The Stura del Monferrato (to distinguish it from other Piedmont

Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...

ese watercourses of the same name: the Stura di Lanzo

Stura di Lanzo

Stura di Lanzo is a 65 km long river in north-western Italy . It is formed from several tributaries near Lanzo Torinese. It flows into the river Po in Turin.The name Stura has Celtic origin: stur, which means "to fall".-External links:...

, the Stura di Demonte

Stura di Demonte

Stura di Demonte is a 111 km long river in northwestern Italy . It is a tributary to the river Tanaro, which is a tributary of the river Po. Its source is in the Alps, near the border with France. It flows through Demonte and Cuneo before joining the Tanaro just east of Cherasco....

 and the Stura di Ovada) is a 36.7 km stream, which runs through Murisengo

Murisengo

Murisengo is a comune in the Province of Alessandria in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 35 km east of Turin and about 40 km northwest of Alessandria....

, Cerrina Monferrato

Cerrina Monferrato

Cerrina Monferrato is a commune in the Province of Alessandria in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 40 km east of Turin and about 40 km north-west of Alessandria...

, Mombello Monferrato

Mombello Monferrato

Mombello Monferrato is a comune in the Province of Alessandria in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 45 km east of Turin and about 40 km northwest of Alessandria.-External links:*...

 and Pontestura

Pontestura

Pontestura is a commune with a population of 1,539 in the Province of Alessandria in the Italian region Piedmont...

 in the Italian Province of Alessandria

Province of Alessandria

The Province of Alessandria is an Italian province, with a population of some 430,000, which forms the southeastern part of the region of Piedmont. The provincial capital is the city of Alessandria....

.

A right tributary of the Po River

Po River

The Po |Ligurian]]: Bodincus or Bodencus) is a river that flows either or – considering the length of the Maira, a right bank tributary – eastward across northern Italy, from a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest face...

 it flows in a northeasterly direction within the hilly region of the Basso Monferrato, through the Val Cerrina. (This valley, however, was not formed by the Stura: rather it was excavated by the major watercourse of Piedmont which existed during the Lower Pleistocene, draining the western Alps and following an east-south-easterly course generally to the south of today’s Po.)

Its mean discharge of a mere 3.2 m²/s relies immediately upon precipitation, and is subject to marked seasonal variations.