through comparing data from varying collection dates. Monitoring tree growth and decline is important to recognize the heightened or lessened economic and environmental benefit, and to improve the likelihood of healthy and prospering trees, dead trees should be removed and young ones found to take their place.  Planting new trees where previous ones had been removed and in locations able to sustain new growth would provide the city with new growth and over time, stronger benefits. Species such as the acacia and pinus neros would be bad choices to plant because they frequently have injuries which compromise the overall condition of the tree; meanwhile, Cyprus, ginko biloba and oak varieties fare well and are robust enough to hold their own in under the conditions in Venice.
     Implementation of a new management system would provide the city a working process to assure the health and well-being of Venetian trees. The system should include basic management activities like pruning dead branches, watering, and fertilizing trees which do not receive enough nourishment. Also included is the continuation of inspecting over the established parameters for the rest of the island to locate where trees are currently growing and map them accordingly.


TITLE:
Assessment of the Non-Resident Housing Market in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Jonathan Martin
Geoffrey San Antonio
Nathan Starbard
Herbert Wibisono

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by the Osservatorio Casa of Venice, Italy, assessed the non-resident housing market within the historic center of Venice.  Data collection included web searches, solicitations of real estate firms directly and through scenarios, integration of previous data (utility usages, hotel registrations) and surveys of tourists.  The final report established the locations and costs per square meter of over two hundred non-resident rentals.  Recommendations included suggestions for integrating official police and tax databases, further studies of the non-resident housing market throughout the entire year, and an investigation of the resident rental market.

Description:
Housing is an important socio-economic matter in every major city throughout the world.  Centuries ago, it was essential for a city’s population to be able to affordably live within its city center.  However, as faster forms of transportation evolved, people no longer needed to live as close to the business center.  The Centro Storico of Venice is situated in the middle of a lagoon.  The majority of its residents no longer inhabit the Centro Storico, favoring instead the less expensive lifestyle available to them on the mainland.  The Osservatorio Casa of the Commune of Venice is sponsoring our project in an effort to develop an initial assessment of the non-resident housing market in the historical center of Venice.  Fashioning an understanding of the non-resident housing market will allow for better decision-making in regards to city housing policy and law.  
The large numbers of tourists who come to Venice constitute a major part of the Venetian housing market.  As in most economic markets, the Venetian housing market is driven by the factors of supply and demand, where either a high demand or low supply will drive prices up.  The Commune of Venice has been faced with a sharp increase in rental prices for more than two decades, along with a forty-year decrease in population.  The situation has reached a point where many residents can no longer afford to live in the historical center and therefore choose to live on the mainland.  Non-residents, non-Venetians living in Venice, however, are willing to pay significantly more for their short stays within the city and thereby effectively out bid Venetians for housing.
The goal of our project was to formulate a possible means for quantifying the non-resident rental population in Venice as well as to obtain an initial assessment as to the extent of the non-resident housing market.  Some of the devised methods used in the study have proven ineffective due to uncooperative sources.  Alternate methods have been employed in an effort to obtain the detailed information needed to create a baseline approximation of the rental market.
Uncovering the true nature of the non-resident housing situation required a large amount of background research.  Numerous government and public agencies were contacted and researched in order to uncover the type and amount of information they collect.  These efforts yielded five sources that contain/collect pertinent information in regards to non-residents.  The Questura, maintained by the Guardia di Finanza, is a mandatory non-resident database of each Italian city’s non-resident population.  The Registro Immobiliare is a Venetian government agency that monitors all rental contracts as well as the sales transactions of real estate. Another important piece of information comes from the ICI Tax, which is a local tax that is charged to the property owners.  From this data names and billing information of house owners in Centro Storico can be identified.  The unfortunate result of the efforts to garner access to the information held by these agencies was a refusal to cooperate due to privacy issue.  Proposals outlining the need and justification for the release of this information have been included as a deliverable for this project.  The ESU, the Ente Regionale per il Diritto allo Studio Universitario, and the Cerco Casa are organizations linked with the universities located in Venice that deal with the student housing.  Inquiries to these two organizations revealed that most students live on the mainland due to expensive housing costs in Centro Storico. The first three sources combined would have provided essential details for the approximation of non-resident apartment locations. The addition of the student residencies to these determined locations would have completed the approximation of the non-resident housing market in Venice.
Due to the lack of cooperation on the part of the various public, private and government agencies, a more ingenious method of acquiring the locations of rental apartments was developed.  A combination of real estate agency visitations, coupled with an examination of posted ads in real estate agency windows and the review of listings on bulletin boards, newspapers and the web were used.  The collection of data over the short period of time afforded for this project resulted in only a snapshot of the overall non-resident rental market.  Hopefully the data collection will continue over a longer period of time in future studies, in an effort to obtain a more complete picture.  
After confirming the hypothesis that real estate agencies would not voluntarily share their information about rental apartments, another method was developed.  Real estate agencies were systematically visited, whereby each team member posed as a potential client in search of apartment listings.  Each team member was assigned a different scenario, with each having different requirements so as to maximize the number of listings obtained from each real estate agency.  The scenarios were as follows: university student, Indonesian wedding party, family summer vacation, family fall vacation, and business worker.  The most successful scenario was the Indonesian wedding party due to the large number of people who needed housing, while the student scenario proved the most ineffective as real estate agencies tend not to rent to students.  Most of the apartment listings, however, were obtained from the web and posted ads in real estate agency windows. 
Since the information that can be obtained from real estate agencies was very limited, a non-resident survey was developed that was expected to characterize the non-resident population.  The main purpose of this survey, which was conducted in various locations throughout the Centro Storico, was to obtain data directly from non-resident population staying in apartments.  More apartment listings along with detailed descriptions were expected from this survey, as well as characterization of the renters in general.  This survey, however, was not used according to its original purpose since only two percent of the respondents stayed in apartments.  Instead, the survey was used to develop a ratio between the number of people staying in apartments versus those opting to stay in hotels.  The inconclusive results from this survey concerning the characterization of non-residents was caused by the low number of people staying in apartments in comparison to tourists staying in hotels.
Due to the time limit imposed on this project, obtaining the total number of non-resident dwellings within the Commune of Venice was a seemingly impossible task.  Hotel occupancy data was used to extrapolate the total number of non-resident dwellings in the Centro Storico.
The distribution of real estate throughout the Centro Storico of Venice mandated that our study area be broken-down into specific real estate regions.  The most fundamental divisions of the Centro Storico are the seven sestiere.  We further divided the study area into thirteen regions.  This segmentation was created based upon the number of apartments found in a particular area, the locations of tourist attractions, and the importance of each area.  The third breakdown of the Centro Storico was based on official homogeneous zones created by the Venetian government.  These regions divide the city into three major areas of similar market value.  
From data collected, an analysis of the median price, price range, price per square meter, and price per bed for each study area was performed.  This analysis provided a pattern of rental prices within the city.
The first pattern that showed up from the price of non-resident dwellings based on sestiere was the fact that the weekly and monthly rentals behave exactly opposite of each other.  The most popular area in the Centro Storico, San Marco, happened to be the most expensive area for monthly rentals, while it is the least expensive for weeklies.  Another pattern that appeared during the analysis based on sestiere breakdown was that the monthly rental prices became less expensive as the distance from main tourist attraction areas increased.  The exact opposite pattern was true for weekly rentals, with their rental prices being lower in the main tourist attraction areas.
The price of each dwelling per square meter was an important figure for this study.  Comparing dwellings based on physical area erases any price bias due to size.  Each apartment listing contained in our database was run through an algorithm to calculate its surface area.  This area estimation algorithm was developed and tested on listings in our database that contained known area figures.  Testing on our data proved that this formula could estimate area with a standard deviation of only eighteen square meters.  When the Centro Storico is analyzed by square meter the results still show that weekly rentals are cheaper in central areas around the Grand Canal, while monthly rentals are cheaper in outlying areas like Cannaregio and Giudecca.
The extrapolation of the total number of non-resident apartments was approximately four hundred and forty two.  Based upon a breakdown of the entire rental market into four segments, public housing, rent subsidized housing, non-resident housing, and resident housing, the non-residents comprise five percent of the total market.  It is also noteworthy to mention that the non-residents and rent subsidies are of comparable market shares.
Non-residents do have an impact on the real estate market in Venice and are part of the reason for the inflated rental prices.  Compared to normal full-paying residents, non-residents represent only a small share of the total market.  Upon initial inspection, this fact may make it appear as if they cannot have a large impact upon the total market, however this is incorrect.  Their impact becomes more evident when the high end of the market is compared to the low end.  Non-resident apartments number very close to rent-subsidized apartments.  It would appear that as the non-resident market increases, apartments are taken from residents and so rent subsidies will naturally increase as well.  As both of these smaller portions of the market increase the larger resident rental market is greatly impacted.
Outlined in this project are a number of proposals whose purposes are to develop methods for tracking the non-resident population in the Centro Storico.  There are proposals directed towards the Questura, Registro Immobliare, and Ufficio Tributi.  In addition to these government agency proposals, there exists a proposal to study the resident housing market.  Comparing the two markets with each other would provide a complete picture of the situation.  
The proposal with the highest probability of success for future studies is that directed towards the Questura.  In outlining both the need and requirements for gaining access to this privately held database it can be seen that a highly accurate ongoing study of the non-resident market may be conducted with such information as contained within the Questura.
Proposals made to the Registro Immobliare and Ufficio Tributi are based on and highly dependent on gaining access to the Questura.  The information requested from the Registro Immobliare would provide physical locations and transaction data concerning the apartments while the Ufficio Tributi would provide real estate tax information.  This tax information would provide an estimate of market values for non-resident apartments as well as ownership data that would be useful in determining secondary homes used as rentals.
In essence, the Venetian real estate market is vital to the survival of Venice, and it is therefore hoped that in the future more elaborate and thorough studies will be conducted with aid from all concerned and interested parties.


TITLE:
Cogeneration: A Feasibility Study for the Archimede Seguso Artistic Glass Factory of Murano, Italy

AUTHORS:
Kyle Bradshaw
Kreisna Gozali
David Hyman
Steve Picariello

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by Vetreria Archimede Seguso, a glass company located in Murano, Italy, assessed the feasibility of generating electricity from the waste heat of artistic glass furnaces.  The project team collected data on heat loss, gas consumption, comparative costs and efficiencies involved, leading to the creation of a new mathematical models for furnace operation as well as determining feasibility for various generating efficiencies and payback periods for cogeneration. The project concludes by suggesting follow up studies utilizing Stirling engines.

Description:
The focus of this project is on the island of Murano, which lies 1200 meters north of Venice, Italy.  Murano is made up of seven islands separated by a canal system.  It is home to approximately 5700 people, most of whom are employed in some manner by the thriving artistic glass manufacturing industry.  Murano has been a glass-manufacturing center since the craft moved to the island from Venice in the late thirteenth century. Glassmaking traditions and practices have been passed down through the family lineage.  There are currently 155 artistic glass factories located on the island. 
	The sponsor, Vetreria Artistica Archimede Seguso S.R.L is an artistic glass company located in the southern portion of Murano. The owner and operator of the factory, Antonio Seguso was the project liaison. 
	The artistic glass process used in the factories on Murano has been unchanged for many years. The traditional furnaces and methods allow large quantities of waste heat to dissipate into the environment.  Capturing this waste heat would result in a more responsible usage of the earth’s resources as well as possibly help with global pollution abatement efforts, especially recent mandatory EU regulations.  Reutilizing lost heat could produce economic benefits for the factories by reducing energy cost The goal of the project was to conduct a feasibility study and cost benefit analysis for the implementation of cogeneration technology in the glassworks on Murano.
	Artistic glass is produced by heating large amounts of sand and soda (sodium carbonate) along with small amounts of calcium carbonate, potassium carbonate and sodium nitrate.  Adding metal oxides to the base recipe results in colored glass. These additives, which include nickel, lead and arsenic, harm the environment when released. There are three phases in the glass making process: melting, working and annealing.  
The melting phase uses the most energy. Natural gas is combusted to create heat and raise the temperature inside the furnace to approximately 1400C, which is the melting temperature of glass. During this 10-12 hour phase, the most heat is lost. 
 
The second phase is the working phase that lasts approximately 14-16 hours. In this phase the combustion of natural gas only produces to enough heat to maintain the glass in its molten form.  Because less heat is needed to maintain the liquid state than to melt the glass, less natural gas is used during this process.  Heat loss continues in large quantities because the furnace doors remain open so that artisans may work the glass.  Figure 1 is an infrared picture showing the heat lost through the door of the furnace.
Figure 1:Infrared Picture of a Furnace
In the final phase, annealing, the finished glass product is cooled very slowly.  A piece of glass can remain in an annealing furnace for over 50 hours before it is removed. This process requires little gas consumption and therefore only a small amount of heat is dissipated.  The glass is cooled slowly to ensure that the finished shape is maintained. 
Currently, many factories use a traditional furnace design that does not incorporate a flue hood or chimney. The lack of flue hoods and chimneys allows harmful fumes to linger in the work environment detrimentally affecting the health of the artisans.  This is slowly changing as manufacturers are trying to meet the requirements of the Accordo del Vetro (Glass Accord).  This agreement was municipally brokered and states that by Dec. 31, 2002 all glass factories on Murano must install pollution abatement equipment that carries the waste gas away from the work area and removes the toxins before exiting to the outside environment. Now is the ideal time to look at ways of recovering lost heat by exploring the potential implementation of cogeneration and other sustainable technologies.
	Cogeneration is defined as combined heat and power production (CHP).  Generally, heat and electricity are independent processes.  However, most forms of industrial electricity production require the use of heat.  Rather than separating these two methods of energy production, on Murano, it is possible to use existing heat to produce electrical energy (see Figure 2). The factories on Murano burn natural gas to melt glass, and the excess heat that would otherwise be lost through the waste gas can be converted into electricity.  
Figure 2: Cogeneration for Artistic Glass
	There are many kinds of cogeneration technologies, but there are only limited solutions that can be applied to the glass making process on Murano. The two applicable technologies that have been researched in depth are Stirling engines and Steam Cycles.  
A Stirling engine is an external combustion engine, meaning that it runs off of an external heat supply. Stirling engines work by trapping a gas between two pistons. Creating a temperature difference across the two pistons expands and contracts the gas trapped inside which then moves the pistons and creates mechanical energy.  This mechanical energy is then converted to electricity.  Stirling engines could be implemented on Murano simply by putting the “hot end” of the engine inside the stream of escaping exhaust gas from the furnace providing a temperature difference of 1400C (internal furnace temperature) to 25C (room temperature).  
A steam cycle could also be used. Heat lost from the furnace could be transferred to a boiler that produces steam, which, in turn spins a turbine.  Mechanical energy from the turbine can then be converted to electrical energy. The steam must then be condensed back into a liquid so it can be reused.
Both of these technologies could potentially recoup lost heat from the artistic glass process. Electricity gained from cogeneration could then be sold back to the electric company at market price. 
Antonio Seguso explained that the ideal application of cogeneration technology would consist of a modular unit that could easily attach to the furnace exhaust. It would also have to be small, quiet, easy to maintain and operate, and convert heat into electricity efficiently in a cost effective manner. These are the parameters for an ideal cogeneration solution on Murano.
 
