French Insurance and Flood Risk: Assessing the Impact of Prevention Through the Rating of Action Programs for Flood Prevention

Abstract French insurance is part of a public–private partnership with the French State to compensate flood-related damages, and there is growing concern among insurers about damaging climatic events. To promote preventive actions as well as to take them into account in flood risk assessment, insurers have recently expressed the need to develop a rating system of preventive actions. This study identified Action Programs for Flood Prevention (Programme d’Action pour la Prévention des Inondations—PAPI) as the key French public policy instrument: they provide an overview of the diversity of actions that are conducted locally at the relevant risk basin scale. A database of all intended actions in the 145 launched PAPIs was constructed and the actions were coded (88 codes). The analysis consisted of two steps: (1) We conducted an expert valuation using the Analytic Network Process and the Analytic Hierarchy Process, aiming at creating an experimental national rating system. The results show the importance of implementing an integrated strategy that particularly emphasizes land use planning and urban planning. This appears even sounder as individual actions show relatively limited effectiveness. (2) The ratings of actions were applied to each PAPI according to their implemented actions. The resulting scores for individual PAPIs, as local risk coping capacity indicators, show great variance ranging from 8 to 324 points. This confirms the need to take prevention into account in flood risk assessment

Evaluation of vulnerability to flooding : experimental method implemented on Action Programmes for Flood Prevention

L’évaluation de la vulnérabilité est indispensable pour permettre aux gestionnaires du risque d’inondation, publics ou privés, d’avoir une meilleure connaissance et de prendre des décisions concernant les moyens d’action à mettre en place. Notamment, la connaissance de l’efficacité des actions menées sur les territoires et de la capacité existante des territoires à faire face au risque peut influencer leurs choix et les politiques publiques de gestion. Toutefois, l’évaluation de l’efficacité d’une action à réduire les dommages liés aux inondations est complexe et difficile à mener. Par ailleurs, peu de travaux incluent la capacité d’actions dans l’évaluation de la vulnérabilité.L’objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une appréciation de la vulnérabilité tenant compte de la capacité d’action des territoires. Il s’agit d’une approche expérimentale de l’efficacité des actions, appliquée aux Programmes d’Action de Prévention des Inondations (PAPI) qui sont le dispositif phare de la politique de prévention du risque inondation en France. Elle repose sur une méthode à dire d’experts, associant les différents acteurs de la gestion du risque inondation en FranceAssessing vulnerability to flooding is necessary in order to allow public or private stakeholders, involved in flood risk management, improving their knowledge and taking decisions with regards to flood risk management. In particular, knowing the effectiveness of implemented actions as well as the existing risk coping capacities on territories may impact their decisions and public policies. However, the assessment of an action’s impact on flood-related damages is characterized by high complexity. Few research works include the society’s capacity to take action in their models of vulnerability assessment.The objective of this research is to provide an assessment of vulnerability to flooding that takes in account this capacity of action. It relies on an experimental design that aims at assessing the effectiveness of actions through expert judgments. The panel of experts gathers varied actors involved in flood risk management. The method is implemented on Actions Programs for Flood Prevention, as they are a key component of the french flood risk management public polic

Flood Action Programs (PAPI): rating the flood’s collective vulnerability through the implementation of an integrated public policy tool

Assessment of vulnerability to flooding has been widely investigated by researchers, policy makers and practitioners. The research project initiated between the French insurance dedicated association to natural risks, MRN, and the urban planning lab Lab’urba, proposes to address this question from “action”. By making the assumption that territorial vulnerability depends on the collective measures implemented by communities, this research project aims to experiment a national rating method of the territorial preventive effort. To investigate collective prevention, Flood Action Programmes (PAPI) have been identified as the one bottom-up public policy instrument that mobilizes all the prevention actions’ levers. The constitution of a PAPI’s actions’ database, homogenized through a codification process, provides 82 codes reflecting the diversity of actions. To score PAPI, we need beforehand to rate the codes regarding their impact in terms of vulnerability reduction. The codes rating system, produced in collaboration with experts, is based on AHP-ANP models. The resulting national PAPI’s scoring will be confronted with different local case studies, e.g. in the context of coastal floods, river floods…, in order to appreciate to what extent the national rating system is adapted to local scale and reflect the territorial efforts to reduce vulnerability to flooding

Evaluation de la vulnérabilité aux inondations : Méthode expérimentale appliquée aux Programmes d'Action de Prévention des Inondations

