Tidal prism variation in Venice lagoon

The Venice lagoon inlets have undergone continuous modifications over the past, with their evolution being marked by responses to the changing physical forcings. In order to quantify the adaptation processes of the lagoon, the northernmost inlet (Lido) has been studied in detail. This study aimed to investigate this using the tidal channels in northern Venice lagoon - Lido inlet, Treporti channel and Burano channel (Figure 1). It also aimed to determine whether the tidal prism had changed significantly over the 70-year period between 1930 and 2000. This period incorporated the onset of sand influx from Cavallino Beach (Helsby et al., 2006) via the tip of the Lido Inlet's northern jetty (thus increasing the cross-section area of the mouth of Lido Inlet). It also saw the continuous erosion of Treporti channel by 2-3 cm a-1 (Helsby et al., 2006; Umgiesser et al., 2006), the change in tidal dominance of Burano channel from flood to ebb (Helsby et al., 2006) and the formation of a sub-aqueous ebb spit (in Lido Inlet) and an offshore ebb tidal delta (Amos et al. 2004; Amos et al., 2005). The tidal prism is the volume of water that passes through the inlet in one half period (in or out) of a spring tide. The main and final question was: has a variation in the tidal prism caused or affected any of these changes?