The Virtual and Open Air Water Museum of Venice aims to create an interactive virtual and open air museum network focusing on water civilizations in the Veneto region of Italy. The initial network will include 35 sites in the province of Padua, expanding to approximately 300-350 additional tangible and intangible water heritage sites across the Veneto region. This will help stimulate new ethics around water values and management, while attracting new audiences and connecting people to important water places through digital tools, maps, apps and other media.

1. The Virtual and
Open Air
Water Museum of Venice
Eriberto Eulisse
Project Manager, Water Museum of Venice
Director, Civiltà dell’Acqua International Centre

2. Places and Values of the
World Heritage Site
EXPLORING
THE VENICE
LAGOON
Palazzo Zorzi,
May-October 2015
Interactive Space

3. IMMERSIVE ROOM: USE OF
DIGITAL TOOLS TO
ATTRACT NEW AUDIENCES
VISUALIZING
WATER WORLDS
Venice Arsenal
Tesa 105

4. www.watermuseumofvenice.com
2016:Virtual and Open Air
Museum of «Liquid Civilizations»
in the Veneto Region

5. Interactive Maps – Virtual visits

6. 1st step (2016)
The Padua’s Province
Water Museum Network (35 sites)

8. Future activities: approx. 300-350
additional sites of Water
Civilization in the Veneto Region
- TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
(villas, castles, waterways, hydraulic artefacts,
river ports, mills, churches, monuments…
- Cultural waterscapes
- Water management Good practices (Museums
and present day examples of sustainability)
- Natural Oasis

10. The Padua’s Network:
approx. 250.000 visitors (2015)

11. 1
1
STIMULATE
AND
SUPPORT
NEW ETHICS
LINKED TO
PAST AND PRESENT
WATER VALUES
Our Right to Water Our Duty to Water
NEW ETHICS OF ALL WATER USES

12. 1
2
Strenghts:
1. Connecting
people to
water places
2. Creating
new messages
related to
water values

13. SWOT
- Strenghts: common platform and unique
visual representation of a Water Heritage
dispersed in a wide area; New Eco-Tourism
practices re-connecting people to places
- Weaknesses: static representation of places;
slow response of stakeholders to document
water heritage; lack of staff to coordinate
shared communication activities
- Opportunities: network’s enlargement at level
of Veneto Region; possible European funding
- Threats: lack of funding and staff; indifference
of stakeholders (Veneto Region)

14. Other Strenghts:
Water and UN SDGs
Valorization of present-day Good
Practices of water management are
present already in the online platform
5 out of 35 sites in the Padua’s Network are
related to creation of natural oasis for
phytodepuration, recharge of aquifers, etc

15. APPs for Smartphone
«Liquid Roads»
of the Serenissima
Historic Waterways
of Venice:
Tours and
Itineraries
Opportunities: dynamic representation of the Network

17. 70
Itineraries
By
Boat
Bicycle
Kayak
Horse
Walking

18. 280 Points
of Interest
Tangible
and
Intangible
Heritage
Interactive
Maps

19. INNOVATION AWARD
Exploring Canals: Venice’s Waterways
29° World Canals Conference
Scotland, September 2016

20. Expectations from the Global Network
- Creation of common web site
- Management Board of the Network
- Joint temporary Exhibitions and other
communication activities to disseminate the
Water Museums’ projects
- Organization of the next meeting in 2018
Water Museum of Venice/ Civiltà dell’Acqua as
providers of knowledge for co-organizing joint
exhibitions, creating the web site, promoting
water heritage and manage the Network (if funds
are raised from international sponsors)

21. Non-profit organization founded in 1996 to build a
«New Water Culture»
Institutional Partners (2017):
Land Reclamation Board «Acque Risorgive»; Benetton
Research Studies Foundation; Autonomous Province
of Trento; Consiglio di Bacino «Laguna di Venezia»,
Veritas, ATS, Contarina (water agencies); Municipalities
of Venice, Battaglia Terme and Fontanafredda