Assessing vulnerability to flooding is necessary in order to allow public or private stakeholders, involved in flood risk management, improving their knowledge and taking decisions with regards to flood risk management. In particular, knowing the effectiveness of implemented actions as well as the existing risk coping capacities on territories may impact their decisions and public policies. However, the assessment of an action’s impact on flood-related damages is characterized by high complexity. Few research works include the society’s capacity to take action in their models of vulnerability assessment.The objective of this research is to provide an assessment of vulnerability to flooding that takes in account this capacity of action. It relies on an experimental design that aims at assessing the effectiveness of actions through expert judgments. The panel of experts gathers varied actors involved in flood risk management. The method is implemented on Actions Programs for Flood Prevention, as they are a key component of the french flood risk management public policyL’évaluation de la vulnérabilité est indispensable pour permettre aux gestionnaires du risque d’inondation, publics ou privés, d’avoir une meilleure connaissance et de prendre des décisions concernant les moyens d’action à mettre en place. Notamment, la connaissance de l’efficacité des actions menées sur les territoires et de la capacité existante des territoires à faire face au risque peut influencer leurs choix et les politiques publiques de gestion. Toutefois, l’évaluation de l’efficacité d’une action à réduire les dommages liés aux inondations est complexe et difficile à mener. Par ailleurs, peu de travaux incluent la capacité d’actions dans l’évaluation de la vulnérabilité.L’objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une appréciation de la vulnérabilité tenant compte de la capacité d’action des territoires. Il s’agit d’une approche expérimentale de l’efficacité des actions, appliquée aux Programmes d’Action de Prévention des Inondations (PAPI) qui sont le dispositif phare de la politique de prévention du risque inondation en France. Elle repose sur une méthode à dire d’experts, associant les différents acteurs de la gestion du risque inondation en Franc

Les PAPI : quelle efficacité d'un dispositif fédérateur pour la réduction de la vulnérabilité collective aux inondations ?

Instaurés en 2002, les PAPI constituent l'instrument phare de la gestion du risque inondation. Ils sont par principe un dispositif multi-actions, qui mobilise l'ensemble des domaines d'action publique en lien avec le risque inondation, ce qui en fait une véritable démarche multi-acteurs, dont il s'agit d'évaluer la capacité fédératrice. Depuis plus de 10 ans, 130 projets sur près de 70 bassins de risque ont été mis en place. La gouvernance repose principalement sur des structures pilotes de type syndical fondées à l'échelle des bassins ayant la compétence eau et milieux aquatiques, mais certains PAPI sont portés à et par des échelons plus administratifs. La maîtrise d'ouvrage des actions relève à 80 % de quatre types de maîtres d'ouvrage : le porteur, communes, intercommunalités, services de l'Etat. La concertation des acteurs ne permet cependant pas la mise en place d'une stratégie globale: plus des trois quarts du budget en moyenne est alloué aux mesures structurelles. Les statuts et compétences de la structure porteuse semblent influer sur le contenu des mesures retenues : le ralentissement dynamique apparaît favorisé par les structures gestionnaires de l'eau, des milieux aquatiques et les ouvrages de protection hydraulique par les structures intercommunales ou les communes. Si les PAPI se sont développés de façon plus importante sur des territoires exposés ou à forte sinistralité, 50 % des territoires récemment identifiés TRI n'ont pas développé antérieurement de PAPI. Les PAPI apparaissent donc comme un instrument efficace de coordination des acteurs, mais leur mise en œuvre semble conditionnée par l'existence préalable d'acteurs et de structures impliqués sur le territoire

Food selection dynamic by honeybees in agricultural landscape

International audienceAgricultural landscapes have been strongly changed because of farming intensification for several centuries. These landscape changes are mainly related to a decrease in semi-natural habitats, standardisation of land use and an increase of field area, which have created some intensive cereal farming systems. Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) is the main crop pollinator. Nectar constitutes the energy resource and is transformed in honey for storage whereas pollen is the main protein resource for the physiology development. Pollen is little stored and the supply must follow a flow tended between need and collection. However, during the breeding season, the succession of flowering crops leads to strong spatio-temporal dynamics of food resources. In such an environmental context, which food choices make honeybees and which influences will they have on the dynamics of pollen harvest during these seasons? Thanks to the large spatial scale of our experimental design on a 200 colonies monitoring, set up in an intensive cereal farming system, we clearly assume that a bimodal temporal pattern of pollen harvest exists. The first peak is linked to the blooming of spring plants (in May) and the second one to the simultaneous flowering of sunflower and maize (in July). We observe that species which are present in hedgerows and forest edges were strongly selected as well as weeds such as the poppy. On the contrary, the rapeseed is little selected for its pollen resource while the maize which is anemophilous pollinated, is strongly chosen

