GERIHCO "Gestion des Risques et Histoire des Coulées Boueuses" - Risk Management and History of Muddy Floods / An interdisciplinary approach to understand the muddy floods risk (Alsace - France)
Abstract
The interdisciplinary research program GERIHCO started in 2005 with a pool of a dozen researchers from disciplines as different as economy, sociology, geography, agronomy, … interested in the study of the risk of muddy floods in the Alsatian region. The main issues studied are related to: (1) The study of the physical processes of muddy floods and the agronomic measures that can decrease the hazard show that the cultural practices without ploughing have positive effects on runoff and erosion. But there are some known consequences of these practices on agronomic issues such as: biological activity in the soil and sanitary situation in the fields (weeds and parasites, for instance). We assess the level of pesticides employment under such cultural practices. Is it more/less important and does it impact the environment more than in conventional systems? Two indicators are used: I-PHY (INDIGO software®) and TFI, Treatment Frequency Index. (2) The economic analyses of the adoption of reduced tillage aims to carry out an economic analysis of the reduced tillage implementation for Alsatian crops farms, by using technical and economic indicators derived from SYSTERRE®. The main results show that reduced tillage - maintains yield levels, reduces working time and gasoil consumptions, maintains a direct margin compared to ploughing system. (3) The sociological analysis of the farmers' behaviors deals with the understanding of their behaviors face to soil erosion and environmental issues. The sociological study focuses on the farmers points of view, which are the very last stakeholders in the risk management decision system. Surveys and individual interviews have been conducted in 3 villages, frequently concerned by muddy floods. (4) The study of the perception of protective measures and the modelling their efficiency highlight that several measures can be taken to decrease the risk: agronomic measures, policy measures, economic measures,...A dialogue between all stakeholders has to be initiate to define the best practices and the best way to manage muddy floods and their damages. The psychosocial analyse (based on questionnaires) allows us to understand the agents' behaviors and then to identify the potential protective measures they should adopt. Surveys among farmers highlight their willingness to set up fascines in their fields. The results show that: they perceive fascines as a "solution of emergency", negative aspects mainly concern the cost, the integration in the landscape and the care and maintenance of the fascines, there is a lack of information dealing with the protective measures and their efficiency. All the results show that the management of a natural disaster occurring every year in some cases and damaging inhabitants as well as farmers has to be managed with a collaborative approach: all actors have to be involved in the settlement of mitigation measures. The financial support of the local Water Agency allows us to implement the different studies and then to communicate largely the results of the program. This investment also shows the interest of such an approach in risk studies.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFMNH43A1632H
- Keywords:
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- 4328 NATURAL HAZARDS / Risk;
- 4333 NATURAL HAZARDS / Disaster risk analysis and assessment;
- 4336 NATURAL HAZARDS / Economic impacts of disasters;
- 4353 NATURAL HAZARDS / Sociology of disasters