Figure 3: Heat Dissipation in the Archimede Seguso Glass Factory
	The first step of the project was to understand the glass manufacturing process and the typical factory environment.  Using Archimede Seguso as an example, the furnaces were mapped and temperatures related to furnace operation were collected. The temperatures measured included: inside furnace temperature, flue temperatures, and the ambient air surrounding the furnaces.  To graphically show heat loss, a temperature gradient map (Figure 3) was created with the recorded data.
In addition to the field data collection, experts in the areas of glass production, cogeneration, and pollution abatement were contacted and were able to provide additional information about the glass factories, the glass manufacturing process, the chimney installations on Murano, and on cogeneration technologies.
Information such as the number of furnaces in a factory, the number of melting cycles that take place each week and the amount of sand consumed were used to determine the total heat lost in the glass making process.  These data were obtained through Archimede Seguso S.R.L., the City of Venice’s Environmental Department and also from the Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro (Experimental Glass Laboratory) on Murano. Scientists at the Experimental Laboratory also provided us with data on the manufacturing process.  They were able to provide estimates for the amount natural gas it takes to produce one kilogram of glass product, typical internal furnace temperatures, and the melting point of the raw materials.  A pollution abatement specialist and a cogeneration specialist from the private sector supplied data on the chimney system that will be installed in the Archimede Seguso factory. They also provided information such as the expected temperatures in the chimney system as well as the heat contained in the waste gas.  
	In order to determine if installing a cogeneration system will be cost effective, it was necessary to calculate the theoretical amount of heat that is lost to the environment through the artistic glass process, which made it possible to estimate how much electricity could be obtained by converting the lost heat. It was necessary to create this mathematical heat to electricity model as one did not exist that suited the application.  
Figure 4: Basic Input/Output of a Furnace
 The furnace is the central part of the glass factory and the glass making process. To properly analyze the process, it was necessary to create a mathematical furnace operation model (Figure 4), which is a substantial component of the heat to electricity model.  The furnace operation model uses the natural gas consumed, the amount of material melted, the amount of glass produced and the temperatures achieved to calculate the amount of heat generated from combustion and the amount needed to melt the raw materials.  The model uses a basis of one furnace producing one kilogram of glass product and is scaled up from there.  
Heat lost = Heat acquired from combustion of natural gas  – Heat required to liquefy melting pot contents
Heat contained in exhaust waste gas = Heat lost * Heat transfer efficiency 
Electrical output  = Heat contained in exhaust waste gas * cogeneration technology efficiency 
Equation 1: Simple Heat Loss Calculation
Once the two outputs from the furnace operation model are obtained, estimation of the final electrical output becomes a matter of simple arithmetic as shown in Equation 1. 
The total heat lost is calculated by subtracting the heat needed in the process from the heat generated, and then electrical output is calculated by multiplying by the percentage of heat that gets to the cogeneration equipment and the efficiency of that equipment. 
These equations were applied to the set of 71 factories for which data was received from the Environmental Department of the City of Venice.  After calculating gas usage per glass kilogram of glass (m3 NG/Kg), it was concluded that data on only 27 of the factories was usable and the rest had a m3 NG/Kg that was unusually high or low.  All of the outputs for all 71 factories were compiled and datasheets (Appendix F) were created.   
A cost analysis using the outputs of the heat to electricity model was developed to determine the economic feasibility of cogeneration technologies.  The feasibility section of the cost analysis utilizes total investment over the selected payback period to provide a set of flue and cogeneration system efficiencies that would be feasible (Appendix C.3).  The tables are constructed in a flexible manner. If the efficiencies are known, a total investment can be found. Also, if the total investment and flue efficiencies are known then the efficiency of the cogeneration system can be determined.   A traditional cost benefit analysis was also generated to show the year-by-year annual savings and to compensate for neglecting of tax, depreciation and inflation in the feasibility section.       
Both steam and Stirling engine systems were explored in depth and the feasibility table in the cost analysis was applied to these technologies.  While both systems tend to have similar efficiencies (approximately 30%), they each have their advantages and disadvantages. Steam systems are applied in many industries around the world, but tend to be very expensive and possess other disadvantages, such as the size of the system and the number of components required (heat exchanger, boiler, turbine, generator, condenser and pump).  Stirling engines tend to need little maintenance, are relatively quiet and could possibly be designed to take up little room. But unlike steam systems, are not in wide use and are not currently commercially available for this application.  An exact price for steam was not found but the price for a suitable turbine-generator combination would be approximately $55 thousand.  Since this cost is only one part of the initial investment, the total investment over any payback period would be much greater.  When the feasibility tables were consulted, using a 5-year payback period and 55% flue efficiency, the maximum total investment for economic feasibility was found to be approximately $52 thousand dollars.  Since $55 thousand is greater than $52 thousand, steam would not be feasible.  A price for a Stirling engine system could not be estimated.  It is conceivable, however, that the cost would be considerably less than steam because there are fewer components.   
Utilizing the datasheets that were generated from the heat to electricity model and the method of calculating total investment from the feasibility section of the cost analysis, an extrapolation was made to determine the feasibility of implementing cogeneration on all of Murano and to determine if the factories would be capable of generating enough electricity to “self-sustain” with their only energy intake being natural gas.  It was calculated that an overall efficiency (flue and cogeneration technology efficiencies combined) of only 3.95% would be needed for all of the factories on Murano to self sustain as a group, and if an efficiency of 6.1% could be achieved, the electrical needs of Murano’s entire 5700 person population wouyld be met.  A range of overall efficiencies (6%-24%) was calculated and used to give allowable overall investment values for economic feasibility Appendix E.  These values range from L. 13.7 billion (€7.1 million ) for a 6% overall efficiency to be recouped over 3 years to L. 183.0 billion (€ 94 million) for a 24% overall efficiency to be recouped over 10 years.
 	After the analysis recommending a specific cogeneration technology for immediate installation became impossible, but a future implementation looked promising.  A steam system, the only system currently available, is obviously a bad choice due to high cost and the large size.  Stirling engines on the other hand have potential, but, although the technology is old, they are not yet commercially available.  Hopefully, through further research and development, a system can be created that will meet the requirements of the glass factories on Murano.  Until this happens, other methods of increasing efficiency should be explored such as redesigning the door on the furnaces where the most heat is lost. 
While a solid recommendation cannot be made for a cogeneration implementation on the island of Murano, the project took major steps in easing the analysis of future and current technologies.  The heat to electricity model, furnace operation model, cost analysis, and extrapolation are all relatively simple methods of quantification, yet they are all very flexible.  The written document alone is useful, but the electronic tools developed along the way are more so.  With these tools any factory on Murano as well as any other factory with a similar process could easily determine whether cogeneration is an acceptable method of more responsibly using natural resources.


TITLE:
Evaluation of Tourist Use of Venetian Transportation

AUTHORS:
Katie Gardner
Igal Nassima
Jillian O'Toole
Michael Sweeney

Original Abstract:
This project was conducted by students of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and in conjunction with Vela, the marketing agency for ACTV, the provider of public transportation in Venice.  The purpose of this project was to aid Vela in quantifying and qualifying tourist use of public transportation services.  To accomplish this, we visually identified 66,493 tourists as they were boarding water transportation and conducted a survey to better understand how many tourists use each form of transportation and why they do so.  We concluded that while ACTV holds 61% of the tourist market, there is room for improvement in several areas.  Increasing service of the tourist lines, clarifying signs and advertisements and implementing specialized group services would improve service for tourists as well as residents and lead to increased profits and patron satisfaction.

Description:
In a city where the streets are filled with water, transportation takes a form dramatically different from that found in other cities.  The Grand Canal of Venice is home to a public transportation system unlike any other.  The system of one hundred and fifty boats and ferries that travel along the Grand Canal, and stretch to nearby islands is complex and initially bewildering.  The public transportation system of Venice is vital to the city’s residents and tourists.  Through this project, we sought to aid Vela, the marketing company owned and operated by the public transportation authority in Venice, to improve this system.  
The ACTV (Azienda del Consorzio Trasporti Veneziano) is the provider of public transportation services in the canals and lagoon of Venice, and extends to bus services to and on the nearby mainland.  Azienda del Consorzio Trasporti Veneziano roughly translates into English as “Agency of the Consortium of Venetian Transportation.”  
Vela, our sponsor, is the group owned and operated by the ACTV for the marketing of their services.  They are responsible for ticket sales and all available information on the public transportation system, including maps and signs at boat docks and informational mailings to tour agencies and groups.  
For our project, we qualified and quantified tourist preferences as they applied to transportation in Venice.  To qualify tourist preferences, we surveyed tourists on their transportation experiences and preferences.  To quantify their preferences, we formed a methodology that allowed us to visually identify tourists.  We then used the identification process to count tourists making use of public transportation and private transportation in the form of water taxis or the Gran Turismo, the charter boat service.
 
Figure 1. All Regular ACTV Scheduled Routes for Water Buses.
Twelve routes connect the one hundred and fifty ACTV stops through Venice’s Grand Canal and to its surrounding islands.  In the peak tourist season more routes are added to San Marco and the Lido.  Some lines make frequent stops along the way while some are more direct routes to more popular stops, allowing them to be more efficient.


Many different types of ACTV tickets are available for purchase at any ticket window at waterside boat stops, as well as at official ACTV ticket offices, tobacco shops and newsstands. Non-residents pay a higher fee than residents who provide the ticket agent with a Cartavenezia (proof of residence).  A single ticket will cost a resident of Venice L. 1.500; a book of ten is L. 14.000, and a Grand Canal crossing L. 800.  Corresponding non-resident prices are L. 6.000, L. 50.000, and L. 3.000 respectively.
 
Figure 2. A Vaporetto.
ACTV uses four different kinds of boats for their service to Venice and its surrounding islands.  Vaporetti and Motoscafi, the most frequently seen boats, are used mainly in the city-center and city-circular routes.  These boats transport passengers and their luggage.  
The most common form of private transportation around the city of Venice is the water taxi.  The Venetian water taxi is very similar to its land counterpart.  A water taxi ride is approximately ten times more expensive than a waterbus trip and can reach 100.000 Lire ($50 US) for a ride from Piazzale Roma, which is why the vast majority of the business for water taxi drivers comes from tourists and business travelers.  Water taxi drivers frequent the main entrance points to Venice as well as tourist attractions and hotels.  Also in competition for part of the same market is Gran Turismo, which operates out of only one of the three main entry points.  This charter service caters to tour groups as small as 10 and as large as 300. The cost for a one-way trip using this service is 10.000 Lire ($5 US), 40% more than a one-way ACTV ticket.  
To quantify transportation preferences we counted people identified as tourists, according to our methodology described in section 4.1.4, boarding ACTV boats and taxis.  This counting provided us with a clear idea of not only the number of tourists who used each form of water transportation, but also the daily and weekly trends of passenger volume, which was extrapolated to represent monthly and yearly data.
To qualify tourist preferences, we conducted a survey that demonstrated exactly what factors affect tourists’ transportation decisions.  These surveys provided us with comments and feedback from tourists who have taken advantage of public and private transportation offerings and helped us to form our recommendations to Vela.
 
Figure 12. Map of Study Areas.
Our study area included several major entrance points to Venice and popular tourists attractions.  Ferrovia, the train station in Venice, Tronchetto, a parking area for cars, and Piazzale Roma, the end of the bus line to Venice, were used for counting tourists and recording their choice of transportation, whether it be water bus, taxi or Gran Turismo.  We did not include Marco Polo airport in our data collection, as ACTV does not run a waterbus service joining the airport directly to other islands.  P.Roma, Ferrovia and Tronchetto are the main points of tourist influx to the city of Venice could best assess the competition between public and private transportation.  Our surveys were given in Piazza San Marco, an extremely popular destination for tourists that easily allowed us to represent an accurate cross section of the tourist population.
A methodology for identifying passers-by as either tourists or non-tourists was developed by two groups of WPI students studying tourism in Venice during the summers of 1999 and 2000.  Their method, adapted for our specific purposes, allowed us to quickly determine which subjects should be included in our study.  Our objective was to distinguish between tourists and non-tourists, whether they were residents, commuters or students.  Dress, accessories and demeanor, were the three indicators helpful in distinguishing between tourists and residents.  In section 4.1.2 this methodology is discussed in detail. 
Testing was administered the week of June 4, 2001 to determine the efficiency of each group member’s tourist identification procedure.  At each counting site group members practiced identifying tourists for two hours.  Every tenth person was asked if he or she was a tourist to confirm our impressions.  The results of this test, which produced a group accuracy rate of 92%, are shown in Figure 16.
We also performed a counting efficiency test, where all four-group members counted tourists walking in the same direction and compared numbers with each other.  For our data to be accurate, we had to be sure that we were all counting with the same method and receiving the same results.
 
Figure 16. Percent Error of Tourist Identification.
A systematic sampling allows for a random sampling of tourists and is much more easily executed than simple ransom sampling.  In order to choose the subjects to whom we will administer the survey, every tenth person identified as a tourist was approached and administered our survey. 
The surveying at Piazza San Marco gave us an accurate cross section of tourists in the city, due to the popularity of the square as a tourist attraction.
 
Table 8. Total Extrapolation of Tourist Counts for a Week by Type.
We performed five weeks of data collection to count ACTV passengers full days and half days to prepare for extrapolations, and administer our survey.  From our quantification of tourist preferences, we learned that water taxis do not appeal to a large majority of the tourist market (see Table 8, above.).
 
Figure 19. Gross Income for Each Transportation Type.
However, due to their high price, they still account for approximately 13% of tourist transportation gross revenues (see Figure 19).  This was estimated using our extrapolated counts for one week and multiplying each type of transportation by its average fare. 
Our survey showed that 8% of tourists take water taxis when they first arrive in Venice.  Compared with 4% of tourists taking water taxis on a weekly basis as shown in our counting results, demonstrating that many tourists take water taxis once upon arrival, and do not take them again, either for the price or a lack of need.  
The Gran Turismo did transport a large percentage of the tourists at Tronchetto.  Many large groups choose to take these privately chartered boats, as there is less waiting and an entire group can fit onto one boat, while with ACTV services, groups often have to split up.
Our survey results showed there was a large difference in tourists first transportation choice depending on whether they are a member of a tour group or not.  As seen in Figure 36, half of all tour group members take a Gran Turismo from Tronchetto to their destination in Venice, usually San Marco.  Only 31% of tour group members use ACTV services for their first form of transport in Venice, as compared with 57% of non- tour group members, as seen in Figure 35.
 
Figure 36. First mode of Transportation for Tour Group Members.
 
Figure 35. First mode of Transportation for Non-Tour Group Members.
We have formed three main recommendations to aid Vela in improving services and information availability.  These include an implementation of specialized group services, a restructuring of tourist lines, and an improvement of available information, including signs and brochures.
To better reach the tour group market, ACTV could improve group services.  Currently, tour groups have to buy books of ten tickets or family tickets and stamp one ticket for each person.  This is highly unreasonable for large groups, who should be able to buy a single ticket for all group members.  Also, because of their size, many groups cannot stay together while boarding ACTV boats that are usually already filled with people.  As part of these group services, ACTV could add a reservation service for large groups that would allow them to reserve an entire motoscafo or vaporetto for their group.  Tour groups are the biggest factor in transportation choices by tourists, and marketing directly to them would increase revenues. 
There is much crowding and congestion in the ACTV system especially during peak times during the day, and is especially noticeable on the 82 and 1 lines, where passengers often have to let one or two full boats leave before they can board.  A great deal of this traffic is from tourists, as June and July is the peak tourist season in Venice.  Lines 3 and 4, advertised as “The Fast Lane to St. Marks” are extremely useful, as many tourists use these, and it help to relive the crowded 82 and 1 lines.  However, these do not run very often, so their aid is diminished.  With a revamping of the routes 3 and 4 schedules, these lines could dramatically improve crowding on the Vaporetti.
	According to our survey, 73% of tourists have never visited the city of Venice before.  Due to this fact, the transportation system of Venice can be overwhelming to a to many tourists, as it is dramatically different than any other public transportation system in the world, we have also suggested that Vela makes signs clearer and more easily understandable.  This includes specific recommendations for reorganization of particular signs and also recommendations for sign placement, such as a map and promotional sign visible to tourists as they arrive at the train station.


