Social and Hydrological Responses to Extreme Precipitations: An Interdisciplinary Strategy for Postflood Investigation

International audienceThis paper describes and illustrates a methodology to conduct postflood investigations based on interdisciplinary collaboration between social and physical scientists. The method, designed to explore the link between crisis behavioral response and hydrometeorological dynamics, aims at understanding the spatial and temporal capacities and constraints on human behaviors in fast-evolving hydrometeorological conditions. It builds on methods coming from both geosciences and transportations studies to complement existing post-flood field investigation methodology used by hydrometeorologists. The authors propose an interview framework, structured around a chronological guideline to allow people who experienced the flood firsthand to tell the stories of the circumstances in which their activities were affected during the flash flood. This paper applies the data collection method to the case of the 15 June 2010 flash flood event that killed 26 people in the Draguignan area (Var, France). As a first step, based on the collected narratives, an abductive approach allowed the identification of the possible factors influencing individual responses to flash floods. As a second step, behavioral responses were classified into categories of activities based on the respondents' narratives. Then, aspatial and temporal analysis of the sequences made of the categories of action to contextualize the set of coping responses with respect to local hydrometeorological conditions is proposed. During this event, the respondents mostly follow the pace of change in their local environmental conditions as the flash flood occurs, official flood anticipation being rather limited and based on a large-scale weather watch. Therefore, contextual factors appear as strongly influencing the individual's ability to cope with the event in such a situation

Penser l'alerte par les distances. Entre planification et émancipation, l'exemple du processus d'alerte aux crues rapides sur le bassin versant du Vidourle

Contesting the classical approach of warnings, a new approach of warning processes (WP) aims to understand the warning as the process by which actors consider some entities (e.g. Latour 1991, Murdoch 1997) and transform them into signs, relevant enough to ground and coordinate their action(s). Focusing on the concrete manner the actors run the WP, we realized a deep study of the whole flash floods WP in the Vidourle catchment (South of France), from the meteo- forecasters to the riverside residents. Coming within the scope of Lussault's (2007) work, we analyzed what kind of distances are at stake during the WP, and all the resources mobilized by the actors during the WP in order to deal with distances and to assess the situation : we typified six main technologies de la distance, and three stratégies de la distance. At last, it appears that the efficiency of the technologies, of the strategies, and in a larger way, of the actors' practices in the WP, relies only for a part on the planning and the warning systems. Thus, we cannot longer avoid considering the so-called « infra- planning »(Soubeyran, 2007), and concrete actors' practices, in warning studies.En mobilisant l'exemple du processus d'alerte (PA) aux crues rapides comme une figure limite du modèle prévisionniste (Chateauraynaud et Torny, 1999), il s'agit de repenser le processus d'alerte comme un processus d'interprétation de l'environnement et d'élaboration du sens pour l'action, plutôt que comme un processus de diffusion d'un signal destiné à produire des comportements attendus. Sur la base d'un travail de terrain approfondi sur le bassin versant du Vidourle, incluant les acteurs départementaux, régionaux et nationaux impliqués dans l'alerte au crues rapides, une étude d'inspiration pragmatique du processus d'alerte permet de questionner la pensée classique de l'alerte et les conditions d'efficacité du processus. Il apparaît en effet que le processus d'alerte aux crues rapides est confronté à une question cruciale : comment produire un sens collectif et coordonner nos actions lorsque les pratiques des acteurs sont mues par des problématiques d'action spécifiques ? L'analyse des distances en jeu dans le processus d'alerte, et des technologies et stratégies de la distance mobilisées par les acteurs, nous permet de montrer que les pratiques de la distance qui permettent aux acteurs de conduire le processus d'alerte s'inscrivent dans une double temporalité et débordent en partie des procédures planifiées, ce qui amène à s'interroger sur la capacité de la planification de l'alerte à maîtriser les conditions de son efficacité

Flash-floods warning process : how to observe and to account for actors' practices ?: A new framework based on “distance(s)” analysis

Session : RC 39 – Sociology of disaster

Flash-floods warning process : how to observe and to account for actors' practices ?: A new framework based on “distance(s)” analysis

Session : RC 39 – Sociology of disaster

Processus d'alerte et communication : quelles distances à franchir ? : L'exemple de l'alerte aux Vidourlades dans le Gard

National audienc

La gestion de crise à l'épreuve de l'exercice EU SEQUANA.

International audienc

Inquiry In Control Rooms – An Analysis Through The Lenses of Space, Time and Practice

International audienceIn recent risk studies, some researchers have raised concerns regarding the focus on extraordinary events-sometimes called " extreme paradigm " (Gaillard, 2007). Simultaneously, we are witnessing a growing interest in the more " ordinary " situations that must be handled on a daily basis in order to avoid crises (Roux-Dufort 2007, Van Laere 2013). In an interdisciplinary perspective of sociology and geography, we have analysed five different control rooms (traffic safety, air traffic control, humanitarian coordination, weather forecasting and electrical supply). This transversal perspective has helped us consider control rooms as specific spatio-temporal devices, where ordinary practices aim as much at crisis avoidance as at crisis management. We conclude that it is important to broaden the analytical perspective of control rooms; to no longer regard them as the source of action but rather as one aspect of larger socio-technical monitoring devices

Stakeholders' issues for action during the warning process and the interpretation of forecasts' uncertainties

International audienceThis article considers the socio-geographical ap- proach carried out as part of the MedUp program. It presents a study of the ways that the French "actors" manage forecast uncertainties during a flash flood warning process. In order to better understand the role of forecasts' uncertainties in de- cision making, we focused on the actions people took and how what they say explains their actions. The practices of ac- tors involved in warnings for the Vidourle watershed (Gard, France), in particular, are analyzed using a practice-based approach. A set of categories of the "actors" was devel- oped based on their descriptions of the problems they faced during the flash flood warning, independent of their socio- professional status and position in the warning chain. Five actor profiles result from this: Translators, Managers, Com- mitted, Navigators and Vulnerable. For each profile, specific action contexts are defined, determining how each deals with uncertainty

L'effet Latour: Ses modes d'existence dans les travaux doctoraux

Dessin de couverture réalisé par Marielle Tollis (http://marielletollis.blogspot.fr)De jeunes chercheurs issus de plusieurs disciplines s'approprient aujourd'hui les travaux de Bruno Latour. Nombreux sont les doctorants qui mobilisent les théories de l'acteur-réseau ou autre sociologie de la traduction dans leurs réflexions. Or, s'il apparaît que Latour les inspire, les stimule ou les interroge, ils ne produisent pas pour autant des thèses " latouriennes " stricto sensu. Ils empruntent à l'auteur, mais pas tout, et certainement pas qu'à lui. Les auteurs de L'Effet Latour entendent témoigner de cette dynamique d'une science en train de se faire, dans un contexte plus large où le statut des travaux de Bruno Latour évolue au sein des humanités. Ce livre s'adresse aux jeunes chercheurs en sciences humaines et sociales et aux universitaires, mais aussi à tous ceux que la lecture de Latour ravit ou agace, et qui lui reconnaissent de fait un certain " effet "... Préface de Virginie Tournay, postface de Bruno Latour

Temporalities in crisis rooms. The example of the CCZ, SGZDS in Paris

International audienc