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Institute of Geography and Sustainability of the University of Lausanne
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Impacts of floods in Switzerland

Research fields Margins, environment, landscapes
Water Resources Management
Water Resources Management
Keywords Institutions
Flood risk
Natural hazards
Water management
Risk
Funding European Comunity, COST C19 Action, and State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER)
Duration April 2004 - Juin 2008
Website http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/tud/Actions/C19
Researchers Reynard Emmanuel (Project co-applicant) [web] [email]

The project, realised in two phases, between 2004 and 2008, by a group of geographers of the universities of Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg, Zurich and the EPFL, aimed at understanding the impact of flood events on the perception, knowledge and management of flood risk in Switzerland. The project was carried out within the framework of COST C19 Action "Proactive crisis management of urban infrastructure". Several case studies were carried out in Lully (GE), Saillon (VS), Berne and in the Thur river valley /TG/ZH). A comparison of hazard mapping policy in the cantons of Geneva, Valais and Fribourg was also realised. The main results are: (1) Flooding events provoke changes in the management of floods and crises in general; (2) Actors concerned with flood risks are numerous and varied (institutional actors – at federal, canton and municipality levels – in the water domain and other domains such as urbanism or land planning, inhabitants, NGOs, etc.; (3) perception and knowledge of risk vary from one group of actors to the other; only the specialists of floods in federal and cantonal administrations had a good knowledge of the processes before the studied events; (4) status of hazard maps and their degree of integration in land-planning instruments and procedures vary from one canton to the other. The case studies carried out by L. Thomi within the COST project (Saillon, Berne) were integrated in his PhD thesis (2010).


Documents

Rapport final – phase 1 (2004-2006)
Rapport de la première phase du projet
Download (PDF file; 9.64 MB)
Rapport final – Phase 2 (2006-2008)
Rapport final de la deuxième phase du projet
Download (PDF file; 1.38 MB)
Rapport Cartes de dangers (2008)
Rapport thématique sur la cartographie des dangers. Comparaison entre les cantons de Genève, Valais et Fribourg.
Download (PDF file; 2.90 MB)
Synthesis paper – Reynard
Synthesis paper published in the final report of C19 Action.
Download (PDF file; 1.87 MB)

Project location


Publications

Thomi, L. (2010). Rôle des paramètres sociopolitiques et des connaissances dans la gestion des risques hydrologiques. PhD thesis, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des géosciences et de l'environnement. Info
Penelas, M., Delaloye, R., November, V., Reynard, E. and Ruegg, J. (2008). Cartes de dangers et aménagement du territoire : rapport thématique dans le cadre du projet « Impacts des inondations en Suisse. Processus d'apprentissage, gestion du risque et aménagement du territoire, Projet SBF C05.0143. Lausanne: Institut de Géographie. Info
Reynard, E. and November, V. (2008). Social processes in natural disaster management : the case of recent floods in Switzerland. In Rostun, J., COST Action C19 - Proactive crisis management of urban infrastructure. Oslo : Byggforsk, SINTEF. 156-169 Info
Reynard, E. and November, V.(.). (2008). Impacts des inondations en Suisse : processus d'apprentissage, gestion du risque et aménagement du territoire : rapport final Projet COST C19 SBF C05.0143. Lausanne: Institut de Géographie. Info
Thomi, L., Reynard, E. and Zaugg, S.M. (2008). Fallstudie in der Stadt Bern (1999 bis 2007). Rapport thématique de l'action COST C19 "Impact des inondations en Suisse: processus d'apprentissage, gestion du risque et aménagement du territoire". Lausanne: Université de Lausanne, Université de Zurich, Ecole poytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. Info
Thomi, L. (2008). Sozio-politischer Umgang mit Hochwasserrisiken in der Stadt Bern zwischen den Jahren 1999 und 2008 unter dem Einfluss verschiedener Hochwasserereignisse: Wissenstransformation und Hochwasserschutz. Schlussbericht. Lausanne: Institut de Géographie, Université de Lausanne. Info
Thomi, L. (2008). The relevance of actors' risk knowledge and its integration into flood risk management. In Mikos, M., Huebl, J. et Koboltschnig, G., Schutz des Lebensraumes vor Hochwasser, Muren, Massenbewegungen und Lawinen : 26 - 30 May 2008, Dornbirn, Vorarlberg, Austria ; conference proceedings ; [INTERPRAEVENT 2008]. Klagenfurt : International Research Society INTERPRAEVENT. 407-418 Info
Thomi, L. (2007). The floods of the river Aare in the city of Berne - impacts on risk knowledge and risk management. In 5th Swiss Geoscience Meeting (16.-17.11.2007), Conference Proceedings. Geneva. 181-183 Info
November, V., Reynard, E., Barbisch, C., Boulianne, L., Delaloye, R., Penelas, M., Ruegg, J., Thomi, L. and Zaugg, M. (2006). Vulnérabilité des infrastructures urbaines et gestion de crise. Impacts et enseignements de cas d'inondation en Suisse. Rapport final élaboré dans le cadre de l'Action COST C19 "Proactive Crisis Management of Urban Infrastructure". Genève, Lausanne: Université de Genève, Université de Lausanne, Université de Fribourg, Universität Zürich, CEAT. Info
Reynard, E., Thomi, L., November, V., Barbisch, C., Penelas, M., Boulianne, L., Ruegg, J. and Delaloye, R. (2006). Learning from Natural Disasters: the Case of Recent Floods in Switzerland. In International Disaster Reduction Conference (IDRC) in Davos (27.8.-1.9.2006), Proceedings vol. 1. Davos. 142-143 Info
Thomi, L. and Zaugg, S.M. (2006). Impact of flood events on the configuration and the role of institutional actors - the floods in Thurgau (1979) and Valais (2000), Switzerland. In International Disaster Reduction Conference (IDRC) in Davos (27.8.-1.9.2006), Proceedings vol. 3. Davos. Info
November, V., Barbisch, C., Penelas, M., Thomi, L. and Reynard, E. (2005). Savoirs et réorganisations de la connaissance sur les risques lors d'épisodes d'inondation en Suisse: deux études de cas à Lully (Genève) et Saillon (Valais). In Développement urbain durable, gestion des ressources et gouvernance, Proceedings du colloque à Lausanne (21.-23.9.2005). Info