Flood protection dykes in France. National data base

Abstract

The repetitive floods occurred in France during the last 10 years remind us the weakness of the flood protection dykes. In order to have a better idea about the state of such protection works in France, the French Minister of the Environment issued in 1999 a national inventory of river and sea dykes, of their owners and of the human activities existing in the protected areas. The Cemagref is in charge of the design and the management of the data base software used for collect the information about dykes. The present article outlines the objectives of the operation, the main characteristics of the database software, now accessible via Internet, the state of advancement of the inventory and the primary extrapolations that can be made at the scale of the whole metropolitan French territory.