Abstract
Intensive urbanization and related increase of impervious surfaces, causes negative impacts on the hydrological cycle, amplifying the risk of urban floods. These impacts can get even worse due to potential climate change impacts. The urban areas of the Simeto River Valley (SRV), the largest river valley in Sicily (Italy), have been repeatedly hit by intense rainfall events in the last decades that lead to urban flooding, causing several damages and, in some instances, threats to population. In this paper, we present the results of a 10-question survey on climate change and risk perception in 11 municipalities of the SRV carried out within the activities of the LIFE project SimetoRES, which allowed to collect 1143 feedbacks from the residents. The survey investigated: (a) the level of worry about climate change in relation to extreme storms, (b) elements of urban flooding risk preparedness: the direct experience of the residents during heavy rain events, their trust in a civil protection regional alert system, and their knowledge of the correct behavior in case of flood, and (c) the willingness of citizens to implement sustainable drainage actions for climate change adaptation in their own municipality and real estates. The results show that more than 52% of citizens has inadequate knowledge of the correct behavior during flooding events and only 30% of them feel responsible for mitigation of flooding risk. There is a modest willingness by the population to support the construction of sustainable urban drainage infrastructures. A statistical cross-analysis of the answers to the different questions, based on contingency matrices and conditional frequencies, has shown that a greater worry about climate change has no significant impact either on the behavior of people in dangerous situations occurring during flooding events or on the willingness to support financially sustainable solutions. These results suggest that to build a higher worry about climate change and related urban flooding risk is not sufficient to have better preparedness, and that more direct educative actions are necessary in the area.
Highlights
Climate change (CC) is a major societal risk issue and there are increasing calls for urgent mitigation and adaptation actions [1]
This study aims at understanding, with reference to the Simeto River Valley (SRV) area in Sicily, Italy: (a) what is the current level of worry of the population about the climate change issue and to which extent they link urban flooding to climate change; (b) the level of individuals’ risk preparedness, with reference to the way a person behaves during urban flooding events; (c) long-term preparedness, people’s willingness to invest as individuals and as a community in climate change adaptation infrastructures for sustainable urban drainage
The results of a survey exploring worry about climate change and its possible relation with the behavior during urban floods and the willingness to invest in adaptation actions have been presented, relatively to the Simeto River Valley area in Sicily
Summary
Climate change (CC) is a major societal risk issue and there are increasing calls for urgent mitigation and adaptation actions [1]. The traditional approach to urbanization based exclusively on impervious paving of surfaces and stormwater management relying on grey infrastructures (sewers), is not sustainable and is no longer compatible with climate change adaptation strategies [6,7,8]. The increasing urbanization leads to a greater share of impervious areas that result in increased flood risk and overloaded storm water pipe systems. For this reason, blue-green storm water and nature-based solutions have come to be seen as efficient measures against increasing flood risk in urban areas [9,10,11].
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