For Zdnet I wrote an article about a new project involving open data, sensor tech, and “civic hacking”, that is aiming to tackle the problem of flooding for the city’s canals.

The San Francesco del Deserto island, in the Venetian lagoon, isn’t the first place likely to spring to mind if you think about technology. The Franciscan friars of the beautiful convent that dominates the island are wise men for sure, but geeks they are not.

Yet this sacred place, where Francesco went ashore in 1220 on his way home from the Fifth Crusade, is not immune to the appeal of open data. In fact, it’s one of the few places involved until now in the Acqualta project, the brainchild of the #opendatavenezia group — a collective of open data activists that aims to monitor the tide level through the use of wireless sensors spread across the lagoon.

The high water (acqua alta in Italian) in Venice can sometimes be a real problem, with tides reaching as high as 1.5 metres above sea level and quickly cutting off large parts of the city. That’s why the lagoon is already filling up with measuring instruments owned by local and central authorities, such as those of the Centro Maree, the Istituto di Scienze Marine (known as Ismar, a branch of the National Research Council) and the Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (Ispra, controlled by the Department of the Environment).

Read the complete article “Open data vs the flood” on Zdnet