TITLE:
How to Achieve Local Resilience to Flood Risks by Increasing Solidarity: The Example of the “Syndicat Mixte” (Inter-Municipal Cooperation Structure) of the French Territory of Belfort-Montbéliard
AUTHORS:
Pierre Pech, Charly Duplan, Lucas Robin-Chevallier, Remy Fevrier
KEYWORDS:
Territorial Resilience, Flooding Management, Public Policies, Territorial Solidarity
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.8 No.4,
April
29,
2016
ABSTRACT: This paper illustrates approaches to flooding risk governance in a
territory where a high density of population corresponds to a high level of
industrial activities and a significant development of transport
infrastructures in a transboundary context between France, Germany and
Switzerland. In the last few years, some fundamental changes in European
official instructions about risks and especially about flooding risks occurred.
Substantial public policy challenges remain in order to promote a broad-based resilient
territory twinned with local knowledge of sustainable land management and civic
participation in local governance. The survey is based on a GIS study and
questionnaires with a representative panel of 235 stakeholders from the studied
territory. Our statistical results demonstrate that, in spite of a deep-rooted
mindset as regards flooding hazards, local population awareness of the
territorial vulnerability is not related to important challenges. A
hierarchical analysis of the data shows that the awareness of stakeholders is
less related to the importance of risks when the territorial level decreases.
It also highlights the decline of solidarity among neighbouring communities
when the distance from the industrial axis increases. Greatly impacted by flooding
risks, industrial activities of the regional basin are paradoxically not really
perceived as common challenges. Such a case study illustrates how public
policies need to be relevant to the adapted levels. Awareness of common issues
is a central target to develop acceptance in order to provide an efficient
framework of resilience, including willingness to pay to reduce the risk and
solidarity in local development compensations.