Mortalité et cyclones en Guadeloupe (Antilles françaises)

Cet article pose les bases méthodologiques d’un catalogue historique des évènements hydro-météorologiques significatifs et mortels qui ont frappé l’archipel de Guadeloupe et les îles du Nord (Saint-Martin et Saint-Barthélemy) depuis 1635. Pour la période récente, post 1950, il est doublé d’un Système d’Information Géographique permettant de localiser et de renseigner chaque victime avec son profil, son comportement, les circonstances et causes du décès. Outre l’apport de bilans humains consolidés, ce nouveau référentiel géo-historique permet d’analyser l’évolution de la mortalité au cours du temps en lien avec les principaux facteurs de vulnérabilité. On peut en tirer un certain nombre d’enseignements utiles pour guider la prévention des risques en Guadeloupe.This paper lays the methodological basis for a historical catalogue of significant and deadly hydro-meteorological events that have occurred in the Guadeloupe archipelago and the northern islands since 1635. For the recent period, post 1950, it is supplemented by a Geographical Information System used to locate and inform each victim with his profile, his behavior, the circumstances and causes of death. In addition to the contribution of consolidated human death tolls, this new geo-historical framework makes it possible to analyze the evolution of mortality over time in relation to the main factors of vulnerability. A number of useful lessons can be drawn from this to guide risk prevention in Guadeloupe

Mapping Flood-Related Mortality in the Mediterranean Basin. Results from the MEFF v2.0 DB

Recent events in Western Attica in Greece (24 deaths in November 2017), in the Balearic Islands (13 deaths in October 2018), and in southern France (15 deaths in October 2018) show that flood-related mortality remains a major concern in Mediterranean countries facing flash floods. Over the past several years, many initiatives have arisen to create databases on flood-related mortality. An international initiative started in 2011 pooling regional and national databases on flood mortality from region and/or countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The MEditerranean Flood Fatality Database (MEFF DB) brings together, in 2018, six Mediterranean regions/countries: Catalonia (Spain), Balearic Islands (Spain), Southern France, Calabria (Italy), Greece, and Turkey, and covers the period 1980-2018. MEFF DB is on progress and, every year, new data are included, but for this study, we kept only the preliminary data that were geolocated and validated on 31st of December 2018. This research introduces a new step in the analysis of flood-related mortality and follows the statistical description of the MEFF DB already published. The goals of this paper are to draw the spatial distribution of flood mortality through a geographical information system (GIS) at different spatial scales: country, NUTS 3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. Level 3) regions, catchment areas, and grid. A fatality rate (F: number of deaths/year/million of inhabitants) is created to help this analysis. Then, we try to relate mortality to basic (human or physical) drivers such as population density, rainfall seasonality, or rainfall frequency across the Mediterranean Basin. The mapping of F shows a negative mortality gradient between the western and the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. The south of France appears to be the most affected region. The maps also highlight the seasonality of flood-related deaths with the same west-east gradient. It confirms that flood mortality follows the climatological seasonal patterns across the Mediterranean Basin. Flood-related fatalities mainly occur during the early fall season in the western part of the Mediterranean area, while the Easter Basin is affected later, in November or during the winter season. Eastern Turkey introduces another pattern, as mortality is more severe in summer. Mortality maps are then compared with factors that potentially contribute to the occurrence of flood fatalities, such as precipitation intensity (rainfall hazard), to explain geographical differences in the fatality rate. The density of a fatal event is correlated to the population density and the rainfall frequency. Conversely, the average number of deaths per event depends on other factors such as prevention or crisis managemen

Flood Fatalities in Europe, 1980-2018: Variability, Features, and Lessons to Learn

Floods are still a significant threat to people, despite of the considerable developments in forecasting, management, defensive, and rescue works. In the near future, climate and societal changes as both urbanization of flood prone areas and individual dangerous behaviors could increase flood fatalities. This paper analyzes flood mortality in eight countries using a 39-year database (1980-2018) named EUFF (EUropean Flood Fatalities), which was built using documentary sources. The narratives of fatalities were investigated and standardized in the database reporting the details of the events. The entire dataset shows a stable trend on flood fatalities, despite the existence of individual increasing (Greece, Italy, and South France) and decreasing (Turkey and Catalonia) trends. The 2466 fatalities were mainly males, aged between 30-49 years and the majority of them happened outdoor. Most often people were dragged by water/mud when travelling by motor vehicles. Some cases of hazardous behaviors, such as fording rivers, were also detected. The primary cause of death was drowning, followed by heart attack. This work contributes to understand the human-flood interaction that caused fatalities. The changes in society's vulnerability highlighted throughout this study contribute to manage future risks, to improve people protection actions, and to reduce risk behaviors

