Environmental Factors Influencing Urban Sustainability Las Vegas, Nevada, & Venice, Italy
Abstract
In many ways, no two cities could be more dissimilar. Las Vegas,
Nevada1 is a North American city. “There is no place like it. It is literally
a beacon of civilization... astronauts make out the lights of Las Vegas
before anything else.”2 Rapid growth springing from the gambling dol-
lar has created an expanding set of centrally located service industries.
Built on a fragile desert plain, the city was a product of the automobile
and the availability of a fresh water source when the Colorado River
was dammed. Venice, Italy, a European city like no other, often jetti-
soned its industries to nearby islands in the lagoons, or more recently, to
mainland areas such
as the town of
Mestre to accommo-
date her growth. 3
Goethe once
said of Venice, “wa-
ter was at once
street, square and
promenade. The Ve-
netian was forced to
become a new crea-
ture; and Venice can
only be compared to
itself.”4 Venice fights to hold back the tides, at times literally inundated
with water. Las Vegas suffers from never seeming to have enough water.
Commonalities are difficult to find and it is there that the diffi-
culty of comparing and contrasting these two cities begins.
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References
Note: Las Vegas in Spanish translates as “the meadows.” Nevada translates as “snow
covered” or “snow capped.”
Denton, Sally and Morris, Roger (2001). The Money and the Power, The Making of Las
Vegas and Its Hold on America, 1947-2000. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p.6. Denton and
Morris also state (p. 7) that, “Upward from a dark glass pyramid beams a searchlight
of 40 billion candlepower, said to be the brightest ray in the solar system, save for the
sun or a nuclear blast.”
Mestre is now part of metropolitan Venice.
Muraru, Michelangelo & Graber, Andre (1963). Treasures of Venice. World Publishing
Co. p. 20.
Norberg-Schiltz, Christian. Intentions in Architecture. p. 156.
Beatley Timothy (2000). Green Urbanism. p. 17.
Ibid. p. 16.
European Commission (1996) European Sustainable cities. Directorate General XI,
Brussels. p. 6-7.
Drakakis-Smith, David (2000). Third World Cities. p. 8.
Note: Vaporetto derives from the Italian word for “steamer.” However, the boats today
are propelled by diesel and gasoline engines.
Denton and Morris. p. 7.
Ibid.
Goodman, Oscar B. (2002). Las Vegas State of the City Address, 7 January 2002.
Le Corbusier (1971). The City of Tomorrow. The Architectural Press. London. p. 11.
Venice was also once a place where many gambled their fortunes away.
Laxalt, Robert (1977). Nevada, A Bicentennial History. New York: W.W. Norton & Com-
pany, Inc. p. 37.
Ibid. Data from map on p. 31.
Denton and Morris. p. 7.
Rudd, Dennis R. & Fainstein, Susan S. ed. (1999). The Tourist City. New Haven and
London: Yale Press. p. 122.
Ibid.
Lane, Frederic C. (1978). Venice. p. 1.
Ibid. p. 8.
Ibid.
Winter 2003, Vol. 22, No. 3
Broad, William J. “That Sinking Feeling Again, as Venice’s Past Haunts City’s Fu-
ture.” New York Times. 29 August 2000.
Ibid.
Elliott, Russell R. (1973). History of Nevada. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska
Press. p. 314.
Ibid. p. 325.
Denton and Morris. p. 100.
Lane, Frederic C. Venice. p. 18.
Ibid. p. 19.
Ibid.
Ibid. p. 21.
Lane traces the development of Venice from its early history through the 1960s deal-
ing with the growth of the city, the structural influences which framed growth and
political actions. Population estimates are provided for various periods of her history.
The last chapter delves into details of how industrialization and oil usage intensified
threats to the lagoons.
Ibid. p. 454.
Elliott, Russell R. (1973). History of Nevada. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska
Press. p. 9.
Ibid.
Laxalt, Robert (1977). Nevada, A Bicentennial History. New York: W.W. Norton & Com-
pany, Inc. p. 116.
Elliott, p. 172.
Littlejohn, p. 135.
Hulse, James W. (1998). The Silver State. Reno, Nevada: University of Nevada Press. p.
Note: An acre foot = 326,000 gallons, ample enough to supply two families of four
people for a year.
Denton and Morris. p. 144.
Ibid. p. 145.
Lexant. p. 122.
Ibid. p. 121.
Hulse, p. 239-240.
