The Northern Adriatic Sea is characterized by a gentle marine shelf that led this area and the surroundings coastal plains to be very sensitive even to limited variations of sea level during the Late Quaternary. These changes affected directly and indirectly the ancient human communities. In particular, around 19 ka cal BP, the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) triggered a rapid marine transgression which drowned a large sector of the alluvial plain formerly existing on the present seabed. This dramatic transformation was accompanied by significant changes in the hydrographic network and in the channel morphology of the major rivers. Around 5500 BC the Adriatic coast was already rather comparable to the present one and the rate of sea-level rise considerably lowered. Since that time the paleogeographic changes occurred along the coast were mainly constrained by the complex interplay between eustatic variations, fluvial inputs and subsidence. In the last centuries the anthropogenic activity has strongly increased its influence on the coastal dynamics and the effects of the ongoing global warming are exposing to significant risk of submersion the low-lying coasts of north-western Adriatic.