TU Delft · CIEM0000 Interdisciplinary Mechanics & Design

MOSE Barrier Project Interactive Site

This site is part of the assignment for the course CIEM0000 Interdisciplinary Mechanics and Design for Civil Engineering at TU Delft. We are Group_HOS 1, documenting how preference-based engineering design supports decisions for the MOSE flood barrier in Venice.

Project team

Jasper de Ruiter (5278910)
Roel Wielemaker (5397782)
Wout Kragten (5640725)
Mike Schaap (4999800)

Setting the stage for MOSE

Venice was built for the tides, yet climate change and land subsidence now push acqua alta events past livable limits. Since 2014 the city has endured 76 tides above 110 cm — more than double the number observed between 1870 and 1949. The MOSE (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico) barrier is Italy’s answer: 78 bright-yellow steel gates that rise from the lagoon bed to block the Adriatic during storms. It is an engineering landmark surrounded by controversy, delays, and questions about whether the benefits truly outweigh the impacts on ecology, heritage, and commerce.

Our CIEM0000 team at TU Delft used MOSE as the capstone case for preference-based engineering design. By translating stakeholder interviews, MCDA sessions, and optimization experiments into an interactive site, we explain how competing priorities were reconciled — and where tensions remain.

Introduction highlights

Venice’s flooding problem: Frequent “acqua alta” tides now swamp homes, museums, and the public realm. Protecting 118 islands without sacrificing the lagoon’s health is the design brief.
What MOSE does: Gates at Lido, Malamocco, and Chioggia pivot upward when forecasts exceed ~95 cm, sealing the lagoon until the surge passes. When stowed, they rest invisibly on the seabed.
Why we chose it: MOSE combines massive public investment, environmental risk, and decades of political scandal. It is the perfect laboratory for weighing societal needs against engineering feasibility.
Course context: CIEM0000 teaches Preference-Based Engineering Design (PBED). This site captures the PBED workflow — from stakeholder preference elicitation to multi-criteria analysis, optimization, and ethical reflection.

How to explore the studio

Each page expands one step of the PBED cycle, from eliciting stakeholder values to optimising the barrier geometry. Follow the call-outs below to dive into the material.

Stakeholders

Meet the Municipality, Residents, Environmental Agency, and Shipping Companies to see how they evaluate MOSE.

Visit stakeholder profiles

Tetra MCDA

Review the weighted scoring that ranked MOSE against alternative coastal defences.

Explore the Tetra analysis

Design sliders

Experiment with barrier length, height, and closure time to track performance metrics.

Try the design model

Optimization lab

Compare the stakeholder-weighted optimum with the Min–Max design and stakeholder-specific solutions.

Run the optimisation

Where MOSE Stands Guard

Three inlets connect the Venetian lagoon to the Adriatic Sea. Activate the basemap toggle to view either the satellite or schematic layer, and tap points to learn about each barrier line.