Valorization of historical information for the predetermination of flood risk: application to the Guiers watershed

Abstract

Collaboration between historians, archivists and hydrologists can provide a significant improvement in the field of flood hazard studies, by using historical information about floods. This Historisk methodology was first applied in 1996 on river Guiers, which has a good historical information during the 18th and 19th centuries. This river was the old borderline between France and Savoy, and so many reports are available and concern the boundaries of the two areas. The analysis of more than two hundred archives allows the qualitative collection of the most important floods since the second part of the 18th century, and the establishment of a guide, which presents the different archive sources about floods. An example of the Historisk methodology is carried out by estimating the discharge of the 1875 flood on river Guiers at Pont-de-Beauvoisin.