TITLE:
Re-Engineering the City of Venice’s Cargo System For the Consorzio Trasportatori Veneziani Riuniti

AUTHORS:
Jill Duffy
Justin Gagliardi
Kate Mirtle
Amanda Tucker

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by the Consorzio Trasportatori Riuniti Veneziani, located in Venice, Italy assessed the current patterns of the cargo delivery system and demand for goods in within the city of Venice, and suggested: new routings and boat assignments based on a point- to- point delivery system, citywide dock locations, new warehouse plans, and loading procedures. Additionally, this project surveyed cargo workers to quantify the widespread support for such dramatic changes within the current system.

Description:
Currently, in any given day, a Venetian cargo man may spend 89 minutes loading his boat for the day’s deliveries and travel for 160 minutes to make 19 different stops throughout the city.  The described procedure is not the most efficient use of time, money, or resources.  In any business, one aims to maximize production and profit while minimizing excessive use of time and money. This Interactive Qualifying Project was conducted in an effort to restructure the current cargo transportation system in the city of Venice through the development of delivery zones and the optimization of a warehouse.  By re-engineering the cargo system, the cargo transportation businesses as well as Venice itself will experience numerous benefits.
Traffic has always been a primary concern of the population of Venice and has now been identified as a major concern of the city’s cargo men as well.  For the cargo workers, congested traffic signifies extended traveling from one location to the next and limited maneuvering space for docking, turning, and passing along many canals.  Noise and air pollution, excessive boat traffic, moto ondoso , and longer trips on the vaporetto  are the aspects of boat traffic that directly concern the citizens of Venice.  Our study has taken into account the current traffic concerns of the people of Venice and has proposed solutions to help alleviate these problems.  
Through observation, this study has found countless examples of traffic problems.  During one day of observing a cargo transportation route, a canal was completely blocked off by two boats tied together to remove an old palina . The boat crew had to wait approximately 10 minutes for the boats blocking the canal to move before the cargo boat could pass through the canal to make its deliveries. During another instance in a small canal, the cargo boat arrived at the dock at which it needed to unload only 20 pieces of cargo only to find two other cargo boats tied together at the dock already.  Without anywhere else to go, the cargo driver had to continuously dodge the constant flow of traffic.  On another occasion, as the cargo operator was trying to make his way through a canal, he came upon a group of gondolas that were not moving. As Venice is a popular tourist attraction, clusters of gondolas frequent the smaller, more scenic canals. Completely blocked in by the gondolas, the captain was forced to drive his boat backwards down the canal for approximately 400 meters. Although these inconveniences may seem to be insignificant at first, these small obstacles accumulate over the course of a working day and are multiplied by the number of cargo boats encountering similar problems on a daily basis.
Such heavy traffic of cargo boats in the canals can be accounted for by the chaotic nature of their routes and the inefficient use of their boats.  To better understand the excessive traffic problem and to construct a clear picture of a daily cargo route, observations for a full workweek were made on two separate cargo boats. The data that was collected consisted of drop locations, travel times, unloading times, waiting times, and carting times. It was found that between these two boats alone the same area was covered and the same docks, or docks within close proximity, were used to make deliveries to the same islands. Also, a considerable amount of time was spent just on traveling to locations that were spread throughout the city. In many cases traveling through the city, between delivery points, would take up 50% of the total time spent working in a given day. If one takes into account that there are more than 380 working boats  in the city all traveling at some point in the day it can be seen just how serious extraneous travel can become. It is no surprise that the canals of Venice are often impassable.
Observations of the current delivery system were made from boats belonging to two separate cargo companies of different sizes. The first company used only one boat to make deliveries each day. This single boat was forced to cover the entire city by itself and wasted much time traveling from each drop location to the next. The second company used three boats and, although there was more work to be done, the owner portioned the city into three parts and assigned one boat to each section of the city. On one of the observed days the single boat owner spent about nine and a half hours completing his deliveries throughout the city, which included over 165 of driving and 55 minutes of waiting for available dock space. During the same day, a boat from the second company spent three and half hours total for his deliveries, which included 69 minutes for travel time and 2 minutes waiting for dock space. Since each boat was filled with approximately the same number of boxes and these boats are paid solely on the number of boxes they carry, one can easily see the benefits enjoyed by the company using three boats to deliver to a planned system of separate delivery zones.  These benefits were quantified by our study, and the project team sought to increase these benefits by applying a planned system of fixed delivery zones to the whole city that mirrors the system already in use by this one small company. 
 Unreliable dock availability was identified one of the reasons for inefficiencies of cargo deliveries in Venice. Frequently, several boats deliver to the same dock locations at the same times during the day. The cargo men are forced to either wait until a docked boat is finished unloading, or tie alongside the docked boat to unload his goods.  In the former case, the cargo man is wasting time that he could spend unloading and delivering his goods, and in the latter case he is congesting the canal and preventing other traffic from passing. Both choices are undesirable to maintaining a smooth running city and therefore the choice of what to do is often a hard one for cargo men to make.
A main concern for most of the cargo operators, as identified through a questionnaire administered in the course of our study, was safety at the loading dock of Scalo Fluviale.  The Scalo Fluviale is located on one of the few islands in Venice which is reachable by automobile, so it is used as a cargo transfer location between trucks from the mainland and the cargo boats of Venice.  The heavily trafficked loading dock at Scalo Fluviale poses numerous safety issues.  As cargo boats are loading their goods to be delivered, trucks are crowding the loading area and speeding through the narrow street to seek available locations along the dock.  To make matters worse, several cranes are used to move heavier cargo onto boats, including propane tanks, lumber, and large bundles of metal rods used in construction. Although this is a logical way to move large heavy items it is dangerous when there is little space left for a safety zone around the equipment. As there is little room for the movement of goods, these cranes often operate over the cargo men who, without hard hats, are loading their boats. 
These safety issues would be solved through the implementation of a warehouse, which has been on the cargo driver’s wish list for over a decade.  A warehouse would eliminate the need for trucks to enter the actual boat loading area.  The amount of time spent loading the cargo boats would decrease, as goods would be sorted within the warehouse according to the sections of the city to which the goods will be delivered. Currently there are several warehouses in use on Scalo Fluviale, including produce, milk, and fish warehouses. At the moment, there are plans for the construction of a warehouse for general cargo on the Scalo Fluviale. Through the course of this study, our team has devised a detailed description of the inter-operation of the warehouse, see Appendix P.
The implementation of a warehouse calls for a proper organization of delivery destinations and a proper delivery depends a clear understanding of the basic needs and demands of each type of store in Venice.  An economic layout of the city was constructed as a first step towards this understanding.  The businesses on each island, 125 in total, were mapped out using exact address locations.  The address and type of each business was entered into MapInfo and a layout of the city’s businesses was created. To quantify the demand for each individual island, the number of colli  delivered to each different type of business were determined through sampling. Data collection sheets were handed out to a number of businesses of each type, through the assistance of the president of the CTVR.  These sheets recorded the number of colli delivered be recorded each day, for one week. Data was also collected from the company that handles the city’s UPS express deliveries, which makes deliveries to each of the businesses it services on a weekly basis.  By following the UPS cargo men as they made their deliveries, by cart, over the entire city, UPS delivery data was collected. The address of each business receiving deliveries was recorded along with the number of packages received. Similar data was collected from the docks at Scalo Fluviale, and by writing down the addresses presented on the boxes and comparing those addresses to the business addresses collected earlier in the project, a fuller picture of UPS demand was calculated.
Once an adequate sample of delivery data was collected, businesses were grouped together according to colli delivery rates.  To group businesses together, the noted number of deliveries made to each different type of businesses was referenced. An average number of colli for each business type was calculated. For instance, data was collected for three grocery stores.  The average number of boxes received by these stores was calculated for one week. One can assume, then, that a given grocery store would receive this average number of deliveries. As the businesses on each island were mapped during this study, the number of each type of businesses is known. The total number of colli delivered to each business type was summed according to island, and then the total number of colli delivered to each island was calculated by summing the total deliveries made to each business type. When the total colli for every island was summed it was found that in a given week the city receives a total of 183,332 colli.
By using the calculated number of colli delivered to each island, the project team was able to break the city down into delivery zones.  Islands were grouped together based upon their economic activity as well as their proximity to each other. Several islands of low economic demand make up some zones, while other zones contain only a single island of high economic activity. These zones played a large part in the organization of the warehouse as well as the planned routing system for the cargo boats.  
Observations made at the loading dock of Scalo Fluviale concluded our estimation of the average size of colli. Several boats were observed while loading, and the number of boxes that were loaded was noted.  The average size of colli was calculated through previous gathering of boat data.  A database has been created, containing information on all cargo boats (CTVR and non-CTVR boats alike) concerning their dimensions, see Appendix C.  By using boats of known dimensions and the number of colli loaded to fill those particular boats an average size of one collo was calculated, see Appendix G.
Using the calculated average size collo and the average volume of the CTVR boats, the amount of colli that would fit into all the boats, if filled to capacity, was calculated as well as the number of colli that can fit into a single average sized boat.  The amount of cargo that is able to fit into one boat was crucial to our identification and determination of a routing system for the created zones. After knowing both the number of colli delivered to each delivery zone and the number of colli that can fit into an average boat, it was possible to estimate the number of boats needed to service each delivery zone. Then, based on the known dimensions of boats in the CTVR and the number of colli that must be brought to each defined delivery zone, suggestions were made regarding which boats would most efficiently service each zone. Special considerations were made for islands containing businesses that require deliveries in massive daily amounts, such as super markets. We suggested that boats assigned to these areas be equipped with cranes for unloading pallets and that carters be provided with pallet jacks so that they can move the entire pallet of deliverables without breaking down the pallet.
The assignment of boats to zones is important concerning the operation of the warehouse. As mentioned previously, in the warehouse, the incoming cargo will be sorted according to its destination. Each zone has one bay assigned to the addresses of buildings location on the involved islands. Cargo destined for the businesses of each zone will be placed on pallets, shrink wrapped, and then transported by a forklift to the assigned loading dock. This organization will substantially decrease the amount of time spent traveling throughout the city due to the close proximity of every stop on each boat’s route.  To further assist in the implementation of a routing system, the exact location of docks that should be utilized were noted.  Dock locations were chosen based upon dock conditions as well as the preferences of cargo operators. The most efficient routes to these docks were then mapped.
A questionnaire was presented to cargo operators at the Scalo Fluviale, concerning current conditions and the possibility of future changes to the system and their jobs. The results of the questionnaire showed that eighty-nine percent of the polled workers disagreed that the current system was ideal and needed no change while only 2 percent agreed. In support of our study, seventy-six percent of polled workers stated that they would prefer a point-to-point delivery system apposed to the current citywide delivery system, while only 15 percent would not prefer our suggested method.
In conclusion, our study has not only proved that the current cargo system of Venice contains several inefficiencies but also provided several plans of action to remedy the identified problem areas. Along with sectioning the city into delivery zones and developing a warehouse plan that would support the sorting and storage of each separate zones packages routes, docking locations, and suggested boat assignments were also developed. Calculations concerning the amount of money and time that will be saved each day were also made to prove the true benefits of the re-engineered system.


TITLE:
Portali e Lunette:
A Multimedia Catalog for the Preservation of Venice’s Artistic Entrances

AUTHORS:
Erica Bartos
Rebecca Croteau
DJ Lemmo
Katrina Salamon

ADVISORS:
David DiBiasio
Fabio Carrera
Natalie Mello

Original Abstract:
Among the numerous churches, palaces, and shops in Venice, there is an abundance of public art that captivates the casual observers’ attention.  Public art takes many forms, such as decorative doorways to buildings and courtyards, known as portali.  Occasionally found within the arches of portali are pieces called lunette, which were the main focus of our project. These structures are quickly deteriorating due to lack of care and background information needed for restoration.  In this project, we expanded upon the little existing knowledge of this public artwork, and we facilitated the preservation of lunette and portali by creating several prototypes of materials and programs to increase awareness around the city as well as world wide.

Description:
Forgotten art can be found throughout the city of Venice.  Tourists and locals alike view the pieces everyday, yet the pieces remain, for the most part, neglected and in need of restoration.  Some of these pieces are called portali and lunette.  
	Portali are artistic structures built around the doorways on many buildings.  The structures often contain many decorative elements which may have religious or other symbolism.  The homeowner’s, or previous homeowner’s, coat of arms is often displayed over the door and may be incorporated with other ornamentation.  Statues or other decorative elements are often contained in a half-moon shaped arch over the doorway, called a lunetta.  The lunette were the main focus of our project.  Due to the rarity of lunette, we felt people need to be aware of these structures and the current conditions.
	The goal of our project was to work towards the protection and conservation of the portali, with a concentration on lunette.  We began by locating the lunette and portali.  Then we collected and cataloged information about the structures in historical Venice and the surrounding islands.  Cataloging information about public art and the conditions of the individual pieces is a vital step in insuring the protection of the pieces in the future.  There is currently a catalog of Venice’s public art which has been created and expanded through past projects by WPI students and Earthwatch volunteers.  We added the locations of all of the lunette and portali found in the historical center of Venice and the surrounding islands of Murano, Burano, Mazzorbo, and Torcello to the database.  
	Our next step was to collect detailed information about the lunette and a selection of the portali.  We relied on a specific definition for which portali we collected data for, due to the large amount of these structures.  We recorded physical information about the pieces, architectural data, and the conditions of the structures.  To assess the condition of these structures accurately we recorded the surface condition as well as the quantity and severity of cracks.  We then calculated an estimated restoration cost of the structure based on the data collected.   
	The information we collected is vital for any further preservation, restoration, and conservation of the lunette or portali.  People cannot protect what they do not know exists, and they cannot adequately restore or conserve the pieces without knowing the conditions.  Our project was intended to increase the public’s awareness of the existence of lunette and portali, in the hopes that they will use their knowledge to take further action in the protection and restoration of the pieces.
	Many people overlook portali and lunette or do not feel they are responsible for the structures.  It was our intent to begin to change this mindset.  In order to do this, we needed to increase the general awareness of the existence of lunette and portali and the protection that the structures require.  We made walking tours for tourists, in order to show them that Venice is much more than St. Mark’s square.  We also created a website to promote preservation worldwide.  Another one of our ideas was to start educating the children and young students.  To begin this process, we made placemats for children to color on in restaurants, educating them about what lunette and portali are.  We recommended that elementary schools also take part in increasing awareness about the need for preservation of public art.  Knowledge tends to filter up from young to old: children will tell their parents about what they learn in school, but the parents may not tell their children about something they learned the same day.  Therefore, we recommended educating the children about lunette and portali in the hopes that their parents will learn as well.  We hope that as the children become adults, they will remember the portali and lunette, and possibly help safeguard the structures.


TITLE:
The Church Floors in Venice, Italy: An Archeological Study and Analysis

AUTHORS:
Craig Petrowski
Amanda Delaive
Luiz Santos
Elaine Kristant

Original Abstract:
This project, completed at the Venice Project Center, was sponsored by the Archeology Superintendent Luigi Fozzati and focuses on the churches of Venice, specifically on church floors and the artifacts embedded within. The project necessitated formulating an effective and accurate method in data collection and condition assessment, supplementing past databases with the collection of data pertaining to Venetian church floors located in the Canneregio, Dorsoduro and San Polo sestieres, the construction of multiple map layers of church floor plans using the GIS system MapInfo, and the analysis of the information gathered in order to determine which church floors were most valuable historically and artistically, and therefore in most need of restoration.

