There are m any reasons for interest in the northw estern Adriatic coastalplain, such as subsidence, beach erosion, industrialpollution, increasing seaside conurbation, and environ- m entalpreservation. The region as defined has an innerborder thatis both a m orphologicaland historicallim it of perm anent settlem ent. The progressive exploitation of this space has dem on- strated that itis a region organized into parallelstrips w ith hom ogeneous characteristics thatco- incide w ith the differentphases ofthe hum anization ofthe coastalarea. How ever, since the Sec- ond World War, there has been a rem arkable differentiation, because ofreclam ation, polarized industrialdevelopm ent, the construction of a tourist conurbation and, especially, the adm inis- trative division of the entire coastalstrip, a division thatinfluences the policies ofterritorialor- ganization. Thus, to date, the various coastalsubareas have no com m on teleology that renders the entire region a system ic whole.