L'analyse de la vulnérabilité aux inondations en région PACA : l'apport des observatoires

Les politiques modernes de gestion des catastrophes naturelles au niveau national, européen et mondial identifient la connaissance des impacts dommageables des évènements comme un des principaux défis de la prévention. En effet, si celle-ci existe dans beaucoup de pays, elle est trop souvent déconcentrée et morcelée entre des acteurs de la gestion des risques qui dialoguent trop peu souvent, notamment entre les secteurs public et privé. En France, L'Observatoire National des Risques Naturels (ONRN) est un exemple de partenariat public-privé qui réunit Etat, assureurs et réassureur et qui repose sur une gouvernance concertée associant les collectivités représentées par l'AMF et des partenaires de projet volontaires (EPTB, observatoires locaux...) pour partager données, expertises et études. Ceci dans le but d'améliorer la connaissance des risques pour réduire la vulnérabilité des territoires. Il a entrepris plusieurs initiatives dans ce sens en partenariat avec des acteurs locaux de la gestion des risques. L'une d'entre-elles est présentée dans le cadre de cet article. Menée en partenariat avec l'Observatoire Régional des Risques Majeurs en Région PACA, elle avait pour but d'établir un diagnostic de la vulnérabilité du département du Var au risque d'inondation à partir des indicateurs produits par l'ONRN et d'informations fournies par des acteurs locaux. Elle a permis de mettre en regard la situation du territoire et les efforts de prévention, et a vocation à terme à constituer un outil d'aide à la décision aux politiques publiques de gestion du risque d'inondations

Transcriptomic studies and assessment of Yersinia pestis reference genes in various conditions

Abstract Reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is a very sensitive widespread technique considered as the gold standard to explore transcriptional variations. While a particular methodology has to be followed to provide accurate results many published studies are likely to misinterpret results due to lack of minimal quality requirements. Yersinia pestis is a highly pathogenic bacterium responsible for plague. It has been used to propose a ready-to-use and complete approach to mitigate the risk of technical biases in transcriptomic studies. The selection of suitable reference genes (RGs) among 29 candidates was performed using four different methods (GeNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper and the Delta-Ct method). An overall comprehensive ranking revealed that 12 following candidate RGs are suitable for accurate normalization: gmk, proC, fabD, rpoD, nadB, rho, thrA, ribD, mutL, rpoB, adk and tmk. Some frequently used genes like 16S RNA had even been found as unsuitable to study Y. pestis. This methodology allowed us to demonstrate, under different temperatures and states of growth, significant transcriptional changes of six efflux pumps genes involved in physiological aspects as antimicrobial resistance or virulence. Previous transcriptomic studies done under comparable conditions had not been able to highlight these transcriptional modifications. These results highlight the importance of validating RGs prior to the normalization of transcriptional expression levels of targeted genes. This accurate methodology can be extended to any gene of interest in Y. pestis. More generally, the same workflow can be applied to identify and validate appropriate RGs in other bacteria to study transcriptional variations

Genomic and RT-qPCR analysis of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and meropenem resistance in Burkholderia pseudomallei clinical isolates.

BackgroundMelioidosis is an endemic disease in southeast Asia and northern Australia caused by the saprophytic bacteria Burkholderia pseudomallei, with a high mortality rate. The clinical presentation is multifaceted, with symptoms ranging from acute septicemia to multiple chronic abscesses. Here, we report a chronic case of melioidosis in a patient who lived in Malaysia in the 70s and was suspected of contracting tuberculosis. Approximately 40 years later, in 2014, he was diagnosed with pauci-symptomatic melioidosis during a routine examination. Four strains were isolated from a single sample. They showed divergent morphotypes and divergent antibiotic susceptibility, with some strains showing resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and fluoroquinolones. In 2016, clinical samples were still positive for B. pseudomallei, and only one type of strain, showing atypical resistance to meropenem, was isolated.Principal findingsWe performed whole genome sequencing and RT-qPCR analysis on the strains isolated during this study to gain further insights into their differences. We thus identified two types of resistance mechanisms in these clinical strains. The first one was an adaptive and transient mechanism that disappeared during the course of laboratory sub-cultures; the second was a mutation in the efflux pump regulator amrR, associated with the overexpression of the related transporter.ConclusionThe development of such mechanisms may have a clinical impact on antibiotic treatment. Indeed, their transient nature could lead to an undiagnosed resistance. Efflux overexpression due to mutation leads to an important multiple resistance, reducing the effectiveness of antibiotics during treatment