Description:
Historical sites and artifacts are an important window to past cultures and traditions of a society.  In many places throughout the world, these sites and artifacts are in danger of being lost forever.  Venice, Italy is one such place where many great historical and irreplaceable works of art, architecture, and other such objects are in danger of being damaged or lost.  It was not until a great flood in 1966 that the world became aware of the continual damage to Venice that was caused by high water.  Following this disaster, many organizations and committees around the world were created to assist in the protection, restoration, and preservation of Venice.   With many treasures contained within their walls, the churches are one of the main focuses of these organizations.  
	The churches of Venice hold many great historical works of art and are among the many places that accrue damage throughout Venice.  Many different causes have led to the deterioration and damage of these buildings.  One of the major causes is high flood waters that are occurring more frequently and at greater heights (Figure 1).  UNESCO and students at WPI have conducted many projects in the past for the safeguarding of Venetian churches and the works of art associated with them.  These studies include cataloguing the facades and architecture of the churches as well as some interior studies of the altars.  Also, WPI students have completed past projects to designate where restoration is needed most to preserve the natural heritage of the churches.  
Up to this point, however, little or no analysis has been conducted on floors within the churches, which could contain great historical treasures such as grave stones, tombs or plaques.  Objects such as these could contain important text that would be lost should the floor’s condition be overlooked.  Floors are the part of the church most subject to flooding, which can ultimately deteriorate materials or seriously fade the coloring of artwork.  In addition, the numerous tourists that visit the church add to the amount wear the church floor receives. As in the past, churches have laid new floors over the old ones to avoid the rising waters.  In this process, great historical works of art or historical treasures are sometimes lost or misplaced.
 
Figure 2: An artifact found in the Santa Maria di Nazareth
The goal of our project was to obtain information about the current and past church floors and artifacts located within them. We performed an analysis that determined the major risks to these floors such as the acqua alta and foot traffic, and proposed ways to deal with these risks.  We also gave this information to the Archeology Superintendence through a database and written report.
	In order to accomplish our goals, extensive research was conducted on the church floors of Venice.  Past Venice projects and databases gave us basic information on each church, such as their names, locations and floor plans. Other historical information was obtained through various texts, books and pamphlets supplied by the church, as well as through forms we created and distributed to priests. 
 
Figure 3: Severe wearing found in the San Marcilliano
Our data collection encompassed 22 churches located in the Cannaregio, San Polo and Dorsoduro sestieri.  The data collected included height above the Punta di Salute (the absolute 0 sea level), the condition of the floors through an assessment of different types of damage (Figure 3), the material the floors were made of and how many artifacts were located on the floor. We collected artifact information by photographing each artifact (Figure 2), transcribing any text found on the artifact, measuring the artifact, finding the artifacts coordinates with respect to the church walls, and performing a condition assessment. The materials and size of the artifact were important, but the most important features of these artifacts were the artwork and text on them.  
With the information gathered from the churches, various correlations between different types of data were found.  We analyzed several different relationships such as the condition of the artifact in relation to its location on the floor with respect to pathways of foot traffic, floor and artifact damage in relation to the church floor height with respect to sea level, and number of artifacts with respect to church floor height.  These associations gave us insight on how the artifacts are being damaged, as well as which artifacts and floors are at more risk of complete deterioration and which churches might contain floors than have been overlaid. Based on these findings, recommendations were made as to which churches are in the worst condition, as well as effective methods to protect their floors and any artwork or text located on the floor itself. 
 
Figure 4: Raised pews in the Sant’ Alvise.
Figure 5: The Le Cappuccine
Practical methods we found to prevent damage to church floors and artifacts included roping off areas of importance, increasing the price of admission and implementing various guided tours involving the churches of Venice to raise funds for restoration. We also suggested using redesigned pews in order to prevent damage to the floor and artifacts the pews are placed upon (Figure 4).


TITLE:
The Establishment of a New Recycling System for the Historical Center of Venice

AUTHORS:
Nikolas Waggener
William Tang
Tyson Moore
Daniel Lorente

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by the City of Venice – Environment Department, analyzed Venice’s waste management system in logistical and financial terms, and proposed a new recycling system for Venice. The group recommended new methods of financing the waste management system, implementing recycling, and revising the current collection process to maximize efficiency. The team arrived at its conclusions after collecting data on the waste management system and conducting interviews with key city officials.

Description:
In Venice, there currently exists a waste management system that encompasses the entire island city. The city’s recycling system, however, is not as complete as the garbage collection system. Whereas there exist 185 garbage collection locations throughout the city, there are only 50 locations where people can recycle, most of which are concentrated in the Cannaregio sestiere. Consequently, most of the waste generated by the city does not get reused, and thus ends up incinerated or dumped after it is disposed.
	For its size, Venice produces considerably more garbage than comparable cities in Italy. Aside from the 65,000 residents that make up the Historical Center, over 12 million tourists visit the city each year. According to VESTA officials, in terms of garbage generation, the tourists produce the equivalent of 100,000 additional permanent residents.
	The problem is aggravated significantly by the fact that Venice resides on a series of interconnected islands where automobiles are scarcely used. As a consequence, the waste management process for the city is more complicated and expensive than it would be if the city was located on the mainland. The cost of using boats and specialized machinery and personnel to collect garbage on a daily basis from the city costs four times more than it would for mainland cities with roads.
	The additional costs create a persistent burden on the city’s residents. Given that tourists generate a large proportion of the garbage, it has proven difficult to create an adequate accountability system to fairly distribute the colossal cost of waste management in Venice. Therefore, the problem of recycling in Venice cannot be addressed without taking the unique nature of the city into account.
	The city currently employs the services of VESTA (VEnezia Servizi Territoriali Ambientali), the local waste management agency, to carry out the task of keeping the city clean. Among VESTA’s duties are to maintain a fleet of boats and barges to be used for the transportation of garbage, employ hundreds of workers to sweep and clean the various streets and campi, and collect the garbage throughout the city using door-to-door collection routes as well as centralized autoconferimento, or self-service, dumpsters. Finally, VESTA also manages the limited recycling system currently in place.
	As opposed to mainland collection systems, where the garbage is collected swiftly by garbage trucks and driven directly to the dump or incinerator, in Venice there are many more intermediate steps to complete the same process. First, the workers must pick up garbage at each door and deposit the refuse into their carts. Once the carts are full, the workers walk back to their respective boats to empty their cart into the boat’s compactor. The process is repeated until all garbage on the island has been collected. The boats then travel to the Secca S. Biagio Island on the Giudecca, where a crane takes the garbage boat’s cargo compartment and empties it onto a barge. Once the barge is full, it is attached to a tugboat and pushed across the lagoon to Fusina, where the mainland waste processing plant is located. Once in Fusina, a large crane slowly scoops the garbage out of the barge and drops it into a truck one scoop at a time. The truck makes repeated trips to unload the garbage at the plant to be processed.
	At the plant, garbage is either incinerated or converted into CDR (Combustibile Da Rifiuti). The CDR is then sold to power plants and other plants designed to burn biomass. Garbage from the Historical Center is not converted into CDR; rather, it is either burnt or shipped to the local recycling plant.
	Part of the problem leading to a lack of recycling in Venice is local participation. The recycling systems that have been previously attempted have had little success because it has never proven convenient or otherwise beneficial for people and businesses to recycle. Secondly, adding a citywide recycling system has always presented the prospect of expanding the already overpriced waste management system in Venice, which would lead to an even greater burden for the residents to pay.
	The garbage system is currently financed through a tariff called the TIA (Tariffa Igiene Ambientale). The tariff’s effectiveness as a financing scheme has been brought into question in the past, as it has seen itself reformed numerous times. As it stands, the tourism industry derives an unfair benefit through the TIA, while businesses that cater to local needs see themselves paying inequitable sums for the amount of garbage they generate. Aside from the inequity of the tariff, it fails to cover the cost of waste management each year, leading to a ten million Euro deficit that must be compensated using general taxpayer funds.
	As a result of a European Union mandate, all manufacturing companies in its member nations (including Italy) are required to dispose of packaging once its use has expired. The purpose of the mandate is to encourage more responsible work by packaging companies. Currently the City of Venice does not enforce the mandate, but doing so would cut down on garbage collection costs to a high degree, compensating to a degree for the increased costs associated with managing recyclables.
	Our objectives in completing this project were, in order: examine the existing garbage collection mechanisms in place throughout the city, to analyze the limited recycling system existent in certain parts of the city, to determine the impact of tourism on the volume of garbage generated across the city, and to analyze our findings and draw a set of conclusions that would lead to our final recommendation.
	While analyzing the current garbage collection system, we observed and studied the daily collection and disposal of waste in the city. In addition, we visited the various sites where the garbage is transported and processed. In the mainland processing plant at Fusina, we received a firsthand look at the steps taken in the processing and disposal of waste from Venice.
	Having familiarized ourselves with the citywide garbage collection system, we focused our attention on the current limited recycling system in place. We noted and documented the location of all the recyclable dumpster sites, allowing us to get an idea of which areas are serviced by recycling, and the extent of the service provided.
	With a solid foundation of knowledge about the existing recycling system, we examined the potential scope of a citywide recycling system by determining the waste composition of the various businesses in Venice.
	We examined the garbage collection system, including collection route maps, and compiled databases detailing the various aspects of each collection area. We studied the number of personnel and the types of equipment used for the various collection areas across the city. We interviewed officials from the city’s Environmental Department, as well as the people in charge of VESTA’s garbage collection program.
	In studying the current recycling system, we similarly compiled the results of our observations into a database and converted them to a visual format using MapInfo. We also interviewed Alessandro Bassi, the VESTA official in charge of running the recycling program, to aid us in examining the pitfalls involved with a citywide recycling system.
	After interviewing the officials and visiting the mainland plant of Fusina, we conducted a detailed and exhaustive analysis of garbage composition for the various types of businesses present in the city of Venice. Our methods involved late night and early morning inspections of garbage near the respective businesses, as well as the distribution of surveys among the managers of each business. The surveys allowed the managers to detail how much waste their business produced, as well as providing a general estimate of the various types of recyclable waste they created on a regular basis.
	As a result of our analysis of the completed business surveys and collection information, we were able to devise a new system for collection that improved accountability for the residents and businesses alike. Our system of city-approved bags and recycling bins will allow each person to pay according to how much waste he/she produces, while providing an incentive to recycle.
	Our proposal also included a change to the scheduling system to compensate for the fact that recycling collection has to be treated differently from garbage collection. Our second shift of collection is proposed as 5pm in the afternoon, when the collection boats will induce the least interference to the locals. 
	Additionally, our proposal called for the observation of the December 1994 European Union Mandate concerning packaging material waste and how it needs to be collected. Observing this mandate will permit the city to save a significant amount of money it can then apply towards promoting the new recycling system in the city.
	Finally, our final proposal observed the impact the reengineering of the waste disposal system would have on the residents and their respective businesses. Throughout our project, we gave prime consideration to making the transition to recycling easy and beneficial to the residents. Indeed, they now have the opportunity to be compensated for responsible behavior and using recycling as an alternative to throwing their waste away. Ideally, our recycling system, if implemented, will lead to other groundbreaking environmental initiatives within the City of Venice.


TITLE:
An Integrated, Multi-Agency Approach to the Preservation of Venetian Palaces

AUTHORS:
Andrew Halloran
Kevin Rohleder
Reem Malik
Kari Fletcher

SPONSORS:
Comune di Venezia Assessorato all’Urbanistica

Original Abstract:
The palaces of Venice are historical monuments which are constantly being modified to keep them current with present-day standards so that they remain usable.  When a modification to a palace is requested, it is studied by several government agencies and preservation organizations to ensure that the requested modification does not jeopardize the historical integrity of the structure.  However, each of the agencies works off of different sources to acquire information necessary to reach an appropriate decision.  The sources may contain similar information, but it is information that is not always shared.  With the purpose of aiding the City of Venice in preserving the palaces, the goal of our project was to combine the resources of all the agencies and integrate them into one easily accessible, easily searchable computerized database.  The intention was that the digitization and centralization of all the data would make them more accessible and utilizable to the various city departments.  Five different agencies contributed records and information on palaces, which we verified, organized and linked through the database.  Analysis of the process for obtaining a building permit confirmed that our database will help make it more efficient.  Besides being a comprehensive source of information, the database establishes a standard institutional link between the different departments to share information and cooperate with each other more effectively, thus streamlining their efforts towards the preservation of palaces.

Description:
The palaces of Venice define the city’s landscape and history.  There are about four hundred palaces within the historic center of Venice, and more than one hundred of these monumental buildings line the Grand Canal.  While most of these buildings, known in Italian as palazzi, were built around the 16th century, some date as far back as the 1200’s.  Despite their age, they stand even today, proud and awe-inspiring, a constant reminder of the power and wealth of the Serenissima, the most serene Republic of Venice, and its artistic contribution to the culture of Europe.  Figure 0 1 depicts five major palaces on the Grand Canal.
Originally, palazzi served as residences combined with offices and warehouses for the merchant-aristocracy of Venice.  These were families of noble origins, with a great amount of wealth and influence within Venetian politics and society.  The beauty of the facade, the location of the palace, and the value of the art within were conspicuous symbols of the social importance of that specific family.  Unfortunately, as time took its toll on the buildings, they naturally started to deteriorate, and the city faces the danger of losing their historic and cultural value.  
 
Figure 0 2: Facade of palace in need of restoration
There is an obvious need for the restoration and preservation of palazzi (Figure 0 2), simply to keep their history and beauty alive.  While the City of Venice places great value on the maintenance of these buildings, it has other considerations to make.  Within the historic center of Venice, construction of new buildings is not allowed due to lack of space.  The buildings that already exist need to be used to meet the needs of the city in a modern world. The purpose of our project was to make a valuable contribution towards the safeguarding of these beautiful buildings.
Each building undergoes considerable renovation to keep it usable in modern society.  Most palaces today have been converted to apartments, museums, hotels and offices. Basic amenities of modern living, such as electricity and plumbing, are added. Structural changes are often necessary to create more rooms and increase wall space, depending on the use of the building.  If not carefully considered, these renovations can destroy the original architectural designs, endangering the history and beauty of the palace.  This would affect not only one specific building, but on a larger scale would diminish a defining trait of this historical city.
Many different city departments exist to regulate renovation through the use of permits.  Our project sponsor, Comune di Venezia Assesserato all’Urbanistica (the Venetian planning department), as well as Edilizia Privata (building department), Soprintendenza (Ministry of Culture) and Commissione di Salvaguardia (Landmarks Commission) are all involved in regulating modifications to buildings.  A permit must be obtained before renovations can be applied to any building in Venice, with each permit decision requiring a great deal of information about the building being renovated.  
Because palaces are considered monuments, a permit for a palace requires even more information and consideration than other Venetian buildings.  Usually, at least three separate departments are involved in the decision to approve a modification to a palace.  The departments work relatively independently of each other, approving or disapproving different aspects of a proposed modification.  These efforts are all targeted at transforming the building for modern use without endangering its original qualities.
To make an appropriate decision, the departments often require the same kind of information on the palace.  There exist many sources with information about palaces that may be relevant to the decision to approve a change.  Unfortunately, many of these sources are in separate locations and contain contradictory information.  These sources are difficult to use, since most are recorded in paper form, which is hard to transmit and duplicate.  They are also not convenient to update and may contain information that is outdated or inaccurate.
The goal of our project was to contribute to the preservation of palaces in Venice by gathering all this disparate information into one centralized, computerized database.  The database contains information that is up to date, accurate, and potentially accessible to all city departments and the public.  We also suggested ways for the database to be implemented and updated in a way that would maximize its benefits to the city departments and streamline their efforts in the preservation of palaces.
	The project involved accessing and gathering all of the existing data sources. The primary source of information was a catalog of Venetian palaces, created in 1968 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).  This catalog contains a great deal of useful information identifying and describing each palace.  The only disadvantages to the catalog were its age, and the fact that the catalog only existed in paper form.  We entered all the information from this catalog into our database.  We also gathered information from many other sources: city departments (namely Urbanistica and Edilizia Privata), books, etc.  This collected information was entered into our database as well.
	In addition to using existing sources, we visited each palace to gather our own data.  Our sources were often contradictory in such simple facts as addresses, so there was a need to verify this information to ensure the completeness and correctness of our database.  We collected updated use and ownership information for each building.  Our field data collection also entailed taking digital pictures of each palace to create a permanent visual record of each palace. The UNESCO database occasionally had photographs, but it was by no means consistent in this regard, and we wanted to correct this apparent lack of visual information.  These pictures also served as a record of the current state of restoration of each building.
Our principal result was the database containing all the available information on the palaces.  This database can be endlessly duplicated and distributed, which makes it easier to access, and therefore more likely will be used.  We came across incomplete or lost records in the paper catalogs, but computerized records will stay complete.  The computerized database can be easily updated and kept current, and we suggested ways for this in our Recommendations section.  
 
