In the 19th century the Adige River (Northern Italy) was straightened to prevent flooding and to allow the building of the Verona-Brenner railway by the construction of embankments. At present the river flows between embankments for about 140 km and occasionally collapses have occurred, with the most dangerous in 1981 when the village of Salorno was mostly underwater. Since January 1st, 2000 the Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano - South Tyrol has been responsible for the management of the Adige River located in the region. For this purpose it started to install piezometers to monitor the pore water pressures in the embankments and in the soil foundations.