The Department of Physics of the University of Bologna (UNIBO), the Consorzio Venezia Nuova, sole agent of the Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia for the managemente of the Venice lagoon environment (MAV), the Italian National Agency for Environmental Protection and Technical Services (APAT), have recently started joint projects to determine and study vertical crustal movements and sea-level fluctuations in the northern Adriatic area where the natural subsidence has been enhanced by anthropogenic components during last century. The combination of the permanent GPS stations belonging to UNIBO and of those of the MAV and APAT constitutes a basic network for the study of land subsidence in the northern Adriatic. We have studied and applied a combined observational strategy for monitoring and reliably identifying both seasonal and log-term crustal movements, namely height variations/changes. The strategy adopted is based on a multidisciplinary approach that combines the information provided by GPS, InSAR and terrestrial and space gravimetry. The results of these different techniques are compared and combined in a study on land subsidence in the southeastern Po Plain and the northern Adriatic coast, in Italy. The sea-level time series of the Marina di Ravenna, Venice and Trieste tide gauge stations are compared to the Topex/Poseidon satellite altimetry sea-level elevation and to the GPS height and InSAR long-term trends at the same stations