Figure 0 3: Locations of palaces in Venice
	We linked our database to a geographical information system.  This allows the creation of computer generated maps, as in Figure 0 3.  Using our database, other maps can be generated for more specific purposes.  This makes it possible to display database information in a visual manner.
After creating this database, we studied ways that it can be utilized.  We took an actual example of a permit for the conversion of Palazzo Foscari into a hotel.  We followed the permit through the entire process, from the initial application to the final approval.  We traced its progress through Edilizia Privata, the Soprintendenza and the Commissione di Salvaguardia.  At each step, we looked at the palace renovation and identified specific points along the way where our database would be useful.  Using this information and our research on the operations of various city departments, we recommended possible implementations and uses within the offices.  
	We have collected extensive information on the Venetian palaces but there is still much more work to be done.  Along with our recommendations for the implementation and maintenance of our database, we also recommended ways to extend our work.  We discussed ways of collecting information on more palaces that are not currently included in our database, as well as ways of collecting new and different types of information on the palaces already included. 
Our project has contributed to the effort to preserve the palaces of Venice by centralizing, updating, and preserving the previous records on the historical buildings.  Whereas before, many types of information had to be collected individually from different locations, making the gathering of complete information difficult and inefficient, the new database contains all the information in one place.  The information is more accessible to all departments, establishing lines of communication between the departments and facilitating the sharing of information.  This centralization of information allows permit requests to be processed more efficiently.  An efficient process leads to educated response to requests for renovation, aiding in the preservation of Venetian palaces for generations to come.


TITLE:
The Moto Ondoso Index: Assessing the Effects of Boat Traffic in the Canals of Venice

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by the Consorzio Trasportatori Riuniti Veneziani, and Pax in Aqua, located in Venice, Italy created an index for ranking the energy level of each canal segment in the Venetian canal system.  Boat traffic in the canals produces wake that erodes and destroys the walls of the canals, causing structural problems to the city.  Wake heights of different boat types were measured, and the energy released by these wakes was calculated.  The index was then created by assessing canal traffic patterns combined with the amount of energy released by different boat types when traveling at different speeds with different payloads. Additionally, this project suggested new traffic regulations that would reduce the total amount of energy in the canal system, and analyzed how probable traffic pattern scenarios would affect energy levels.

Description:
Every densely populated city in the world has a problem with traffic, and Venice is no exception.  Venetian traffic, however, is different than traffic in any other city as it is composed of boats that travel in an extensive canal system.  Rowboats were traditionally used for the transportation of people, goods, and waste.  After World War II, technology in the rest of the world advanced and Venice followed suit by making use of motorboats as a faster and more efficient means of transportation.  Although motorboats have brought speed and efficiency to the Venetian lifestyle, the powerful motors caused a new problem that the city had never faced before, moto ondoso .  The canal walls were designed and built long before motor boats were invented, and were therefore not intended to withstand the force produced by boat wakes.  Now that motor boats are the main form of transportation in the canals, the walls are continuously pounded upon by the waves that these boats produce.  The constant stress that the canal walls are subjected to causes them to erode and slowly fall apart.  Since the canal walls also serve as the foundation to the buildings of the city, this destruction is not only expensive, but dangerous.  This project was conducted in an effort to provide a system of assessing canal wall damage caused by canal traffic.  With this system, the city of Venice will be able to efficiently reduce canal wall damage caused by boat wakes through the implementation of effective traffic regulations.  
As a boat moves through the water it creates underwater turbulence that is caused by the spinning of propellers.  Wake is the portion of turbulence that is visible on the surface of the water.  Wake and turbulence create impact between the water and the canal walls, weakening and eroding them, causing a need for constant repairs.  If a damaged wall goes too long without proper repairs the results can be dangerous.  Some of these walls have been damaged so severely that they develop large holes and collapse, causing the buildings they support to collapse into the canals they border.  Other factors, such as clogged sewer outlets, boat collisions, and biological and chemical agents intensify the effects of moto ondoso by weakening the canal walls. Once a wall has been weakened or damaged it is more susceptible to the erosive powers of the water, and is therefore destroyed at a much faster rate.  
Moto ondoso is a prominent topic in Venice’s current events, and constantly causes conflict.  Articles about issues related to this debate appear nearly every day in the local newspapers.  During our stay in Venice the team met with two organizations with opposite perspectives on the problem of moto ondoso and what should be done to alleviate the problem. Paolo Lanopoppi, the elected head of the anti wake organization Pax in Aqua, firmly believes that moto ondoso is the primary cause for canal wall damage and the destruction of the city’s foundations.  He believes that unless moto ondoso is drastically reduced, Venice will be in great danger.  Ivano Turlorn is the Director of Technical Operations at Insula, the company who repairs and maintains the canal walls in Venice.  Those at Insula believe that since canal wall damage is caused by a complex combination of many factors; there is no way to tell how much, if any damage is attributable to moto ondoso.  Insula also believes that moto ondoso will always exist, so it would be more effective to create walls that are more resistant to wakes.  The Venetian canal walls were not designed to withstand the force of boat wakes, so the original method of canal wall construction is outdated for the modern lifestyle that Venetians have adopted.  A more modern, reinforced, canal wall construction would be resistant to damage.  These conflicting views are the cause of constant debate on how to alleviate the problem of moto ondoso.    
The City of Venice has made an effort to reduce the amount of boat wake and canal wall damage in a variety of ways.  For instance, speed limits have been assigned to the entire lagoon.    The only place these speed limits are currently enforced, however, is in the Grand Canal, so there is consistent speeding by boats traveling throughout the rest of the city.  Since there is little enforcement of speed limits, the residents of Venice as a whole do not follow the recommended speeds.  Reducing boat speed through the enforcement of speed limits would reduce the size of the wakes the boats produce and ultimately slow the speed at which the walls are being destroyed.  Traffic restrictions have also been applied to canals suffering severe damage in order to slow the damage and prevent it from becoming a serious problem before it can be repaired. 
To develop a system to objectively quantify activity in the canals, we developed a methodology that determined total energy released by boats into the canals.  First we selected canals that were suitable for data collection.  These canals were selected based on previously determined criteria. Through research, the team determined that the necessary information for determining the energy released by a boat into the water was the amplitude and period of a wave.  During data collection we measured the amplitude and period of the wake produced by a given boat, as well as the boat’s velocity.  The type of boat and payload were also recorded.  All data was taken on straight canal segments to ensure that wake size was an accurate representation of the amount of turbulence the boat was creating, as well as to avoid changes in speed so that accurate speed measurements could be made.  With the values for wake height and wavelength, we calculated the amount of energy released into the canal by each recorded boat.  
To determine the total amount of energy released into each canal segment a Moto Ondoso Index was created.  This index is a summation of the energy value of each boat that passes through the canal segment each day, according to traffic data collected in past projects.  An original index point value was calculated for each canal segment included in the study.  
We determined that the height of the boats wake increases exponentially as speed increases.  For example, a small cargo boat traveling at 5 km/h would produce a wake around 2 cm high.  If the same boat were to speed up to 10 km/h the height of the wake would increase to almost 15 cm.  The data also revealed that very few boats travel within the posted speed limits.  The average speed in all boats in all canals was over 12 km/h, which is more than 7 km/h over the legal maximum speed.  If boats were to travel within the speed limits, there would be a drastic decrease in the heights of boat wakes and therefore much less erosive water motion.  Enforcing speed limits would greatly reduce the problem of Moto Ondoso. 
For all boat types, the energy released increases as the speed increases.  On average, small cargo boats release the most energy per passage, making them the most harmful to the canal walls.  Taxi boats released the next highest energy level per passage, and vaparetto released the least.   
We also examined how a boat’s payload affects the wake it produces. When examining data of cargo boats with different payloads we found that wake height decreased as payload increased therefore, decreasing the amount of energy they released.  A possible explanation for this trend is that when maneuvering long straight sections of canals (such as those used for data collection) heavy boats can rely on the momentum of the boat, rather than the motor to propel them.  Since little force is required to keep the boat moving, the motor does not produce a large wake.  
During data collection we made observations about different hull shapes of boats.  We noticed that boats with narrow, streamlined hulls produced far less wake than those with boxy, square hulls.  Regardless of boat type, boats with boxy hulls would therefore cause more damage to the canal walls than their sleek counterparts.  
To analyze the data, base Moto Ondoso Index values for winter and summer were calculated for each boat type using energy values of these boats traveling at the 5 km/h speed limit.  Indexes of different traffic scenarios were then calculated and compared to this base value.  The total base index for the summer months is 42% higher than in the winter months due to the increase in number of tourists.  The indices were then broken down by boat type, and at the actual average speed that boats currently travel in the canals, small cargo boats release by far the most amount of energy into the canals (66%), however if all boats were to travel at the posted speed limit of 5 km/h taxi boats would be responsible for most (53%) of the energy released.  We also made a projection about how the index for the canal system would change if all boats were to travel within the speed limits.  At the speeds boats currently travel in the canals, they release more than nine times the amount of energy they would if they were to travel within the speed limits, causing over nine times the amount of damage they are supposed to.  Speed limits are currently loosely enforced in the canal system through the use of laser guns that clock boat speed, and a system of consequences that include boat confiscation.  If this method of enforcement became stricter, the excessive speeding would be reduced, causing a drastic decrease in wake energy and the canal wall damage rate.  
Other applications of the Moto Ondoso Index included projections of the effect of increased taxi boat speed limits and the reduction of cargo boat traffic.  Taxi boat drivers are attempting to convince the city of Venice to change their speed limit from 5 km/h to 7 km/h within the inner canals.  Increasing the index of taxi boat travel only 2 km/h from 5 to 7 would cause their index value to increase by 80%.  However on average, taxi boats already travel above 7 km/h, so it likely that if their speed limit were to go up they would increase their speed even further causing an even greater increase in the amount of wake energy they release.  A project completed last year proposed re-engineering the cargo delivery system in Venice in way that would reduce the amount of cargo boat traffic by 90%.  If boats were to continue traveling at their current speeds, the 90% cargo boat traffic decrease would lead to a 68% decrease in the total Moto Ondoso Index for the canal system, causing a drastic decrease in the total energy of the canal system.  The implementation of this plan would relieve a substantial amount of canal wall damage due to wakes.  
Every year the amount of canal traffic increases around 2.5%.  We made projections of how the total indexes would change if the traffic flow were to continue increasing at the current rate.  In the next 5 years the total index would increase by 13% and in ten years the index would increase by 28% of the current index.  Therefore there by 2012 there will be 28% more energy being released into the canals than there is currently, causing the wall damage rate to increase further, and more rapidly as time goes on.  
Our project has not only determined the primary causes of wake damage in the canals of Venice such as excessive speeding and an inefficient cargo delivery system, but suggested methods of alleviating these damaging factors.  If boat speed was reduced by a more widespread enforcement of speed limits, and the cargo delivery system was redesigned, the effects of moto ondoso on the city of Venice would be far less severe.  We have also designed powerful tool that the city a tool that the city can use in the future.  The Moto Ondoso Index system gives insight on how the canal walls might be affected by any changes in traffic flow or any proposed traffic legislation.  Since the index encompasses variables such as traffic, speed, payload, and season, it becomes a multi-faceted tool that can be used to make effective changes that will decrease the dangerous effects of moto ondoso.


TITLE:
The Dunes of Venice: A Prototype for the Environmental Atlas of the Lagoon

AUTHORS:
Sergio Cherenzia
Jennifer Persico
Caroline Frelat
Keith Bonneau

Original Abstract:
The Dunes of Venice: A Prototype for the Environmental Atlas of the Lagoon project examined three dune sites on the outer islands of the Venetian lagoon. We collected data on the vegetation and geomorphology of each site, and proposed site specific preservations plans based on condition assessments we took. The database of our field data, in conjunction with published research was used to create the prototype of the Environmental Atlas of the Venetian Lagoon. This Atlas will be used by the Environment Department of the City of Venice to conduct impact assessments of future development plans, and assist in maintaining data for environmental monitoring and preservation.

