UNESCO has threatened to put Venice on it Heritage at Risk list after expressing concern over development projects relating to shipping near the city.

The Italian government has decided to deep-dredge a channel through the Laguna Venita, putting Venice at risk so cruise ships can enter the port of Venice without having to sail through the city.

The plans have come up against a crescendo of objections since the decision was announced in August. In that time, a petition signed by more than 27,000 people has been presented, 40 Italian senators have questioned the move and environmental scientists have also expressed concern.

If the dredging goes ahead, the degradation of the lagoon would be accelerated, making it more of an open sea and putting the waterways and buildings of Venice at risk.

Prior to the government’s dredging plan being announced, UNESCO expressed concern at the “extent and scale of proposals for large infrastructure, navigation and construction projects in the lagoon that could potentially jeopardise the outstanding universal value of Venice” by causing irreversible changes to its land and seascape.

At UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee meeting in Doha in June, the heritage body passed important resolutions indicating it would call the Italian government to account and put Venice on the List of World Heritage in Danger if the government could not allay its concerns.

The List of World Heritage in Danger was established in 1972 to designate and manage World Heritage Sites. Entries in the list are threatened World Heritage Sites for the conservation of which major operations is required. The list is intended to increase international awareness of the threats and to encourage counteractive measures.

UNESCO has now requested that the Italian government host a UNESCO monitoring mission in 2015 to assess the condition of Venice and its lagoon, including the potential impact of development proposals and that the government delivers a report on the state of conservation of the Venice and the lagoon by 1 February 2015 and an account of what action had been taken by 31 December 2015.