The Waterways of Venice as an 'Extended Museum': New Opportunities for Cultural, Social and Environmental Regeneration of a Forgotten Water Heritage

The evolution of the historical waterways of Venice, Italy, is considered from a transdisciplinary and holistic perspective to analyze and redeem the legacy of forgotten waterscapes and related heritage. Such a cultural and natural legacy reveals some remarkable examples of the Palladian landscape built along inland waterways, rivers, and a fascinating network of channels as 'liquid roads'. The river system dealt with here are watercourses that today flow into the Venice Lagoon (including the Piave, Sile, Zero, Dese, Marzenego, Brenta, Bacchiglione, and Adige rivers), but also the mighty Po River and its tributaries. When investigating the historical linkages between the hydraulic heritage and natural environments, biocultural aspects and aquatic ecosystems appear as an unbreakable unity – in spite of the different approaches to analyze them. The heritage related to Venice's inland waterways will be also explored through the perspective of a 'digital and extended museum' to stimulate multiple plans for a local re-evaluation of water assets and a new ground-breaking holistic vision. Indeed, water museums (both physical and digital mu-seums, as well as eco-museums and institutions that manage built infrastructures and architectures strongly related to water) are key players to bridge past and present water knowledge, educate peo-ple, and promote a new culture for sustainable living. This perspective today is formally endorsed by the Resolution XXIII–5 of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP 2018) that aims at improving water awareness education in the frame of Agenda 2030 involving, in partic-ular, water museums. The perspective outlined here influenced the recognition of the above-mentioned resolution to cre-ate a global partnership of water museums aimed at re-evaluating and rejuvenating inherited water legacies worldwide. The approach designed to foster sustainable eco-tourism along Venice's inland waterways shows how similar projects aiming to reconnect people to water can be promoted any-where. Lessons learned from past generations through trial and error approaches in dealing locally with water heritage are today more precious than ever, to educate for sustainable water manage-ment in a rapidly changing world and find new solutions that benefit both people and nature.