Description:
Venice is being threatened by increasingly high tides every year. Preventing the total inundation of the city are the outer islands, the Lidi. The Lidi are a pair of barrier islands, Lido and Pellestrina, which shelter the lagoon from strong tides and destructive waves from storms. Historically, these islands served as the outer defenses for the city, and today, they house Venetian homes and businesses.  Sand dunes have formed on the seaward shores of these islands, near the jetties that have been built.  Sand dunes protect the inland areas and play a role in maintaining the dynamic and delicate equilibrium of the coastal environment. Due to human use, these dune areas have been compromised, causing them to develop irregular vegetation patterns and sizes, thereby endangering several important ecotopes. The dunes are also threatened by development projects near or on the coastline, like the MOSE project. The MOSE project is the building of enormous floodgates at the entrances to the lagoon, between the jetties, and thus adjacent to, and at times on top of, the sand dunes.  Preserved and protected, these dunes could grow properly again and provide recreational and educational uses while also fulfilling the role of protecting the barrier islands that in turn protect the city of Venice.
	The Italian central government has recently given control of coastline to the local government organizations of major coastal cities. The City of Venice Environment Department is now responsible for these coastal dune areas, and is obligated to create a coastal management plan by the summer of 2003. This plan will be followed up with a large environmental impact analysis study, on all of the aspects of the lagoon that have been determined to be sites of ecological importance to the European Union. The Environment Department is looking to establish a system for maintaining all of the environmental information collected for use in future impact analysis. To accomplish this, they want to create an Environmental Atlas of the Venetian Lagoon. The Atlas will be an electronic integration of the history of the Venetian lagoon coupled with detailed environmental information about ecotopes, tides, geomorphology and dynamics, for educational purposes and to conduct environmental impact analysis for future commercial or residential development.  
Our team was given the task of creating the prototype for this Atlas, using research and data collection on the sand dunes as its foundation. We used the sand dunes as the base for the prototype because it will also assist the Environment Department in their creation of the coastal management plan. This preliminary database will be expanded as more information on other areas of the lagoon is gathered in the future.  The goal of this project was not only to create this prototype, but also to promote the preservation of these endangered areas by establishing restricted areas for public use and setting aside other regions for educational and recreational purposes. We developed preservation plans for the dune areas of Alberoni, San Nicolò, and Ca’ Roman, located on the outer islands of the Venetian Lagoon. This project integrates all of this environmental information to provide the Environment Department with an accurate, interactive and adaptable prototype for the Environmental Atlas.
Our methodology consisted of two main components.  The first involved collecting previous information pertaining to the history and current state of the dune areas. We interviewed members of the Environment Department about the history of the barrier islands and about the different ecological aspects we needed to be aware of before conducting our fieldwork. This information served as the foundation for our data collection process.
The second component involved the collection of data on the dunes themselves, originally on the dune site of Alberoni and then expanded to San Nicolò and Ca’ Roman.  This included plant species locations, evolution of dune size and structure, photographs and locations of structural interventions in the dune areas.  The locations of the plant species, dunes and structures were recorded with a Global Positioning System and were then overlaid onto aerial photographs to provide a better visual representation of the areas.  These characteristics were then entered into a database that served as the data repository for the Environmental Atlas.
The next phase of the project involved refining our research methods on the different dune sites and making them adaptable to other areas of the lagoon. We tested our methodology by using the same methods we developed on the Alberoni and applying them to the two other dune sites.  Each site has its own distinctive set of characteristics; so our methodology had to be sufficiently broad to encompass these differences, yet still maintain its integrity.   The method of mapping bands of vegetation and creating dune elevation profiles for use in condition assessment and monitoring was determined to be robust for our project.
Our methodology yielded results of environmental data, photograph documentation and structure data. This data included GPS Band Data, Forest Clearing Data, Structures Data, and Vegetation Records.  The GPS band data described the progression of vegetation and dune structure from the shore to the pine forest.  We found that each band was successively more vegetated, and contained different plant species, although a number of species did exist in more than one band. We discovered that many different plants migrate from band to band, making many of them their home.  The two most notable plants on the Alberoni are the Ammophila litoralis and the Oenothera biennis.  Although they are the dominant plants in bands 3 and 4 respectively, they have spread throughout the dune field. 
The Forest Clearing Data includes information on present vegetation and landscape characteristics of the clearings.  We encountered two types of clearings during our study.  The sandy, less vegetated clearings always had moss and usually had some dune plants from the 4th or 5th bands.  Plants like the Juncus litoralis and the Eranthius ravennae dominated the largely vegetated clearings. We also recorded the location and shape of the man-made structures present on the dunes. The impact of these structures was determined by comparing cross-sections of the dunes, to study the differences in geomorphology and band sequence.
We analyzed each of the dune sites to determine the condition of the individual sites, and to compare them across all the dune sites. Because the Ca’Roman dune field was the least affected by human impact, it served as the basis of comparison for the other dune sites. To make comparisons between the dune sites, and also to make recommendations for usage, we calculated several indices, including the Natural Index and Aesthetic Index, and defined the characteristics of Natural Tendency and Natural Importance. Each of these indices and characteristics were determined by area, not by dune site, since different areas within the dune field can have very different values. The Natural Index is a measure of how natural an area is; similarly, the Aesthetic Index is a value for how beautiful an area is. The Natural Trend the determination of whether an area is in the process of reverting to a more natural state, or is progressing to a more developed state. Naturalistic Importance is the characteristic that weights the importance of natural areas. The entire dune field of Ca’ Roman was determined to have high importance since it is a bird sanctuary and since it is the most unscathed by human interference. The Alberoni and San Nicolò dune sites each had different values of importance, naturalness, and aesthetics for each section. The Ca’Roman dune site was homogeneous in its characteristics; therefore all sections had the same values for the indices. The overall natural index was high due to limited human impact, so that the dune structure, band sequence, and vegetation remained mostly in their natural state. The aesthetic index was high, and the trend is toward its natural state. We entered all of our field data into a database that served as the prototype for the Environmental Atlas of the Lagoon. The data was organized at its broadest level by Site of Critical Importance, and then by dune site.  Within each dune site, the data was further separated into eight sections: soil, air, climate, biotopes, water, land use, traffic/noise, and energy.  The only categories that were related to our project were biotopes, land use and soil.  The biotopes section involved most importantly a vegetation catalog, which shows pictures of vegetation, sorted by band.  The land use section included damaged areas and paths, and the soil section contained a dune elevation profile.
Due to human interference on the dunes, the areas of indigenous vegetation and structural characteristics are non-continuous, and in some cases are isolated. For the dunes to return to their natural state, these isolated populations need to be connected. Biological corridors are a way of connecting these vegetation populations, and the method that we recommended was an adaptation of that used for establishing these corridors for animals. Our analysis allowed us to propose preservation plans for each dune site individually, as well as make some overall recommendations for all three sites. Suggested areas of usage for each dune site, delimited by fences, were designated to prevent widespread damage. We determined that wooden walkways should be built at each dune site to give people beach access without traversing the dunes and trampling vegetation.  We also made recommendations for the establishment and location of biological corridors for use in environmental monitoring and education. The data that we collected will be used by several city departments for environmental monitoring, design of the coastline management plan for the Lido and the environmental management plan for the maintenance of sites of European Ecological Importance, as mandated by the European Union. Eventually our database will be linked to databases of information on other areas of the Lagoon to make up the Environmental Atlas. While the data incorporated in the Atlas is likely to come from many different sources and provided by different agencies, the Atlas will be the centralized location for all environmental information about the Lagoon. This will allow the effects of development on dynamic ecotopes to be more accurately forecasted, thereby preventing the need for restoration in the future.


TITLE:
AN ARCHEOLOGICAL AND ANALYTICAL STUDY OF VENETIAN CHURCH FLOORS: A Preliminary Qualifying Project Proposal

AUTHORS:
Hilary Lohnes Hayes
James Liu
Christian A Salini
Alexis Steinhart

ADVISORS:
Professor Fabio Carrera
Professor Guillermo Salazar

SPONSORS:
Archeology Superintendence, Luigi Fozzati
UNESCO

Original Abstract:
The purpose of this project is to identify archeological opportunities for the
Archeological Superintendence of Venice. Our sponsor Luigi Fozzati and the Archeology Superintendence supported our efforts in collecting data from the floors and artifacts of the churches of Castello and San Polo. We focused on the condition assessment and collection of information from the floors and artifacts found in the 22 churches studied. We provided a multitude of map info layers using the GIS system MapInfo as well as a complete and detailed database of condition assessment and information about floors and artifacts. The floors and artifacts were evaluated not only as restoration sites but also as historic relics.


TITLE:
Convents, Palaces and Churches:
Transformation of Historic Buildings and the Impact on Venice’s Neighborhoods

AUTHORS:
Sean Hoey
Marissa Kahan
Paul Marchetti
Kimberly Mazza

SPONSORS:
UNESCO and Assessorato Urbanistica, Philippe Pypaert

TOPICS:
Historic Building Analysis, Urban analysis

Original Abstract:
The main focus of this project was to aid Venice in creating a balance between conservation and adaptation.  Our project began by finalizing the 2002 WPI Palaces of Venice catalogue as well as the 1999 WPI Churches of Venice database.  We also created a computerized catalogue of convents based on information taken from 1968 by UNESCO.  In addition, we created an impact analysis of adaptive reuse within the areas surrounding Santo Stefano and Madonna dell’Orto.  Through our project, we also assembled a 'touristicity index' comparing the number of residents, number of hotel beds and number of tourist services within each census tract.


TITLE:
Preservation and Restoration of Venetian Public
Art - From the Completion of the Public Art Catalog
to the Active Restoration Process

AUTHORS:
Mark Elbag
Adam Epstein
James Hannigan
Elizabeth Rosinha

TOPICS:
Venice Public Art, Public Art Catalog, Restoration Process

Original Abstract:
Venice, Italy contains over 4,230 pieces of public art that must be maintained and restored to preserve the ancient culture. Past students have created a  multimedia catalog containing each piece with physical information and condition assessments. The catalog was completed through this project with the incorporation of monuments. The Association for the Preservation of Venetian Public Art was created in order to use the vast amounts of information in the catalog to preserve each piece of public art in Venice.


TITLE:
Growth in the Garden Of Venice:
Sustainable Development in Sant’Erasmo

AUTHORS:
Katrina Hildebrand
David Norcott
Laurel Rudge
Thomas Zammataro

SPONSORS:
Comunue di Venezia, Assessorato all’Urbanistica. Giorgio Pilla

Original Abstract:
The island of Sant’Erasmo, or “the Garden of Venice,” was once the agricultural center of the Venetian lagoon; however, now 1/3 of farmland is abandoned, making it a target for development. To preserve the rural landscape, typologies were defined for the existing buildings for use in future construction. Furthermore, a system was devised to utilize the abandoned farm fields and waterways on the island that will ultimately maintain the historical integrity and ambiance characteristic of the Venetian
lagoon.


TITLE:
The Island of Pellestrina: Case Study for the Environmental Atlas of the Venetian Lagoon

AUTHORS:
Scott Battocchi
Caitlin Bell
Jeffrey Blair
Natalie Cole

SPONSORS:
Assessorato all’Ambiente, 
Marco Favaro
Silvia Rizzardi
Valeria Giannella
Andrea Mariotto

TOPICS:
traffic and beach use, sustainable urban development, environmental impact

LOCATIONS:
Venice, Island of Pellestrina, Venetian Lagoon

Original Abstract:
The Island of Pellestrina: Case Study for the Environmental Atlas of the Venetian Lagoon project developed a methodology for collecting traffic and beach use data on Pellestrina and a structure for presenting this information.  The methodology and structure were generalized to propose the Environmental Atlas of the Venetian Lagoon.  The Osservatorio Naturalistico will use the Atlas to verify environmental impact assessments for sustainable urban development and to plan for the future of Venice and its lagoon.


AUTHORS:
Doug J. Leenhouts
Paul F. Messier  
Scott J. Neithercut

TOPICS:
Sound identification, recording, evaluating, documenting, analyzing

Original Abstract:
The importance of sound is an element of the human existence that is often overlooked. For example, the movie Gladiator recreated the Roman Arena in order to tell a story. However, in trying to recreate the Arena, the question arises of what did the Arena sound like? Is the representation presented in the movie an accurate depiction of these sounds? This example is just one case of a larger social issue: the documentation of sound. With the technological tools which give us the ability to accurately record sound, what sounds should be recorded such that the sounds that encompass our lives can accurately be represented?
	Venice provides a unique environment for such a study of sounds in a city. Being a pedestrian city, automobiles are not present in a vast majority of the city, which is often a sound that is the heard above any other in a major city of a country. Additionally, the city’s historic center is devoid of any major permanent industrial noise. These two qualities allow for the ability to clearly hear, identify, and record the sounds which encompass the city of Venice. Furthermore, this unique environment provides for the ability to examine the characteristic properties of sound which are necessary for identifying which sounds are important to record.
	This project is the first known systematic attempt to identify, record, and catalogue the sounds which encompass the city of Venice. Specifically, the group accomplished the following objectives
	Identify the Characteristic Sounds of Venice- This objective focused on the collection of sound ideas from numerous sources using different methods and developing a way to prioritize the sounds using objective scoring of attributes, and creating a list of sounds for the group to record.
	Create a Searchable Digital Catalogue- This objective focused on the recording, processing, and cataloguing of the sounds listed by the previous objective.
	Organize a Musical Competition- This objective focused on the creation of guidelines and finding possible contacts for the creation of a musical competition in which composers use the sounds of Venice to create new musical compositions that ascertain the unique auditory environment that encompasses the city.
First, the members of the project team (the group) used six methods to try and collect ideas from multiple sources about what might be the sounds to record in Venice. In completing the below methods, the group kept two major questions in mind: (1) what are the sounds which are characteristic of Venice? and (2) what are the sounds in Venice which are in need of Preservation?
	Face to Face Interviews- The group asked 120 English-speaking individuals throughout the city questions about sound in Venice in the hope that the individuals would be aware of the sounds surrounding them in their travels.
	Past WPI Venice Project Center Student E-mail Questionnaire- The group e-mailed approximately 48 students and 4 professors’ questions about sounds in Venice trying to extract information form their prior two month residence within the city.
	Focus Groups- The group held a focus group of 12 current WPI Venice Project Center students to gather sound ideas from preparatory research that each student conducted before their arrival in Venice.
	Direct Observation- The group noted the sounds heard within the city during the first three weeks of residence within the city.
	Free-Lists- The group had members of the Settetmari Rowing Club and APT Venezia who are residents of Venice to create a free lists of sounds they heard within their city.
	Content Analysis- The group examined two movies, two books, and the internet for possible references to sounds heard within the city of Venice.
In total, the group received 437 sound suggestions. Of these 437 sound suggestions, 269 suggestions were classified as characteristic sounds of Venice, and 48 of the 437 were classified as endangered.  
Next, the prioritization process used was implemented for two reasons: to ensure the group recorded the sounds of most merit, first within the short time period allotted to record, and second, to eliminate suggestions that are not characteristic or endangered in Venice. First, the group organized and coded the sound suggestions. This eliminated multiple responses from our list, grouped similar responses into a single sound suggestion, and gave action verbs to suggestions of the noun form. The 437 sound suggestions resulted in a list of 129 sound ideas. Next, the group determined that a sound had six attributes of enough merit to determine if a sound should be recorded. These six attributes, listed below in order of relative importance with the most important on top, are:
	Preservation (5)- How likely is it for the sound to not be able to be heard in the future? Will the sound become ‘extinct’?
	Uniqueness (4)- How unique is the sound to Venice? Is Venice the only place in the world to hear this sound?
	Musicality (3)- Does the sound possess musical qualities? Will the sound be useful to composers in their future compositions?
	Popularity (2)- Do a lot of people think of this sound when they think of Venice? Did multiple methods obtain this suggestion/idea as a result?
	Feasibility to Record (2)- Can this sound be easily recorded using our current equipment?
	Feasibility to Locate (1)- Is this sound easy to find in order to record it?
The group, using a rubric as a guide, attributed a whole number score from one to five, with five being the highest, with each attribute for a given sound. This resulted in all 129 sound ideas having a score for each of the six attributes. Since each attribute had different relative importance, the group placed a weight upon each attribute, as seen in the parentheses above. Using a formula with these scores and weights, each of the 129 sound ideas was given a total score and ranked in descending order by the total score, giving a prioritized list of sound to become our guide in the recording process.
Upon completion of the prioritization list, the group set out to catalogue the sounds of Venice. The group captured the sound using digital recording techniques with as minimal background noise as possible. The sound was then transferred to the computer for digital audio enhancements to make the sound clearer and of listenable volume levels. Data was collected and compiled on the origin of the sound, the time and date of the recording, and a description of the sound. Upon completion of processing the sounds, they were catalogued into Microsoft Access and keywords were added to make the catalogue searchable. Links to a picture of the sound source, to a map of the area around the recording location, and to a compressed sound file of the process sound were also added. In total 78 raw tracks were recorded containing one or more sounds noted on our list. After processing, 101 sound clips resulted, all of which were organized by out Access Catalogue.
Many interesting means of accessing and disseminating the sounds of Venice have been developed. First, an organized CD Compilation has been created. This CD collection is of high quality digital sound and has been assembled such that a person could play a single sound of interest, or a person could listen to a whole CD in its entirety for personal enjoyment. This CD is complemented by a multimedia Dialogue Box created from the data complied in our catalogue, giving the listener all the necessary information about any CD Track. This Dialogue Box can also be self-supporting, since it links to a compressed version of the CD track. Using software, the group has plotted each origin point on a map of Venice for all raw recorded tracks. This software also allows the user to refer back to Microsoft Access if the user desires to hear the raw recorded track. Finally, the group has developed a prototype of an Interactive Kiosk. This kiosk allows the user to explore a map of Venice, and through the maps and pictures contained in the kiosk, explore the city to find and listen to our processed sound clips.
Finally, the group took the initial steps for the creation of a musical competition that incorporates the sounds of Venice into musical compositions. The group has listed a number of rules, regulations, and judging criteria it would like to see as part of a future competition. Also, the group has started dialogues with many organizations trying to find support for the competition. Of interest, the Venice Tourist Board has already shown interest and support for a future competition. In addition to the rules and guidelines, a suggested four year plan has been created for guidance in creating the competition.


TITLE:
Preserving the Nautical Traditions an Maritime Heritage of Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Brian Catalano
Kristen Gervais
Ryan Sinapius

Original Abstract:
This IQP focuses on the nautical heritage on Venice, Italy, and is continuation of a project completed in 2004. The introduction of motorboats has resulted in dwindling usage of traditional boats in Venice. To increase awareness to this important aspect of the city's heritage, we created a catalog and map of nautical elements throughout Venice, including 33 items. In addition, we created multiple inventories of boat-related items at Arzanà, our sponsor, which oncluded a total of 752 items.


