Study site · Italy
Senigallia · Misa River.
An estuarine city on the Misa River, facing the microtidal Adriatic. Storm surges, waves, high water and heavy rain can combine here, in a dense urban area with limited natural drainage.
At a glance
A river city on the Adriatic.
Senigallia lies within the Misa River basin and faces the microtidal Adriatic Sea. It is an archetype of the Mediterranean urban estuary: intense coastal development, high population density and infrastructure, limited natural drainage and sealed soils.
The basin has produced major floods in the last decade. Here, storm surge, waves and high sea levels can coincide with heavy rainfall and high river discharge — and many cities along the European Mediterranean coast share the same problem.
The team at Università Politecnica delle Marche is designing mitigation measures that include multifunctional blue-green infrastructure as a basin-scale strategy.
- TidesMicrotidal Adriatic Sea
- CityDense estuarine city on the Misa
- DrainageLimited natural drainage, sealed soils
- River mouthEngineered, between harbour walls
- MonitoringIntegrated system since 2015
- PartnerUniversità Politecnica delle Marche
Floods
3 May 2014, and after.
Intense rainfall across the Marche region flooded Senigallia and the towns of the Misa basin. Compound events followed in 2022 and 2023.
- 390 haflooded in the mapped area
- ≈ 12,900people estimated affected
- 2022 · 2023new compound floods on the Misa
Source: Copernicus Emergency Management Service, activation EMSR083 (map of 10 May 2014).
The river–sea observatory
A river mouth under watch.
Since 2015, Università Politecnica delle Marche has run an integrated monitoring system in Senigallia. Its data serve both research and management, and are made available to local authorities.
- River gauges
- Tide gauge
- Multiparameter probes along the estuary
- Offshore current profiler (ADCP)
- X-band radar
- Video station with six cameras watching the river mouth
Science
Where waves meet the river.
At the mouth of the Misa, opposing river currents can block incoming waves. Whether a flood stays in the channel or reaches the city depends critically on how river discharge and sea level line up in time.
These processes, studied with a decade of observations of the Misa, are the subject of a 2026 review in Coastal Engineering by Brocchini, Marini and Baldoni.
Working with stakeholders
Focus groups in Senigallia.
On 19 May 2026, during the first in-person meeting of the consortium, local stakeholders discussed how they perceive flood risk and the value of the river's ecosystems. Their input feeds the co-design of resilience pathways.
EcoC2S works in dialogue with the Municipality of Senigallia. The day ended with a visit to the river–sea monitoring infrastructure; on 20 May the consortium met in Ancona and visited the UNIVPM wave flume and hydraulic laboratories.
