
A higher – but more uncertain – rate of sea-level rise is observed for more recent years. The current best estimate of the average rate of sea-level rise during the observational period from 1872 to 2019 based on tide-gauge data after removal of subsidence effects is 1.23 ± 0.13 mm/year. Subsidence contributed to about half of the historical relative sea-level rise in Venice. This literature review reassesses and synthesizes the progress achieved in quantification, understanding and prediction of the individual contributions to local relative sea level, with a focus on the most recent studies.

In the past ∼150 years, this was characterized by an average rate of relative sea-level rise of about 2.5 mm/year resulting from the combined contributions of vertical land movement and sea-level rise. The city of Venice and the surrounding lagoonal ecosystem are highly vulnerable to variations in relative sea level.

Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS, 30, Pervaya Liniya, 199053, St. 6 Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Alfred Wegener Institute, Postfach 12-01-61, 27515, Bremerhaven, Germany.5 National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Reading, Reading, UK.4 Deptartment of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, Unversità del Salento, Centro Ecotekne Pal.3 ISMAR – Marine Sciences Institute, CNR – National Research Council of Italy, AREA Science Park Q2 bldg, SS14 km 163.5, Basovizza, 34149 Trieste, Italy.2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 8, 40127 Bologna, Italy.1 Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, Via Torino 155, 30172 Mestre, Italy.