TITLE:
Residential Comfort Level:  An Analysis of the Venetian Retail Sector

AUTHORS:
Ta Karra Greene
Benjamin Isabella
Freddy Jervis
Danielle Modeste

TOPICS:
Venice Retail, Residential Comfort Level

Original Abstract:
this project examined the availability of basic necessities and the decline of residential comfort in Venice, Italy by exploring the impact of economic changes through the cataloging of current shops, recording their transformations over time integrating changing population data, and proposing methods for the improvement of residential comfort in the city. Additional databses and map layers were created using data collected by the team along with a complete analysis of the comfort level of two sestieri, as far back as 1970.


TITLE:
Faciliting the Exchange and Reusability of Information in the City of Venice

AUTHORS:
Patrick Allen
Cris Fontana
Nathan Hebert

SPONSORS:
City of Venice, Urbanistica and Edilizia Privata Departments

Original Abstract:
This project  focuses on implementing 'City Knowledge' principles for Urbanistica and Edilizia Privata of Venice by extracting reusable information from private building permits. Pellestrna was used as a sample to model and demostrate a theoretical system. We gathered information from archives permits, and digitized ot via Microsoft Access and MapInfo. Scenarios were modeled using collected data, demostrating the system's benefits. We conclude with an anlysis of benefits, and give recommendations on implementign and improving the proposed system.


TITLE:
Place Knowledge: Organizing Data on the Venetian Lagoon Park

AUTHORS:
Laurel Doherty
Katherine Mucci
Mark Vignali

SPONSORS:
Environment department, Istituzione Parco della Laguna, Osservatorio Naturalistico

TOPICS:
organization data, place knowledge, citizen monitoring

Original Abstract:
The "Place Knowledge: organizing data on the venetian lagoon park" project, sponsored by the Osservatorio Naturalistco, created a system to easily and inexpensively update information on the northern lagoon to supplement the Atlante della Laguna di Veneiza (Atlas of the Lagoon of Venice). The northern lagoon was divided into, identificable, morphologically homogeneous sections to assist data collection. Relaizone di valutazione di incidenza ambientale (V.Inc.A Reports) were examined for reusable data and citizen monitoring programs were suggested for the lagoon.


TITLE:
Optimining the Use of Canal Parking Space in Venice

AUTHORS:
Gregory Bukowski
Briana Dougherty
Russell Morin
Patrick Renaud

Original Abstract:
This project  gathered data about the interaction between boat  traffic and parking in Venice, Italy in order ti identufy criteria for the allocation of permanent and temporary parking permits. To monitor and implement these changes, we designed an electronic parking management system to assist the city in reducing the amount of time needed to process permit applications. The implementation of this system will thus benefit bith the citizens and the city, and will help decrease the cost of traffic congestion.


TITLE:
Murano Energy Reduction: An Investigation of Technologies to Reduce Fuel Consumption in Artistic Glass Furnaces

AUTHORS:
Keith Ferry
Nicholas McMahon
Andrea Portnoy
Jacob Troiano

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by the Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro, a research laboratory funded by the glass industry located in Murano, Italy, assessed the technologies available for increasing fuel efficiency in artistic glass furnaces. The project team collected and analyzed data on manual gas cosumption and emissions for different technologies and compared it to data from furnaces currently in operation to model the expected savings for each technology. The results show the potential for a 35% increase in efficiency but warrant further studies. The project concludes by rcommending a testing procedure to further assess both oxycombustion and recuperative burners.


TITLE:
The Decline of Venetian Food Stores as a Gauge for Social Change in the City

AUTHORS:
Lesley Bright
Sara Duran
Stephen Parsons 
Luis M. Rodriguez

Original Abstract:
This project explored various dimensions of change in the availability of food in Venice using a triangulated method, with the purpose of developing a comprehensive understanding of the variables affecting the transformation of retail within the last fifty years. By contrasting and complementing empirical data in the form of charts, maps, and databases with the oral and written testimonies of Venetian citizens, a greater awareness of the existing dynamics was obtained and presented through a documentary video.


TITLE:
Toward a Dynamic Atlas: A Case Study on the Birds of the Venetian Lagoon

AUTHORS:
Leia Houle
Matthew Nichols
Thomas C. Peterson
Joshua Stewart

SPONSORS:
Osservatorio Naturalistico, Museo Storia Naturale

Original Abstract:
This project, toward a dynamic atlas, created a prototype for the Osservatorio Naturalistico della Laguna of an online dynamic atlas for the Venician lagoon. This dynamic atlas possesses a species catalog, distribution maps for the birds of the lagoon, and a bilingual interface. A series of recommendations were made of the Osservatorio pertaining to which maps in the Atlas would lend themselves to our dynamic system.


TITLE:
Reviving the history of the Venetian Scuole: Public education through an Interactive Website

AUTHORS:
Kate Woodman
Jenn Gosselin
Chelsea Bierkan
Justin Pelkowski

Original Abstract:
The IQP is the first to research, study and analyze the Venetian scuole. Our group created a database cataloguing 920 scuole, maps showing 63 scuole locations. 170 altars commissioned by the scuole, and 181 public displays of art from the Scuole. A series of tours including virtual, walking, and scavenger hurt types were also produced. All of these products as well as general and specific scuole history were entered into a self created website that can be hosted for the public.


TITLE:
Re-engineering the Venetian Taxi Transportation System: Efficiency Improvements that reduce Moto Ondoso

AUTHORS:
Robert Accosta
Theodore McDonald 
Corina Scanio
Jessica Thibideau

Original Abstract:
This project, sponsored by the Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia, located in Venice, Italy evaluated the current taxi transportation system in an effort to improve the efficiency of the operation while minimizing its contribution to canal wall degradation. Taxi operations were analyzed, resulting in proposed modifications to boat design, fares, travel routes, and the dispatching system which all will help preserve this deteriorating city while maitaining economic viability of the taxi transportation system. Additionally, this project surveyed taxi drivers to understand their thoughts of current procedeures as well as future considerations.


TITLE:
Planning Sustainable Tourism for the Northern Lagoon Park of Venice

AUTHORS:
Eric Chandinnet
Daniel Richardi
Christie Rudis
Agnieszka Ziolek

TOPICS:
Lagoon Park, Planning Sustainable Tourism

Original Abstract:
The Planning Sustainable Tourism in the Northern Lagoon Park of Vencie project, sponsored by the Assessorato all'Ambiente and the Assessorato all'Urbanistica, examined the islands contained within the northern kagoogn park boundary and sites they contained. Through the collection of previously existing information and the integration of data collected in the field, the project team compiled sustainable databese with respect ti the points of interest in the park. Visitable points of interest werw identified through the analysis of comprehensives fatabases and GIS  maps of forts, churces, bell towers, museums, nature areas, bird watching areas, cycling paths, rental areas, restaurants, docks, and preexisting transportation routes. Recommeded itineraries were developed comprised of established visitable points of interest constaining related sites, as well as a general itinerary for average tourists.


TITLE:
The Evolution of Stores and Decline of Residential Comfort: the availability of necessary goods in the historical center of Venice

AUTHORS:
Greg Chandonnet
Andrew Christo
Patricia Pope
Karen Singh

SPONSORS:
The City of Venice
Settemari Rowing Club

TOPICS:
Residential Comfort, Stores Evolution, Economic Impact

Original Abstract:
This project examined the evolution of Venetian shops and the decline of residential comfort by exploring the impact of economic changes in Venice through the cataloging of current shops and their transformations over time and proposes methods for the improvement of residential comfort in the city. An originl methodology was produced in addition to databases and maps layers created usign data collected by the team. This study provides the groundwork for other studies on retail tourism and residential comfort.


TITLE:
Evolution of Forma Urbis: a graphical tool for analyzing the urban development of Venice

AUTHORS:
Christopher Baker
José Brache
Samantha Dakin
Cem Saracel

Original Abstract:
this project divided Venice into proto island sections and dated them by its 175 current or demolished churches; originating a map that illustrates the urban evolution of the city from thr 9th century up to 1821. this left behind an archeological infomation sysetm which can be used, to further refine data pertaining to the city's history and evolution.


TITLE:
An Analysis of the Archaelogical Potential of Venetian Church Floors

AUTHORS:
Scott Blanchard
Jeffrey Caputo
Matthew Regan
Matthew Shaw

SPONSORS:
Soprintendenza all'Archeologia, Luigi Fozzati
UNESCO

Original Abstract:
The purpose of this project was to identify churches in Venice that present the greatest archaelogical opportunity and present our findings to our sponsor Luigi Fozzati and the Soprintendenza all'Archeologia. We conducted a condition assessment on the church floors and catalogued the inscriptions on the artifacts in 26 churched in the sestieri of Santa Croce, San Polo, San Marco and Dorsoduro. We created GIS map layers using the program MapInfo to map locations of artifacts and display floor conditions and heights. This information was used to speculate as to the causes to floor damage. Our group also created a comprehensive, coherent, and maintainable database to archive the information. Finally, we extracted historical information in an effort to preserve the historical record that is record that is contained within the chiìutches of Venice.


TITLE:
Public Art Preservation in Venice: Non-public Wellheads and Fountains

AUTHORS:
Aaron Kelley
Greg Ratner
Matthew Schmaelzle
Orest Thomollari

Original Abstract:
Project done by students from WPI, such as ourselves, have collected and cataloged data for over 5000 pieces of public art, as well as cretaing a foundation for a non profit organization for preservation. We have in the past two months exapanded these databases to include fountains and non public wells. Weith this data we then created a demo website for the non profit organization along with a layout for an issue of the Quaderni, a journal published by INSULA quarterly.


AUTHORS:
Melissa Marion
Michael Milkin
Eric Mill
Christopher Vitone

Original Abstract:
We have worked to preserve Venetian bell towers by improving the method for cataloging and analyzing the towers.  We investigated the feasibility and benefits of expanding the methodology to include monitoring the towers’ structural integrity with specialized instruments, to give deeper insight into the state of a tower.  We have standardized the process for cataloging towers by revising and finalizing the methodology for visually assessing them, and by unifying all prior bell tower work into a master database which can be easily used by all future projects.  Our project will make the Venice Project Center’s work on preserving bell towers vastly more efficient, organized, and focused


Original Abstract:
This IQP looks at the tarditional boats of Venice, Italy. Traditional boats in Venice are becoming endagered and in some cases extinct, because of the inception and growing popularuty of the motor boat. Venetians have always had a special relationship with their boats because of Venice's unique environment. Through maps and databases we examine the entire traditional boat community in Venice with an aim of preventing the loss of traditional boats to Venice.


TITLE:
Reconstructin Sea Levels Prior to 1872 through Venetian art and architecture

AUTHORS:
Nick Angelini
Laura Corsetto
David DeFusco
Michael Scarsella

TOPICS:
Tidal progression, Sea Level indicators, Venetian art

Original Abstract:
This project utilized artistic and archeological indicators in the form of 18th century paintings, 19th century photographs and previously undocumented archeological engravings on canal walls to reconstruct unknows sea levels in Venice, Italy from 1700 to 1827.  The team created databases to record sea level indicators used in this study, as well as Mapinfo maps of all locations for use in future studies. The tidal progression derived in this study was then correlated to known climate affecting events during the time period under investigation and with theoretical natural tidal fluctuations.


TITLE:
Embedded Heritage: a study of Venetian Church Floors

AUTHORS:
Kelly Thompson
David Gagnon
Eric Ruscitti

TOPICS:
Church Floors, Embedded heritage, artifacts damage

Original Abstract:
This IQP is a continuation of previous studies on church floors in Venice, Italy completed in 2002 to 2004. Our group was able to study 14 churches throughout Venice and the Lagoon and survey the floors these churches, including 254 artifacts. Through our survey of the churches we were able to collect data and assess the floor and artifact damage. Our results were entered into the pre-existing database to complete the catalog of church floor from 2002 to 2005 of over 2000 artifacts and churches.


TITLE:
Alpine Mountains Huts: A Marketing and Accessibility Plan

AUTHORS:
Ross Blakmarr
James Gaudette
Andrew Giaquinta

TOPICS:
Marketing, accessibility plan, alpine mountains


# Short List

TITLE:
An Outdoor Art Inventory of the San Marco Sestiere

AUTHORS:
Maria Dilanco
John Handal
Edward M. Mason II


TITLE:
The Churches of Venice II
A System for Artistic Restoration Analysis

AUTHORS:
Brian Aldrich
Kevin Shea
David Youkstetter


AUTHORS:
Nicolle Burnam
Heather L. Emerson
Kevin M. Furbish


TITLE:
A Data Synthesis of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Venice Canals Project

AUTHORS:
Kerry Cooke
John F. Ebersole, Jr.
Heidi A. Marrino
Lisa Rosiello


TITLE:
Creation of a Database Management Program
for Cataloguing Computer Images 
Used in the Non-Destructive Analysis of Works of Art

AUTHORS:
Joel C. Belog
Lourenco W. K. Dantas
Paul E. Hammerstrom


TITLE:
The UNESCO Venice Lagoon Ecosystem Project

AUTHORS:
Larry R Breen
Salvatore Gencarelli
James Leo Kilgallo


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of the Docks, Cargo Deliveries, and Boat Traffic within the Santa Maria Zobenigo Insulsa

AUTHORS:
Diego Felices
Carlos Moreno
Alexander Munoz
Brian J. Smith


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Public and Overnight Boat Parking on the Canals within the Insula di Santa Maria Zobenigo


TITLE:
Le Sponde dei Canali di Castello, Venezia

AUTHORS:
Amy Cahill
Gregory Masterson
Carlos A. Zapata


TITLE:
A Method for the Evaluation of Venetian Bells and Bell Towers


TITLE:
Outdoor Art Inventory of the Sestiere di Castello

AUTHORS:
Elizabeth R. Fonseca
Brent R. Johnson
Samuel C. Russell Jr.