Reading during the composition of multi-sentence texts: an eye-movement study

Writers composing multi-sentence texts have immediate access to a visual representation of what they have written. Little is known about the detail of writers’ eye movements within this text during production. We describe two experiments in which competent adult writers’ eye-movements were tracked while performing short expository writing tasks. These are contrasted with conditions in which participants read and evaluated researcher-provided texts. Writers spent a mean of around 13% of their time looking back into their text. Initiation of these look-back sequences was strongly predicted by linguistically important boundaries in their ongoing production (e.g., writers were much more likely to look back immediately prior to starting a new sentence). 36% of look-back sequences were associated with sustained reading and the remainder with less patterned forward and backward saccades between words ("hopping"). Fixation and gaze durations and the presence of word-length effects suggested lexical processing of fixated words in both reading and hopping sequences. Word frequency effects were not present when writers read their own text. Findings demonstrate the technical possibility and potential value of examining writers’ fixations within their just-written text. We suggest that these fixations do not serve solely, or even primarily, in monitoring for error, but play an important role in planning ongoing production

The Archaeological Site of Mudhmar East (Adam, Ad-Dakhiliyah, Oman): Results from the 2019 Excavations

International audienceSince 2015 the site of Mudhmar East (Adam, Ad-Dakhiliyah Governorate) has emerged as one of the major ritual complexes of the Early Iron Age (900-300 BCE) in Eastern Arabia. This paper presents the results of the latest excavations in 2019. Two areas were investigated. The excavation of Mudhmar East 3 on the jabal slope was completed and this area revealed three monumental walls associated with a complex stratigraphy. Numerous metal artifacts (weapons and snake figurines); and pottery, were recovered in secondary position. The campaign also focused on the grave sitting on the top of the hill, an area distinguished as Mudhmar East 6. This grave, which was badly preserved and had likely been reused, delivered little archaeological material. The 2019 excavation enabled a more thorough investigation of these two essential areas, greatly improving our understanding of this major Iron Age site in the history of Oman

Mapping Flood-Related Mortality in the Mediterranean Basin. Results from the MEFF v2.0 DB

Recent events in Western Attica in Greece (24 deaths in November 2017), in the Balearic Islands (13 deaths in October 2018), and in southern France (15 deaths in October 2018) show that flood-related mortality remains a major concern in Mediterranean countries facing flash floods. Over the past several years, many initiatives have arisen to create databases on flood-related mortality. An international initiative started in 2011 pooling regional and national databases on flood mortality from region and/or countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The MEditerranean Flood Fatality Database (MEFF DB) brings together, in 2018, six Mediterranean regions/countries: Catalonia (Spain), Balearic Islands (Spain), Southern France, Calabria (Italy), Greece, and Turkey, and covers the period 1980-2018. MEFF DB is on progress and, every year, new data are included, but for this study, we kept only the preliminary data that were geolocated and validated on 31st of December 2018. This research introduces a new step in the analysis of flood-related mortality and follows the statistical description of the MEFF DB already published. The goals of this paper are to draw the spatial distribution of flood mortality through a geographical information system (GIS) at different spatial scales: country, NUTS 3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. Level 3) regions, catchment areas, and grid. A fatality rate (F: number of deaths/year/million of inhabitants) is created to help this analysis. Then, we try to relate mortality to basic (human or physical) drivers such as population density, rainfall seasonality, or rainfall frequency across the Mediterranean Basin. The mapping of F shows a negative mortality gradient between the western and the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. The south of France appears to be the most affected region. The maps also highlight the seasonality of flood-related deaths with the same west-east gradient. It confirms that flood mortality follows the climatological seasonal patterns across the Mediterranean Basin. Flood-related fatalities mainly occur during the early fall season in the western part of the Mediterranean area, while the Easter Basin is affected later, in November or during the winter season. Eastern Turkey introduces another pattern, as mortality is more severe in summer. Mortality maps are then compared with factors that potentially contribute to the occurrence of flood fatalities, such as precipitation intensity (rainfall hazard), to explain geographical differences in the fatality rate. The density of a fatal event is correlated to the population density and the rainfall frequency. Conversely, the average number of deaths per event depends on other factors such as prevention or crisis managemen