Deciding in the context of GEMAPI: example of a methodology for an integrated decision support approach and its application to development projects

Abstract

When considering new river management projects - and within the framework of the GEMAPI competence (management of aquatic environments and flood prevention)-, practitioners, project owners, financers and State representatives need tools to jointly assess and aggregate indicators relating to the technical efficiency in terms of flood protection (PI), environmental impacts (GEMA), but also the economic or socio-cultural consequences of the measures and strategies envisaged. An integrated and multidisciplinary approach to decision support is proposed, demonstrating complementarity with traditional sectoral concepts and tools for risk analysis (like cost-benefit analysis or deterministic risk analysis), environmental assessment and decision support. It enables both the evaluation of technical solutions at the technical and environmental levels and the co-construction of decision support frameworks shared with the various local and institutional actors. Beyond the local results, the approach and the tools proposed can be reused, adapted by other stakeholders to complement existing methods in order to help decision-making but also to trace and formalize the decision-making process.