Innovation Award goes to Ca’ Foscari geographers for their research on the Venetian canals

The research project Exploring Canals-Venice's Waterways: the Historic Network coordinated by Francesco Vallerani, Department of Economics, in collaboration with research assistant Francesco Visentin and project manager Eriberto Eulisse (both pictured above), has won the Innovation Award at the recent World Canals Conference that was held in Inverness, Scotland. The project was successful due to the results achieved in the rediscovery of the hydrographic heritage of Veneto, thanks to the design and construction of an app.

The project is one of the outcomes of active research at Ca’ Foscari on "Waterscapes as Cultural Heritage". The same research team was awarded a grant in 2015 to develop the line of research on "European Waterways Heritage: Re-evaluating European Minor Rivers and Canals as Cultural Landscapes" (Joint Programme Initiative). The Department of Economics is leading the project, which also involves the Universities of Brighton, Girona, Amsterdam and Leiden.

The Innovation Award of the World Conference on Canals, established in 1988 and now in its 29th edition, identifies the most innovative projects dedicated to waterways around the world. The prize, this year, was awarded to a project created by students at Ca’ Foscari, undertaken in collaboration with the International Water Culture Centre (NPO) and sponsored by the Unesco Regional Office for Science and Culture in Europe (Venice).

The project was particularly appreciated for its innovative approach to the digitization of environmental and historical-cultural heritage along the hydrographic system outflow in the northern Adriatic. It consists of four separate apps for smartphones and tablets, created in both Italian and English between 2014 and 2016. The project was born with a view to revitalize and promote sustainable eco-tourism along the navigable historic routes of Venice.

From the Venice lagoon to the Euganean Hills, from the mouth of the Tagliamento to the Po delta: rediscover the sense of a kind of historic civilization along the liquid arteries that have enriched the city and Venetian countryside, feeding flourishing trade and building unique and unrepeatable aquatic landscapes. Now you can make it through 70 new routes that lead to the exploration of 280 points of interest by boat, by bike, on horseback, on foot and by kayak.

"In the most part, this project deals with monumental heritage and little-known landscapes located along the navigable historic routes of Venice – explains Francesco Vallerani. In summary, this is the finality of applied research with the identification, protection and promotion of touristic potential and recreation of the system of rivers, waterways and aquatic landscapes distributed in the Venetian hinterland."