Course description
This course focuses on the plight of cities imperiled by environmental threats and/or social and economic threats to their sustainability. Venice provides the major focal point for comparison, but we will also make extensive reference to New Orleans. In addition, you will each pick a city to study on your own to enrich your own and the class’s understanding of how other cities deal with and/or fail to deal with various forms of peril. You will choose your city by the end of the first week and then you will prepare yourself to discuss how that city compares to Venice regarding the different topics we will discuss each week. Thus, in addition to doing the assigned readings, which are short, you will read and browse in your own language in order to enrich class discussion by providing key points 0f comparison among imperiled cities. The choice of city is up to you but I do ask that you pick a city that is easy for you to learn about in your own language. .

Requirements
1.Reading for the week must be completed before the Tuesday class. All the required readings are accessible on line.
2. A paper comparing the perils and the response to perils in Venice to those that have taken place in the city the student has chosen to study./
3. There will be a midterm exam and a final. The midterm will take place on Thursday of Week 4. The final will take place during exam week.
5. Since this is a discussion course, class participation is required.

Syllabus
Week One - Key Concepts For Thinking About Imperiled Cities And For Comparing Them.
Readings: Venice Against the Sea 57-74
“ Venice Physical and Cultural Threat to the City”

Week Two – The Aspects Of The Historical Background Of Imperiled Cities That Are Most Helpful For Understanding Sources Of Peril And Of Resilience.
Readings: Venice: A Maritime Republic 86-118
Federalist #39

Week three - Flooding- Physical, Economic and Social Impact
Readings: Venice Against the Sea (26 pages)
TheGreat Flood Link 1
The 2019 Flood Link 2

Week Four - Responses to Floods; Midterm, Thursday Class
Reading:Venice Against the Sea 117-154

Week Five – How Addressing Physical Peril Fits Into The Broader Political And Governmental Landscape Of An Imperiled City.
Readings: Italian Local Government Link 1
What’s Next for Italy’s Government Link 2 next-for-italys-government/
Italy’s succession dilemma: It only wants Mario Draghi Link 3

Week Six - Mitigation
Readings: Mose Website Link 1
Water Technology Website Link 2
Opposition to Mose and Charges of Corruption Link 3

Week Seven - The Nexus Of Preservation – Donors, Fund Raisers, Project Managers, Volunteers , Craftsmen, Government, International Organizations
Readings: Venice Against the Sea 145-153
Venice in Peril Film Link 1

UNESCO Readings Link 2
Link 3
Link 4

Week 8 New Orleans
Readings: “Megadisasters and Federalism”
Katrina Video Link 1
Damage Reduction System Link 2
Extent Of Flooding: Link 3

Week 9 Covid
Reading: Lessons from Italy’s Response to Coronavirus, HBR Link 1

Week 10 Tourism
Readings: Tourist Maze, Excerpts
Cruise Ships Link 1
Link 2

Week11Economic/demographic Sustainability 
Readings: Sustainable Tourism Link 1
Link 2 Link 3 Link 4 Link 5

Week 12 Wrap Up - Interview with each student to discuss what he or she has learned with respect to the issues of fragility and resiliency as applied to Venice and to the city they have studied. The final class will be a group discussion in which the insights from the interviews will be shared.

Bibliography
WILLS, GARRY, (2001), Venice: Lion City.
LANE, FREDERICK, (1973),Venice A Maritime Republic.
VALE, L & T. CAMPANELLA. (Eds.) (2005), The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
KEAHEY, JOHN, (2002), Venice Against the Sea: A City Besieged.
PLANT, MARGARET, (2002), Venice: Fragile City, 1797-1997.
FLETCHER, Caroline and Da Mosto, Jane, (2004), The Science of Saving Venice.
CROUZET, PAVAN, ELIZABETH “Towards an Ecological Understanding of the Myth of Venice,” in Venice Reconsidered, Jeffries, John Martin and Romano, Dennis eds.
COOPER, CHRISTOPHER ET AL, (2007), DISASTER: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security.
CAMPENELLA, RICHARD, (2008), Bienville’s Dilemma: A Historical Geography of New Orleans.