Flood human impacts within and beyond the flooded area: results of a survey conducted in Marche region after the flood of 2022.

Despite the primary aim of flood risk assessment and management to mitigate the negative impacts of floods on people, Italy lacks adequate tools for assessing flood human impact. In fact, current assessments are limited to estimating the number of residents in flooded areas. This approach underestimates the human impact as it disregards the broader spectrum of societal impacts and does not include indirectly exposed groups, who may, for example, suffer income losses due to the disruption of economic activities affected by the flood. However, addressing these impacts is key to guarantee healthy lives and well-being for all, as requested by the third Sustainable Development Goal. To better understand the broad spectrum of human impact, a questionnaire was distributed via a social media and local newspapers campaign to directly, indirectly and not affected citizens of the municipalities hit by the exceptional flood event that struck the Marche region, Italy, on September 15th, 2022. The survey elicited the perceived severity of flood impacts accounting for both direct (e.g., physical injuries, property damage) and indirect impacts (e.g., disruptions to daily life, post-event illnesses, psychological stress), together with socio-economic data and flood event information. About 700 responses were received, nearly half of which came from directly affected people. The analysis of the perceived severity of impacts across the three respondent groups revealed that, while direct tangible impacts were significant only for those directly affected, indirect intangible impacts were significant for both indirectly and not affected respondents. This finding confirms that the current approach, which focuses only on directly affected individuals, underestimates the human impact. Furthermore, the psychological stress induced by the flood was significant in all three groups, highlighting the need for targeted preventive measures and post-event mental health support for the whole community.