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Evolution of flood mortality is complex as several opposite factors come into play. On one side, flood risk has been aggravated due to an increase of the number of inhabitants within the area at risk, and to an increasing of simple-storey houses without safe area. On the other side, flood risk is better managed due to a better efficiency of warning offices and civil protection actors. It is intended to demonstrate the potential of historical information on past flood events to give a better understanding of the main factors leading to mortality during flood events. This paper focuses on a set of six fatal floods from 1930 to 2010 in France, with a variable number of fatalities (from 25 to 423). Information was gathered on the main characteristics of past flood mortality: number of fatalities, death location, date and time of death, death circumstances, age and gender of victims. Based on the six flood events, the paper shows contrasted patterns on flood mortality in terms of spatial distribution, death location (inside/outside buildings), age of flood victims. The main factors leading to flood mortality are considered, such as population exposed to violent and sudden flooding, vulnerable built environment, inadequate behaviour of individuals and warning failures.

In France, for a long time, flood risk management has only oriented to controlling flood hazard with structural measures such as dikes. But since 1990’s many events have proved they have not totally efficient measures. So, institutions decided it’s necessary to manage flood risk with others ways like prevention. Risk management is so organize about holistic policies with different stakeholders and societies exposed at risk. Our study have the aim to demonstrate through several examples how flood risk is manage in French Mediterranean area. Post event feedback permit us to evaluate damage and crisis management. This method is use for show if this strategies is efficient or not. This study demonstrate how is risk management in France. Regulations are they efficient, so have they an influence about the reduction of deaths and damages? Individual measures are they more important than collective action? Finally, what policies and strategies are used and effective? The main results about cases studies show that natural event has most important that publics policies and it determines preventive policies.

The recurrence of disasters, sometimes in the same territories, questioned the effectiveness of the preventive logic and of the post-disaster recovery process. The present reconstruction approach aims at analysing the interactions between risk, societies and territories. The study of the recovery process in a holistic way through a medium and long-term feedback defines its operating rules, and its “good and bad practices” regarding the objectives of risk reduction and sustainable development. The lack of anticipation, the numerous uncertainties and the emergency in which the decisions are taken, lead in many cases, to risk persistence and increased social gaps. When “preventive ethics” is integrated into the process, it remains occasional and marginal. Reconstruction does not start from a “zero state”; it is subjected to territorial, economic and political constraints. Thus, in order to make the postdisaster reconstruction a preventive opportunity, an anticipatory effort is needed - though necessarily limited - it must be accompanied by an ex-post planning. These considerations will be illustrated by the examples of the recovery of two French departments: the Aude department after the 12th and 13th November 1999 floods, and the Var department after the 15th and 16th June 2010 floods.

Over the last 25 years, flash floods in the South of France have killed almost 250 people. The protection of prone populations is a priority for the French government. It is also a goal of the 2007 European flood directive. However, no accurate database exists gathering the fatalities due to floods in France. Fatalities are supposed to be rare and hazardous, mainly due to individual behaviour. A Ph. D. work has initiated the building of a database gathering a detailed analysis of the circumstances of death and the profiles of the deceased (age, gender…). The study area covers the French Mediterranean departments prone to flash floods over the period 1988-2015. This presentation details the main features of the sample, 244 fatalities collected through newspapers completed with field surveys near police services and municipalities. The sample is broken down between huge events that account for two thirds of the fatalities and “small” events (34 % of the fatalities). Deaths at home account for 35 % of the total number of fatalities, mainly during huge events. 30 % of fatalities are related to vehicles. The last part of the work explains the relations between fatalities and prevention and how better knowledge of flood-related deaths can help to improve flood prevention. The given example shows the relationship between flood forecasting and fatalities. Half of the deaths took place in a small watershed (

The dreadful floods of 1999, 2002 and 2003 in South of France have alerted public opinion on the need for a more efficient and a further generalized national flood-forecasting system. This is why in 2003 Irstea and Meteo-France have implemented a new warning method for flash floods, including on small watersheds, using radar rainfall data in real-time: the AIGA method. This modelling method currently provides real-time information on the magnitude of floods, but doesn’t take into account the elements at risk surrounding the river streams. Its benefit for crisis management is therefore limited as it doesn’t give information on the actual flood risk. To improve the relevance of the AIGA method, this paper shows the benefits of the combination of hydrological warnings with an exposure index, to be able to assess the risk of flood-related damage in real time. To complete this aim, this work presents an innovative and easily reproducible method to evaluate exposure to floods over large areas with simple land-use data. For validation purpose, a damage database has been implemented to test the relevance of both AIGA warnings and exposure levels. A case study on the floods of the 3rd October 2015 is presented to test the effectiveness of the combination of hazard and exposure to assess the risk of flood-related damage. This combination seems to give an accurate overview of the streams at risk, where the most important amount of damage has been observed after the flood.