Ibid.
Denton and Morris. p. 364.
Littlejohn, David (1999). The Real Las Vegas. Oxford and London: Oxford University
Press. p. 8-9.
Littlejohn. p.8-9.
Note: Other city water usage: Phoenix, Arizona, with six times as many golf courses
uses 250 gallons per capita per day; Sante Fe, New Mexico, 160 gallons per capita per
day; Tucson, Arizona, 155 gallons per capita per day. See also Littlejohn, p. 9. and
pages 133-148 for a detailed discussions which credits the high usage primarily lawn
watering in a desert environment with alkaline soil conditions.
Littlejohn. p. 35.
Ibid. p. 133.
Ibid. p. 121.
Littlejohn. p. 137.
Ibid., Sewage discharges are within federally mandated limits.
Ibid.
Ibid. p. 138.
Strategic Planning for Energy and the Environment
Ibid. p. 121.
Nye County Nevada is adjacent to and northwest of Clark County. The AEC was
later renamed the Energy Research and Development Administration.
Ibid. p. 138-40.
Ibid.
Denton and Morris. p. 140.
Ibid. p.141.
Ibid.
Ibid. Denton and Morris provide an in-depth discussion of the misinformation cam-
paign in Chapter 9.
Hulse. p. 343.
Denton and Morris. p. 142.
Elliot reports that, “...underground testing of nuclear devices has not been com-
pletely concerned with military uses. In 1962, the AEC initiated the Plowshare Program
to find peaceful uses for atomic energy. Under this program the scientists at the Ne-
vada Test Site have conducted tests to determine the possibilities of using atomic
power to dig harbors and canals, for road building, and for other types of excavation.
Two other potential uses of atomic power, in mining and in developing underground
water sources are of particular interest to Nevadans.” p. 314.
Elliot. p. 339.
Denton and Morris. p. 365.
Littlejohn. p. 35.
Manning, Mary. Report Says Cleanup of Test Site Impossible. Las Vegas Sun. 8 August
Ibid.
Neff, Erin. “Poll cites Nuclear Waste as Top Concern, Voters Rate Economy as Second
Most Critical Issue.” Las Vegas Sun. 22 February 2002.
Lane, Frederic C. Venice. p. 206.
Pemble, John (1995). Venice Rediscovered. Clarendon Press: Oxford. p. 20.
Ibid. p. 21.
Lane, Frederic C. Venice. p. 16.
Ibid. p. 18.
Ibid. p. 452.
Franco, Daniel and Perelli, Marino and Scattolin, Mario (1996). Buffer strips to protect
the Venice Lagoon from non point source pollution. p. 1.
Ibid. p. 4.
Ibid.
Broad, William J. “That Sinking Feeling Again, as Venice’s Past Haunts City’s Fu-
ture.” New York Times. 29 August 2000.
Ibid.
Lane, Frederic C. Venice. p. 457.
Broad, William J. That Sinking Feeling Again, as Venice’s Past Haunts City’s Future.
New York Times. 29 August 2000.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Pemble in Chapter VI traces the first empirical evidence of the sinking of Venice and
a few of the early theories as to why it was occurring. One of the causes was an at-
tempt to divert river water to reduce a perceived cause of malaria. The unintended ef-
fect of enhancing changes to the estuary which contributed to the sinking.
Lane, Frederic C. Venice. p. 456.
Winter 2003, Vol. 22, No. 3
Ibid.
Broad, William J. “That Sinking Feeling Again, as Venice’s Past Haunts City’s Fu-
ture.” New York Times. 29 August 2000.
Ibid.
Rudd, Dennis R. & Fainstein, Susan S. ed. (1999). The Tourist City. New Haven and
London: Yale Press. p. 122.
The Las Vegas city budget identifies several city goals including: 1) Enhancing our
urban landscape; 2) Expanding transportation; 3) and Contributing to a safe environ-
ment. The budget provides economic information to determine the direction and costs
of meeting these goals.
Denton and Morris. p. 364.
Note: Given the compact nature of the historical center, I wonder if there might be a
way to selectively pump massive volumes of water (after all the lowering of the water
table is a cause of the sinking) or some other more stable material under the city and
simply jack it up a few feet, offering Venice a couple hundred years of life until a bet-
ter solution could be found.
Rudd, Dennis R. & Fainstein, Susan S. ed. (1999). The Tourist City. New Haven and
London: Yale Press. p. 6.
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