<p>Climate change will have an undeniable influence on coastal areas. In the last decades, the impact of storm surges has promoted multiple mitigation and adaptation strategies worldwide, including more robust sea defenses, development of integrated modelling chains and warning systems, and improved storm impact management. However, as climate change seems likely to result in increased rates of both sea level rise and storm-related impacts, it is crucial to estimate the local probable extreme sea wave conditions, to properly reproduce the wave and hydrodynamic inshore field, and to investigate the effectiveness of sea defenses under different sea level rise scenarios. This work describes the first steps towards an innovative fully coupled modelling system composed of a hydrodynamic (2DEF) and wind wave model (SWAN). The models are two-way coupled at half-hourly intervals exchanging the following fields: 2D sea level, surface currents and bottom elevation are transferred from 2DEF to SWAN; wave climate computed by SWAN is then passed to 2DEF by modifying the radiation stress. Numerical simulations have been performed to identify the impact of extreme storms at Calabaia beach, Italy, by combining sea level rise and extreme wave projections with the most recent georeferenced territorial data.</p>