Position and climate

Santa Maria Nuova is a small medieval hill town in the province of Ancona, centre-east Marche Region (249 amsl).

It is located among the Appennini Mountains and the Adriatic Sea, in the floodplain on the left (north) bank of the Musone River about 20 kilometres (12,4 mi) before its mouth on the sea and about 30 kilometres (18,6 mi) from the chieftown Ancona. This position, with charming landscapes typical of rolling hills which plung down into the sea.

This beautiful hamlet is on the ridge of an hill between Monte Conero and Monte San Vicion and it extends over an area of 18 square kilometres on Musone River Valley. The surrounding territory is characterized by hilly morphology with upper sub flat areas, relatively steep slopes and several badlands.

The climate of Santa Maria Nuova is warm mediterranean and temperate sublittoral (Csa in the Köppen climate classification), typical of Italian inland and south-central areas (climate zone D, national law DPR n°412 del 26-08-1993). The average annual temperature is about 14°C, the summers go from June to September and the winters are characterized by strong decrease of minimum night temperature values. Specifically, the daytime temperature excursions increases a lot both in winter than in summer, and during the hot season the maximum temperature values can exceeded 40°C.

During the year the rainfalls are spread fairly equally, with a usual summer decline and an increase in last months. The days with snowfall ranging on average between 3 and 8, with maximum probability in February. Frequent mists and fogs are mostly from October to April. (souce OGSM - Centro di Ecologia e Climatologia Osservatorio Geofisico Sperimentale).

History and culture

The oldest remains of human presence in Santa Maria Nuova date back to prehistoric times. There are also other remains of a funerary aedicule and a decorated villa both dating back to Roman times (found in the archeological site of Pietrolone).

The first significant settlement can be traced back to 1201 AC, when the close castle of Santa Maria delle Ripe (the ancient name of Santa Maria Nuova) pledged reverence and submission to the neighboring lordship of Jesi.

The castle suffered several destructions until the early fifteenth century, when it was rebuilt with the name of Santa Maria Nuova on an hill to the close west.

During later centuries Santa Maria Nuova was always considered a territorial extension of lordship of Jesi, from which it became independent only in 1859.

Economy

The local economy has always been linked mainly to the agriculture sector and, to a lesser extent, to the manufacturing, especially based on wine production (with the famous Verdicchio) and to the textile, plastic and metal industry.Currently agricultural sector is the leading one in terms of employment, and since last years there is a partial growth of tourism and service sectors.

Member of the Sustainable Energy Community (SEC) of Marche Region, Santa Maria Nuova municipality is involved in the project with the role of “associated beneficiary” partner and pilot area, under the coordination of regional authorities and development agencies at regional level. SMN will contribute to adopt and upgrade the model of the SEC in supporting the improvement of climate governance, as a best practice for the development of virtuous climate change adaptation process in local authorities.

Specific project actions.

• Setting up of an internal Climate Change Adaptation Team, composed of political and technical representatives from all sectors of the administration involved in the climate adaptation issue.
• Definition of the current baseline for adaptation and development of relative baseline long-term (2050) climate change scenarios.
• Joining the Mayor Adapt initiative (upgrading the membership of the Covenant of Mayor signed on July, 2012).
• Active participation to the capacity building process, learning and gaining experience by espert municipalities municipalities that have already implemented actions and plans in the climate adaptation process and are active in the Mayor Adapt initiative.
• Drafting of the vulnerability and risk assessment analysis starting from the evaluation of the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of specific key sectors identified to the impact of climate change in a long-term period (2050), in order to determine both the vulnerability level of each key sector and the risk of urban system.
• Definition of the political and strategic vision on climate change adaptation until 2050, setting up objectives and goals depending on specific risks and vulnerabilities detected and political priorities in the medium and long term.
• Development of the “Climate change adaptation strategy” through the integration of SEAP measures and taking into account guideline or indication provided by the Mayor Adapt initiative. The strategy will consists of political and strategic vision and potential adaptation options suitable to answer to the specific adaptation threats and opportunities. It will be approved by the municipal council and will be submitted to the Mayor Adapt portal.
• Contributing to the finalization of the list of climate and energy monitoring indicators developed by expert municipalities.
• Testing of the climate and energy monitoring system application in order to verify its effectiveness and usability for the monitoring of the “Climate change adaptation strategy” adopted. Specifically, the technical officers of the municipality will use the open source application by inserting the relevant climate and energy data for a period of 6 months after the approval of the strategy. The application will be used also for the monitoring activities of Mayors Adapt initiative also beyond the end of the project.
• Monitoring the impact of the project, contributing through collecting quantitative and qualitative information related to the project progress at municipal level
• Raising awareness and assessing the perception of climate change socio-economic impacts on the productive and social sectors at municipal level, through the stakeholders involvement with a participatory approach.

Geom. Donato Carbonari, d.carbonari@comune.santamarianuova.an.it