The Information Service was set up in February 1984, implementing the first convention signed between the Venice Water Authority and the Consorzio Venezia Nuova (in the context of the first Special Law no. 171/1973 which established the principle that safeguarding Venice was a matter of "priority national interest). Its task was to collect, classify and conserve all data and information on the lagoon environment and the activities taking place there, collaborating with the other bodies operating in the area in order to define the respective intervention policies in the context of a general framework of knowledge.
In the wider context of the second special law, Law no. 798 of 29 November 1984 which initiated a programme of studies, projects and interventions aimed at improving the ecosystem, the appropriateness of setting up an Information Service was confirmed, in order to guarantee the continuity and development of observations on the lagoon environment and its evolution.
In this context, although not guaranteeing complete knowledge of the environment, the Information Service has nevertheless made a vast amount of the data and information on which this knowledge has been constructed available.  

In recent years, collaboration and communication between the institutions involved in the safeguarding process and the provision of information to public opinion have become ever more important.  Many activities are, in fact, oriented towards encouraging communication, namely the exchange of data and knowledge on scientific and information level, where possible with direct operational input.  
In this context, setting up of the Services Centre at the Hydraulic Model Experimental Centre (Centro Sperimentale per Modelli Idraulici) at Voltabarozzo (Padua) enabled collaboration with institutions to be stepped up and improved on a technical level, establishing all the processes which identify, test and develop the activities held to be useful and necessary for future management of the area.

These activities include developing the Venice Analysis Laboratory; equipping the Voltabarozzo Centre with special equipment for sampling, measuring and laboratory analysis of the organic micropollutants present in the lagoon; setting up of the Puntolaguna information point at the headquarters of the Information Service; setting up of continuous monitoring stations in the lagoon and systematic use of differential GPS to localise discharges in the lagoon and concessions.

In light of the advanced stage of implementation of the interventions promoted by the special law, the Information Service believed it necessary to begin a project to certify its main processes in order to improve their functional and operational dynamics.  
The objective is to develop production methods for the data and services which can be guaranteed with quality certification in order to improve the reliability of the data and systems provided in light of the growing interaction between interlocutors.  The certification covers the activities of the Venice and Voltabarozzo analysis laboratories, IT equipment, morphological surveying and environmental monitoring procedures, information projects, updating and improvement of databases and support systems, remote sensing and data exchange.