“The safeguarding of Venice and its lagoon is a matter of preminant national interest”. Thus states Special Law no. 171/73, the first law adopted after the dramatic high water of 1966. This was later followed by two other special laws, Law no. 798/84 and Law no. 139/92.
This body of legislation defines the general objectives of the interventions, the most appropriate procedures for achieving them and the responsibilities of the various implementing bodies.
Definition, coordination and control of all safeguarding activities is delegated to a Committee (the Committee as per art. 4 of Law no. 798/84 or “Comitatone”) chaired by the President of the Council of Ministers.

Playing the leading role in safeguarding Venice, each within its particular area of responsibility, are the State (physical and environmental safeguarding of the lagoon and its cities, towns and villages); the Veneto region (abatement of water pollution in the drainage basin); Venice and Chioggia local authorities (restoration and conservative improvement of urban structures) and the State, Region and local authorities (economic and social development).

The “Comitatone” is a committee responsible for strategy, coordination and control of the implementation of all measures to safeguard Venice and the lagoon. It is chaired by the President of the Council of Ministers and consists of the leaders of the responsible local and national administrations.
The Comitatone is made up of: the President of the Council of Ministers (Chairman), the Chairman of the Venice Water Authority (Secretary), the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, the Minister of the Environment and Land Defence, the Minister of the Cultural Heritage, the Minister of Education, Universities and Scientific Research, the Chairman of the Veneto Region, the Mayor of Venice, the Mayor of Chioggia and two representatives of local authority areas at the edge of the lagoon.

The Venice Water Authority (Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia) is the heir of a historic office of the Serenissima government set up in 1501 to concentrate all responsibility for salt and fresh water in one body. During its three hundred year long history - it was abolished during the Napoleonic domination - it was responsible for promoting and supervising all activities to safeguard the lagoon. Today, the Venice Water Authority is a technical department of the Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport with direct and primary responsibility for the safeguarding, security and hydraulic protection of a large area falling within a number of provinces (Veneto, Friuli and Lombardy).

The Consorzio Venezia Nuova is the concessionary of the Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport - Venice Water Authority (art. 3, paragraph III, Law no. 798/84) responsible for implementing the measures to safeguard Venice and its lagoon delegated by the law to the State. In order to carry out its tasks, the Consorzio, consisting of a group of large national companies, cooperatives and local firms, has created a structure able to plan, organise and manage all interventions and all phases of implementation. To carry out its work, it also draws on the consultancy of the most important national and international institutions and the most prestigious academic institutes in Italy and abroad.

Because the complexity of the Venice problem, the “reciprocity” of every action in the lagoon environment and the highly experimental nature of the safeguarding interventions delegated to the State require the preparation and implementation of an “integrated plan” of interventions to tackle the various aspects of the physical and environmental safeguarding of the lagoon ecosystem in a unitary and organic fashion and with a systematic approach. Special Law no. 798/84 thus established that the State administration could nominate a single body to take on responsibility for the interventions as a whole.
The Consortium acts, of course, under the direct control of the Venice Water Authority and on the basis of a general plan of interventions defined and approved by the “Comitatone” (and therefore by the institutions represented on the committee) and by Parliament which, in Special Law no. 139/92, adopted it as a reference for the development and financing of interventions programmed, implemented and underway.

This was precisely the objective of the General Plan of Interventions. It was specifically drawn up to define an integrated system of interrelated measures divided into distinct lines of action - defence from high waters, defence from sea storms and environmental protection of the lagoon ecosystem. The high water defence system could therefore be described as the heart of a much wider system of measures which have been underway for many years in the lagoon, tackling the various aspects of safeguarding Venice by means of a systematic approach.