Floods in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and lessons for French flood risk governance

AbstractFrance experiences catastrophic floods on a yearly basis, with significant societal impacts. In this study, we use multiple sources (insurance datasets, scientific articles, satellite data, and grey literature) to (1) analyze modern flood disasters in the PACA Region; (2) discuss the efficiency of French public policy instruments; (3) perform a SWOT analysis of French flood risk governance (FRG); and (4) suggest improvements to the FRG framework. Despite persistent government efforts, the impacts of flood events in the region have not lessened over time. Identical losses in the same locations are observed after repeated catastrophic events. Relative exposure to flooding has increased in France, apparently due to intense urbanization of flood-prone land. We suggest that the French FRG could benefit from the following improvements: (1) regular updates of risk prevention plans and tools; (2) the adoption of a build back better logic; (3) taking undeclared damages into account in flood risk models; (4) better communication between the actors at the different steps of each cycle (preparation, control, organization, etc.); (5) better communication between those responsible for risk prevention, emergency management, and disaster recovery; (6) an approach that extends the risk analysis outside the borders of the drainage basin; and (7) increased participation in FRG from local populations.

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A critical analysis of French flood risk governance

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-349 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ioannis Kougkoulos ◽

Myriam Merad ◽

Simon Cook ◽

Ioannis Andredakis

Keyword(s):

Flood Risk ◽

Swot Analysis ◽

Drainage Basin ◽

Local Population ◽

Risk Prevention ◽

Risk Governance ◽

Flood Events ◽

Risk Models ◽

Local Inhabitant ◽

Do So

<p>France experiences catastrophic floods on a yearly basis, with significant societal impacts. In this paper, we critically evaluate the French Flood Risk Governance (FRG) system with the aim of identifying any shortcoming and, thereby, to suggest improvements. To do so, we employ a historical assessment of catastrophic past flood events in the Provence-Alpes-C&#244;te d'Azur (PACA) region and perform Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT)-analysis. Our evaluation shows that despite persistent government efforts, the impacts of flood events in the region do not appear to have lessened over time. Identical losses in the same locations (e.g. Riou de l&#8217;Argenti&#232;re watershed) can be observed after repetitive catastrophic events (e.g. 2015, 2019) triggering local inhabitant protests. We argue that the French FRG system can benefit from the following improvements: a) regular updates of the risk prevention plans and tools; b) the adoption of a Build Back Better logic instead of promoting the reconstruction of damaged elements in the same locations; c) taking into account undeclared damages into flood risk models (and not only those declared to flood insurance); d) increased communication between the actors of the different steps of each cycle (prepare, control, organise etc.); e) increased communication between three main elements of the cycle (risk prevention, emergency management and disaster recovery); f) an approach that extends the risk analysis outside the borders of the drainage basin (to be used in combination with the current basin risk models); and g) increased participation in FRG from local population. We also briefly discuss the use operational research methods for the optimisation of the French FRG.</p>

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Floods in Provence-Alpes-Côte D'azur and Lessons for French Flood Risk Governance

10.21203/rs.3.rs-211213/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ioannis Kougkoulos ◽

Myriam Merad ◽

Simon J. Cook ◽

Ioannis Andredakis

Keyword(s):

Flood Risk ◽

Swot Analysis ◽

Drainage Basin ◽

Local Population ◽

Risk Prevention ◽

Risk Governance ◽

Flood Insurance ◽

Flood Events ◽

Risk Models ◽

Local Inhabitant

Abstract France experiences catastrophic floods on a yearly basis, with significant societal impacts. In this paper, we employ a historical assessment of catastrophic past flood events in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) region and perform Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT)-analysis to evaluate some aspects of the French Flood Risk Governance (FRG) system and suggest improvements. Our evaluation shows that despite persistent government efforts, the impacts of flood events in the region do not appear to have lessened over time. Identical losses in the same locations (e.g. Riou de l’Argentière watershed) can be observed after repetitive catastrophic events (e.g. 2015, 2019) triggering local inhabitant protests. To avoid future disasters, we suggest that the French FRG should benefit from the following improvements: a) regular updates of the risk prevention plans and tools; b) the adoption of a Build Back Better logic instead of promoting the reconstruction of damaged elements in the same locations; c) taking into account undeclared damages into flood risk models (and not only those declared to flood insurance); d) increased communication between the actors of the different steps of each cycle (prepare, control, organise etc.); e) increased communication between three main elements of the cycle (risk prevention, emergency management and disaster recovery); f) an approach that extends the risk analysis outside the borders of the drainage basin (to be used in combination with the current basin risk models); and g) increased participation in FRG from local population. We also briefly discuss the use operational research methods for the optimisation of the French FRG.

