Reducing the vulnerability of territories to floods: evaluating in order to act

Abstract

In recent years, the flood risk management policy is shifting from an all-protection-strategy to the will to reduce the vulnerability of stakes. This change is accompanied by assessment approaches: through the work carried out for the preliminary flood risks assessment under the 2007 flood risks directive, through multi criteria analysis for protection projects, and recently through the establishment of a national vulnerability baseline. Assessing the territory vulnerability, that is to say its propensity to be affected by flooding in its various components and scales, allows to better define actions to be carried out in the different phases of risk management: knowledge and information, forecasting, urban planning, reduction of vulnerability and crisis management.
The work carried out for the vulnerability baseline allows structuring the approach to assess quantitatively and qualitatively a range of topics, and mapping them in order to facilitate decision-making. The Gennevilliers experiment shows that technical, financial and human investment can be important to have a truly exhaustive analysis.