TITLE:
A Feasibility Study of Venice Project Center

AUTHORS:
Michael R. Cote
Anthony S. Cucci
David M. George
Richard J. Granfield
Michael J. Kroese
John P. Lankhof


TITLE:
The Future of Science and Technology in Venice

AUTHORS:
Paolo Cattaneo
Cristiano Pierry
Evan W. Sullivan


TITLE:
Re-Utilization of the Island of Lazzaretto Nuovo


TITLE:
Quantifying the Problem of Acid Fog and Acid Rain in Venice

AUTHORS:
Bill LaPrade
Ryan Marcotte
Patrise Puleo


TITLE:
A Hygenic, Dynamic, and Static Study of the Canals of Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Michael Ciacciarelli
Brian O'Connor
Barry Sylvia
Steven Testa


TITLE:
A Study of the Applicability of Pollution Control Technology on the Island of Murano

AUTHORS:
Jennifer Creamer
Rocco Paduano
Roberto Renya
Jehan Tamboowalla


TITLE:
A Feasibility Study for the Relocation of the University of Venice to Abandoned Lagoon Islands

AUTHORS:
Spyro J. Kotsonis
Micael Maglio
M. Joseph Soscia


TITLE:
The Churches of Venice : A Sytstem for Restoration Analysis

AUTHORS:
Luca Bortolami
Luis Carlos Campo
Carl Frederic Madsen


TITLE:
Wetland Management for the Lagoon Park Proposal in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Carme L. Barbillas
Johnathan Lovelard
Donna M. Roche


TITLE:
Solar Photovoltaic Applications in Venice


AUTHORS:
Susan E. Carlson
Alessandro Casagrande
Edward J. Connor
Sean P. Moore
Mark J. Sarmiento


AUTHORS:
Nicola M. McGowan
Reinaldo F. Niella
Pierre Schrappe
Jennifer Smith


TITLE:
The Interrelations of Weather, Pollution, and Acid Precipitation in Venice and their Effects on Indoor and Outdoor Art

AUTHORS:
Michael A. Achim
Nicholas F. DiCamillo
Cheri A. LaFrinea
Melissa L. Paddock


TITLE:
A Study of Tide Flows, Mud Buildup, Boat Traffic, and Structural Damage on the Cannaregio Canal Subsystem

AUTHORS:
Hernando Carvajal
Manrico Federico
Carlos Gonzalez
Tim Johnson
Jeff Levesque


AUTHORS:
Berk Eksioglu
Mauricio Molina
Raquel Medina


AUTHORS:
Sergio Mondlak
William H. Rockford III
Steven A. Tufts


AUTHORS:
Corien M Bakermans
Marc K. Davidson
Juliet K. Vescio


AUTHORS:
Christine A. Easton
Deborah L. Leslie
Brian J. Malon


AUTHORS:
Ricardo J. Behar
Giulio Grandinetti
Donato A. Miranda


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic in the Venetian Canals

AUTHORS:
Jennifer M. Corey
Sherri L. Curria
Paul F. Ormond


TITLE:
Structural Damage on the Canal Walls of Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Greg A. Kirkos
Marc Nicolazzo
Glen V. Zoladz


TITLE:
A Geographical Information System for Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Brian A. Baker
Russell H. Beavis
Beth A. Newton


TITLE:
A Topological and Hydro-Dynamic Study of the Canals in the San Marco Area

AUTHORS:
Kristi Henrickson
Danielle Luongo
Hollybeth Normandy


AUTHORS:
Brian Card
Matthew Hannery
Michael A. R. Kaliski
James Samsrook


TITLE:
Analysis of Structural Damage to the Canal Walls of Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Timothy Cupples
Garret Trombi
George Willwerth


TITLE:
A Geographical Information System for the Canals of Venice

AUTHORS:
John Cutonilli
John A. Roy
John B. Thornton


TITLE:
Multimedia Applications in the Study of Canals

AUTHORS:
Gregory P. Bloom
Erwin A. Landivar
Roberto B. Villa


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic on the Canals within the Sestiere di Castello di Venezia

AUTHORS:
Mark S. Densmore
Anthony G. Doherty
Michael A. Gallagher


TITLE:
Analysis of Structural Damage to the Canal Walls of the Sestiere Castello di Venezia

AUTHORS:
Chad R. Binkerd
Ralph A. Maselli II
Scott H. Stoddard


AUTHORS:
Tracy Adamski
David Guidice
Eduard J. Iorio
Lara K. Papesca


TITLE:
Infrared Reflectoscopy: Non-Destructive Analysis of Works of Art

AUTHORS:
John C. Belfonti
Kern S. Corrigan
Cory R. Jobe


TITLE:
A Comprehensive Review of the Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute Venice Canal Studies

AUTHORS:
Jocelyn Bessey
Enrico Cafaro
Victoria Klun
James McElroy Jr.
Jennifer Shaw


TITLE:
Computer Applictions in Lagoon Archeology

AUTHORS:
John Berry
Gerald Ducharme
Charles Merry
Brian Rapids


AUTHORS:
Krogen Carreno
Gaetano J. Fichera
Robert Van Kirk


TITLE:
Buildings and Information of the Canals of Venice

AUTHORS:
Ann Cournoye
Anthony Marino
Domenico Paduano


AUTHORS:
Samantha Davis
Marco Fideli
Zachary Oser


TITLE:
A Computerized Catalog of the Well-heads of Venice In the Sestiere of Dordoduro

AUTHORS:
Alexander Boriakoff
Ian Buckley
Kristen Magnifico


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of the Traffic, Cargo Deliveries, and Docks within the Insulae of Santa Maria Formosa and Frari

AUTHORS:
Kevin Doherty
Joseph Maraia
Carlos Parodi
Flavia Souto


TITLE:
A Computerized Catalog of Outdoor Art in Dorsoduro, Venice

AUTHORS:
Jesus M. Beltran
Erin E. Brophy
Alex Cardenas


TITLE:
A Study of Water Quality in the S.M. Formosa Insula:
Introducing a Citizens Monitoring Program in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Jennifer M. Johnson
Theodore Kabissios
Jose J. Vargas


TITLE:
Computerized Catalog of Venetian Decorative Keystones

AUTHORS:
Minn Ayetut
Frank Chi-Yuan Chou
Takehiro Kawano


TITLE:
Computerized Catalog of Venetian Bells and Bell Towers

AUTHORS:
Dianna Carlson
Rebecca Prince
Susan Roosa


TITLE:
Reutilization of the Cardazzo Complex in Cannaregio, Venice

AUTHORS:
Noel Bolduc
Camilla Canepa
David Goncalves
Ricardo Perea


TITLE:
"Sustainable Venice": 
A local implementation of Agenda 21 in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Rick Crispo
Jamie Richard Murdock
Alexandru Catalin Nemetz


AUTHORS:
Renee Kim Charpentier
Matthew Brent Greenfield
Jennifer Ann Lowell


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Canal Boat Parking within Santa Maria Insula and Santa Maria dei Frari Insula


TITLE:
A Preliminary Feasibility Study of the Implementation of a HIFLO Vacuum Sewerage System within the City of Venice

AUTHORS:
Martin Felices
Lauren Goodfellow
Jay Johnston
Sonali Maheshwary


TITLE:
The Development of a Prototype for an Automated Ambulance Dispatch System in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Stefan James Caporale
Max Cergneux
William Freed
Anna Lisa Matzal


TITLE:
Optimization of Cargo Boat Deliveries Through the Inner Canals of Venice

AUTHORS:
Karolyn Amlaw
Carie Lin Kervin
Ignacio Mondine
Charu Vepari


TITLE:
Development of a Computerized Decision Support System for the Scheduled Maintenance of the Inner Canals of Venice.

AUTHORS:
Carlo Cioffi
Vicky Dulac
Jose Marsano
Robert Reguero


TITLE:
A Computerized Catalog of Flagstaff Pedestals in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Kimberly M. James
Michael C. Malchiodi
Jonothan M. Reynolds


TITLE:
Multimedia Catalog and Visitor Information Management Plan for the Collections of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
FahKenneth C. Bonanno, Go Ishikawa, Glenn R. Thoren, Lindsay E. Voss


TITLE:
The Inventory and Analysis of the Bridges and Pedestrian Traffic in Dorsoduro, San Polo, and Santa Croce Sestieri of Venice

AUTHORS:
Ashley Deliso, Rahul Bahn, Stephanie Hubbard, Greg MacLeod
Greg MacLeod
Stephanie Hubbard
Rahul Bhan


TITLE:
Planning and Implementation of Campaigns for the Quantification and Analysis of Venetian Lagoon Traffic

AUTHORS:
Addi Butler, John Casill, Samuel Castillo, Turgut Sarioglu


TITLE:
Analysis of Sewer Holes and Canal Wall Damage in Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Kristopher T. Babic, Grant G. Leeds, Stylianos Sidiroglou, Michael Borek


TITLE:
Monitoring and Analysis of the Cargo Delivery System in the Sestieri of S. Polo, S. Croce and Dorsoduro, Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Stefano Ceriana, Dan Nashold, Joan Olender, Matthew Poisson


TITLE:
The Venice Project Center’s Tenth Anniversary:

AUTHORS:
James M. Behmke, Tanya Corrado, Gabriel Flores,


TITLE:
Safeguarding the Churches of Venice, Italy: a Computerized Catalogue and Restoration Analysis

AUTHORS:
Brian C. Donnelly, Brynn G. Hart, Matthew J. Pilotte, Thomas C. Scherpa


TITLE:
Estimation of Excursionist Tourist in the City of Venice

AUTHORS:
Eduardo Braghin, Carlos Roberto Calvo, Ark Gozubuyuk, Mark Bartholomew Hodos


TITLE:
Quantification of Sediment Sources in the City of Venice, Italy

AUTHORS:
Alexander P. Borrelli, Matthew J. Crawford, James W. Horstick, Izzettin Halil Ozbas


AUTHORS:
Nicholas Allgaier, John Bottino, Scott Kimbrel, Garrett Sutton


TITLE:
Information Management at the Palazzo Ducale

AUTHORS:
Jennifer Cooper, Michael Mahan, Alex Narvaez, Nathaniel Wieselquist


TITLE:
Hydrodynamics of the Inner Canals of Venice

AUTHORS:
Christine L. Biscotti, Andrea M. Emery, Maxwell Pistilli,Joseph A. Zsofka


AUTHORS:
Lewis Blackwell, Meghan Fraizer, Adria Rizzo, Kevin Vello, Randall Wainwright


AUTHORS:
Leonard Baker, Marina Carboni, Luis Flores, Lisa Lanzillotti


TITLE:
The Forgotten art of Venice: Promoting the copnservation and Awareness of External Sculpture

AUTHORS:
Michael Bender, David Finnegan, James Koniers, Kevin Lee, Samantha O'Connor


TITLE:
An Assessment of the State of Tourism in Venice

AUTHORS:
Russell W. Caruso, Marc P. Cryan, Amy E. Holton, Francesco Q.Pancheri, Marianne Schady


TITLE:
Monitoring Pollution on Murano: an Analysis of the Artistic Glass Industry of Murano, Italy

AUTHORS:
Joshua C. Black, Brian Cavanna, Nicholas J. Cottreau


# Printout

TITLE:
A Feasibility Study of Venice Project Center


TITLE:
A Hygenic, Dynamic, and Static Study of the Canals of Venice, Italy


TITLE:
Quantifying the Problem of Acid Fog and Acid Rain in Venice


TITLE:
The Interrelations of Weather, Pollution, and Acid Precipitation in Venice and their Effects on Indoor and Outdoor Art


TITLE:
A Geographical Information System for Venice, Italy


TITLE:
Structural Damage on the Canal Walls of Venice, Italy


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic in the Venetian Canals


TITLE:
A Feasibility Study for the Relocation of the University of Venice to Abandoned Lagoon Islands


TITLE:
A Study of the Applicability of Pollution Control Technology on the Island of Murano


TITLE:
A Study of Tide Flows, Mud Buildup, Boat Traffic, and Structural Damage on the Cannaregio Canal Subsystem


TITLE:
A Topological and Hydro-Dynamic Study of the Canals in the San Marco Area


TITLE:
Analysis of Structural Damage to the Canal Walls of Venice, Italy


TITLE:
A Geographical Information System for the Canals of Venice


TITLE:
A Comprehensive Review of the Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute Venice Canal Studies


TITLE:
The Future of Science and Technology in Venice


TITLE:
Re-Utilization of the Island of Lazzaretto Nuovo


TITLE:
Solar Photovoltaic Applications in Venice


TITLE:
Wetland Management for the Lagoon Park Proposal in Venice, Italy


TITLE:
The Churches of Venice : A Sytstem for Restoration Analysis


TITLE:
Infrared Reflectoscopy: Non-Destructive Analysis of Works of Art


TITLE:
Analysis of Structural Damage to the Canal Walls of the Sestiere Castello di Venezia


TITLE:
Multimedia Applications in the Study of Canals


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Boat Traffic on the Canals within the Sestiere di Castello di Venezia


TITLE:
The Churches of Venice II
A System for Artistic Restoration Analysis


TITLE:
An Outdoor Art Inventory of the San Marco Sestiere


TITLE:
Computer Applictions in Lagoon Archeology


TITLE:
The UNESCO Venice Lagoon Ecosystem Project


TITLE:
Creation of a Database Management Program
for Cataloguing Computer Images 
Used in the Non-Destructive Analysis of Works of Art


TITLE:
A Data Synthesis of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Venice Canals Project


TITLE:
Le Sponde dei Canali di Castello, Venezia


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Public and Overnight Boat Parking on the Canals within the Insula di Santa Maria Zobenigo


TITLE:
A Method for the Evaluation of Venetian Bells and Bell Towers


TITLE:
Outdoor Art Inventory of the Sestiere di Castello


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of the Docks, Cargo Deliveries, and Boat Traffic within the Santa Maria Zobenigo Insula


TITLE:
Buildings and Information of the Canals of Venice


TITLE:
A Computerized Catalog of the Well-heads of Venice In the Sestiere of Dordoduro


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of the Traffic, Cargo Deliveries, and Docks within the Insulae of Santa Maria Formosa and Frari


TITLE:
A Computerized Catalog of Outdoor Art in Dorsoduro, Venice


TITLE:
A Study of Water Quality in the S.M. Formosa Insula:
Introducing a Citizens Monitoring Program in Venice, Italy


TITLE:
Computerized Catalog of Venetian Decorative Keystones


TITLE:
Computerized Catalog of Venetian Bells and Bell Towers


TITLE:
Reutilization of the Cardazzo Complex in Cannaregio, Venice


TITLE:
A Documentation and Analysis of Canal Boat Parking within Santa Maria Insula and Santa Maria dei Frari Insula


TITLE:
"Sustainable Venice": 
A local implementation of Agenda 21 in Venice, Italy


TITLE:
A Preliminary Feasibility Study of the Implementation of a HIFLO Vacuum Sewerage System within the City of Venice


TITLE:
The Development of a Prototype for an Automated Ambulance Dispatch System in Venice, Italy


TITLE:
Optimization of Cargo Boat Deliveries Through the Inner Canals of Venice


TITLE:
Development of a Computerized Decision Support System for the Scheduled Maintenance of the Inner Canals of Venice.


TITLE:
A Computerized Catalog of Flagstaff Pedestals in Venice, Italy


TITLE:
Analysis of Sewer Holes and Canal Wall Damage in Venice, Italy


TITLE:
The Venice Project Center’s Tenth Anniversary:


TITLE:
Monitoring and Analysis of the Cargo Delivery System in the Sestieri of S. Polo, S. Croce and Dorsoduro, Venice, Italy


TITLE:
The Inventory and Analysis of the Bridges and Pedestrian Traffic in Dorsoduro, San Polo, and Santa Croce Sestieri of Venice


TITLE:
Multimedia Catalog and Visitor Information Management Plan for the Collections of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, Italy


TITLE:
Planning and Implementation of Campaigns for the Quantification and Analysis of Venetian Lagoon Traffic


TITLE:
Safeguarding the Churches of Venice, Italy: a Computerized Catalogue and Restoration Analysis


TITLE:
Estimation of Excursionist Tourists in the City of Venice


TITLE:
Quantification of Sediment Sources in the City of Venice, Italy


TITLE:
Information Management at the Palazzo Ducale


TITLE:
Hydrodynamics of the Inner Canals of Venice


TITLE:
An Assessment of the State of Tourism in Venice


TITLE:
Monitoring Pollution on Murano: an Analysis of the Artistic Glass Industry of Murano, Italy


TITLE:
The Forgotten art of Venice: Promoting the Conservation and Awareness of External Sculpture


TITLE:
The Management and Maintenance of the Venetian Verde Pubblico


TITLE:
Assessment of the Non-Resident Housing Market in Venice, Italy


TITLE:
Cogeneration: A Feasibility Study for the Archimede Seguso Artistic Glass Factory of Murano, Italy


TITLE:
Evaluation of Tourist Use of Venetian Transportation


TITLE:
Re-Engineering the City of Venice’s Cargo System For the Consorzio Trasportatori Veneziani Riuniti


TITLE:
The Reutilization of the Minor Islands of the Venetian Lagoon


TITLE:
The Dunes of Venice: A Prototype for the Environmental Atlas of the Lagoon


TITLE:
Portali e Lunette:
A Multimedia Catalog for the Preservation of Venice’s Artistic Entrances


TITLE:
The Church Floors in Venice, Italy: An Archeological Study and Analysis


TITLE:
The Establishment of a New Recycling System for the Historical Center of Venice


TITLE:
An Integrated, Multi-Agency Approach to the Preservation of Venetian Palaces


TITLE:
The Moto Ondoso Index: Assessing the Effects of Boat Traffic in the Canals of Venice