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Flood risk management in Italy: challenges and opportunities for the implementation of the EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EC)

Natural Hazards and Earth System Science ◽

10.5194/nhess-13-2883-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 2883-2890 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

J. Mysiak ◽

F. Testella ◽

M. Bonaiuto ◽

G. Carrus ◽

S. De Dominicis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Management ◽

Flood Risk ◽

Flood Risk Management ◽

Risk Prevention ◽

Risk Governance ◽

Environmental Damage ◽

Civil Protection ◽

Floods Directive ◽

Eu Floods Directive ◽

The Eu

Abstract. Italy's recent history is punctuated with devastating flood disasters claiming high death toll and causing vast but underestimated economic, social and environmental damage. The responses to major flood and landslide disasters such as the Polesine (1951), Vajont (1963), Firenze (1966), Valtelina (1987), Piedmont (1994), Crotone (1996), Sarno (1998), Soverato (2000), and Piedmont (2000) events have contributed to shaping the country's flood risk governance. Insufficient resources and capacity, slow implementation of the (at that time) novel risk prevention and protection framework, embodied in the law 183/89 of 18 May 1989, increased the reliance on the response and recovery operations of the civil protection. As a result, the importance of the Civil Protection Mechanism and the relative body of norms and regulation developed rapidly in the 1990s. In the aftermath of the Sarno (1998) and Soverato (2000) disasters, the Department for Civil Protection (DCP) installed a network of advanced early warning and alerting centres, the cornerstones of Italy's preparedness for natural hazards and a best practice worth following. However, deep convective clouds, not uncommon in Italy, producing intense rainfall and rapidly developing localised floods still lead to considerable damage and loss of life that can only be reduced by stepping up the risk prevention efforts. The implementation of the EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EC) provides an opportunity to revise the model of flood risk governance and confront the shortcomings encountered during more than 20 yr of organised flood risk management. This brief communication offers joint recommendations towards this end from three projects funded by the 2nd CRUE ERA-NET (http://www.crue-eranet.net/) Funding Initiative: FREEMAN, IMRA and URFlood.

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The Governance of Flood Risk Management

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780199389407.013.335 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Jason Thistlethwaite ◽

Daniel Henstra

Keyword(s):

Risk Management ◽

Risk Reduction ◽

Natural Hazards ◽

Flood Risk ◽

Policy Instruments ◽

Policy Coordination ◽

Flood Risk Management ◽

Risk Governance ◽

Public And Private ◽

Course Of Action

Natural hazards are a complex governance problem. Managing the risks associated with natural hazards requires action at all scales—from household to national—but coordinating these nested responses to achieve a vertically cohesive course of action is challenging. Moreover, though governments have the legal authority and legitimacy to mandate or facilitate natural hazard risk reduction, non-governmental actors such as business firms, industry associations, research organizations and non-profit organizations hold much of the pertinent knowledge and resources. This interdependence demands horizontal collaboration, but coordinating risk reduction across organizational divides is fraught with challenges and requires skillful leadership. Flood risk management (FRM)—an integrated strategy to reduce the likelihood and impacts of flooding—demonstrates the governance challenge presented by natural hazards. By engaging stakeholders, coordinating public and private efforts, and employing a diversity of policy instruments, FRM can strengthen societal resilience, achieve greater efficiency, and enhance the legitimacy of decisions and actions to reduce flood risk. Implementing FRM, however, requires supportive flood risk governance arrangements that facilitate vertical and horizontal policy coordination by establishing strategic goals, negotiating roles and responsibilities, aligning policy instruments, and allocating resources.

