Public participation to flood mitigation management: using 'Flood-Scale' procedure and contingent valuation

Abstract

Despite the existence of a "participation principle" in the environmental law,the French public does not participate to mitigation decisions and flood risk management. This paper describes a tool designed to overcome this difficulty in the case of typically French centralized decision-making. Such a tool is based both on adapting the contingent valuation method to the risky context of floods and on using a specific flood-scale procedure designed to give people the best relevant information. The results of a survey in the urban area of Le Mans are discussed. The fact that willingness to pay does not increase with the protection level tends to prove that there is an acceptability for such a flood risk, even for people facing the more important ones. This result supports the need for earlier stake-holder participation in the decision-making process.