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The 2015 was a remarkable year in the global policy with the publication of three milestones: The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement for Climate Change. The global significance of such documents raised interest in the understanding of the interaction between humans, the Earth and the climate, and the past and current development of disasters. Anthropogenic landscapes are one of the most sensitive environments to hydrological extremes, fluctuations and changes. Here, hydrogeological disasters such as floods are considered one of the major threat of our time, bringing negative consequences to the whole societal system. However, while climate change and socio-economic development are important drivers of flood impacts, human behaviours can alter the potential effects of a flood by undertaking protective behaviours. In this regard, risk perceptions are potential drivers of behaviour. Thus, exploring individuals’ concern about natural hazards provide essential information about people willingness to take precautionary measures and can, therefore, identify the major reasons behind the unsatisfactory performance level of current disaster management practices. This suggests that advancing our understanding of the hazard perceptions by investigating personal, social and cultural influences can help in determining people preparedness. Limitations of personal action in front of the risk might come from social vulnerabilities, those factors that increase the fragility of individuals toward a particular threat. In light of this, there is the need to create people-oriented …