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The role of discourses in understanding institutional stability and change – an analysis of Dutch flood risk governance

Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning ◽

10.1080/1523908x.2021.1935222 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-20

Author(s):

Maria Kaufmann ◽

Mark Wiering

Keyword(s):

Flood Risk ◽

Risk Governance ◽

Stability And Change ◽

Institutional Stability

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Policy Entrepreneurship and Policy Transfer: Flood Risk Governance in Northern Sweden

Central European Journal of Public Policy ◽

10.1515/cejpp-2016-0028 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Evangelia Petridou ◽

Pär M. Olausson

Keyword(s):

Policy Change ◽

Flood Risk ◽

National Level ◽

Policy Transfer ◽

Risk Governance ◽

Policy Entrepreneur ◽

Policy Entrepreneurship ◽

Public And Private ◽

Political Actors

AbstractCentral to policies relating to risk governance at the regional and local levels is the interaction between the public and private sectors also referred to as networked governance. At the same time, the role of political actors in general and policy entrepreneurs in particular, in terms of policy change, has gained considerable traction in recent policy scholarship. The purpose of this study was to investigate the change in governance arrangements resulting in the formation of a coordination network in regional flood risk management-the first of its kind in Sweden. Our research is guided by the following questions: first, would the policy change (the establishment of the networks)have taken place if a policy entrepreneur were not part of the policy transfer process? Second, what is the role of policy entrepreneurship in the implementation of the policy after its nationwide adoption? Third, what other factors played a role in the variation of the results in the implemented policy that is, the enforced networks? We find the role of a policy entrepreneur key in the policy transfer from the regional to the national level. In order to investigate the resultant networks, we draw from B. Guy Peters (1998) and his conceptualization of factors which affect the politics of coordination. In addition to the presence of a policy entrepreneur, we compare: (i) pluriformity of network members;(ii) member interdependence; (iii) redundancy of structures, and (iv) degree of formality (in terms of meetings). Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs contribute to the variation in the functionality of the enforced river groups, though other factors play a significant role as well.Most importantly, perhaps, we did not identify entrepreneurs in any of the river groups which were not functional.

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Joint impact of rainfall and tidal level on flood risk in a coastal city with a complex river network: a case study of Fuzhou City, China

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-17-679-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 679-689 ◽

Cited By ~ 69

Author(s):

J. J. Lian ◽

K. Xu ◽

C. Ma

Keyword(s):

Flood Risk ◽

Joint Probability ◽

Heavy Precipitation ◽

River Network ◽

Flood Frequency ◽

Combined Effect ◽

Multiple Sources ◽

Tidal Level ◽

Sea Levels ◽

Coastal Cities

Abstract. Coastal cities are particularly vulnerable to flood under multivariable conditions, such as heavy precipitation, high sea levels, and storms. The combined effect of multiple sources and the joint probability of extremes should be considered to assess and manage flood risk better. This paper aims to study the combined effect of rainfall and the tidal level of the receiving water body on flood probability and severity in Fuzhou City, which has a complex river network. Flood severity under a range of precipitation intensities, with return periods (RPs) of 5 yr to 100 yr, and tidal levels was assessed through a hydrodynamic model verified by data observed during Typhoon Longwang in 2005. According to the percentages of the river network where flooding occurred, the threshold conditions for flood severity were estimated in two scenarios: with and without working pumps. In Fuzhou City, working pumps efficiently reduce flood risk from precipitation within a 20-yr RP. However, the pumps may not work efficiently when rainfall exceeds a 100-yr RP because of the limited conveyance capacity of the river network. Joint risk probability was estimated through the optimal copula. The joint probability of rainfall and tidal level both exceeding their threshold values is very low, and the greatest threat in Fuzhou comes from heavy rainfall. However, the tidal level poses an extra risk of flood. Given that this extra risk is ignored in the design of flood defense in Fuzhou, flood frequency and severity may be higher than understood during design.

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Flood Risk Awareness

International Journal of Risk and Contingency Management ◽

10.4018/ijrcm.2012010104 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 49-63 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tiziana Guzzo ◽

Fernando Ferri ◽

Patrizia Grifoni ◽

Katja Firus

Keyword(s):

Public Participation ◽

Flood Risk ◽

Population Sample ◽

Survey Method ◽

Risk Governance ◽

Risk Awareness ◽

School Students ◽

Before And After ◽

Students First ◽

Public Risk

Communication plays an essential role in risk awareness when the gap between the risk perception and the actual risk depends on correct knowledge. This study investigates public risk awareness and public participation, as part of the European project Integrative flood risk governance approach for improvement of risk awareness and increased public participation (IMRA). The focus is on perceptions of flood risk awareness in the river basin of Chiascio (Umbria-Italy). The survey method is used to analyze flood risk awareness perception before and after an experimental communication intervention with school students. First, the authors examine flood risk awareness of school student families and friends across the population sample region. Then the authors use a unique combination of exercises – a role play game, an exhibition, and a public competition – to improve risk awareness in school children and their families. Finally, the authors test the effectiveness of this intervention in terms of flood risk awareness with the families and friends of the school students.

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