Geography of a disaster: mitigating floods improving risk perception

The spatial-temporal determination of incoming hazards is a necessary but not sufficient condition to describe the extent of possible disasters. In fact, it is necessary to contemplate the whole geographical context in which these phenomena occur. For this reason, physical and human geography must interact to define the possible impacts of a disaster and to reduce its effects. This is the ultimate goal of Disaster Risk Reduction. As part of the mitigation measures it is essential that populations living in areas affected by hazards have a correct perception of the associated risks and a good ability to cope with them. In this work we have focused on the analysis of flood risk perception of the citizens of Senigallia, central Italy, according to the following indicators: i) awareness of the local flood risk; ii) fear; iii) knowledge of the flood risk; iv) media interest; v) perception of personal responsibility; vi) perception of potential flood damages; vii) perception of the impacts on future generations; viii) previous experiences. Because disasters do not affect the population equally, the analysis has been performed through questionnaires addressed to several types of citizens: generic citizens, municipal technicians, and primary-middle school students. Results show that respondents have great cognizance about future floods impacts and high fear of them, except students. The other indicators have obtained medium-low scores. This is especially true for the adult citizens, thus highlighting the urgent need for training and drills for the themes in which the gap between adults and technicians is remarkable.