The Venice lagoon, spanning ±550 km2 (Janowski et al., 2020), is a complex ecosystem, showing features of transitional waters in the inner brackish areas, while presenting the characteristics of a coastal marine bay elsewhere, either in terms of salinity regime and of habitat types. The complexity of the lagoon results in a mosaic of coastal habitats including salt marshes, seagrasses, wetlands, mudflats, islands, and eutrophic lakes (Carniello et al., 2009; Ravera, 2000; Rova et al., 2019; Solidoro et al., 2010). 

The dynamic biodiversity balance, however, is being threatened by a large number of factors. Amongst many of the goals that REST-COAST is striving to accomplish within the Venice Lagoon pilot, the project is aiming at delivering coherent adaptation plans to support food provisioning, water quality purification, climate change mitigation, reduction of coastal erosion risk and reduction of coastal flooding risk. 

More about the Venice Lagoon pilot site can be found in its factsheet.