Disclaimer

This report was compiled by Mr. Guillaume Bernard, who worked at ADRC as anintern from 18 August to 12 September 2014.

The views expressed in the report do not necessarily reflect the views of theADRC. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on themaps in the report also do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the
ADRC.

France1

General information
France is a Republic of 65
65.82 million of people whose capital is Paris. It
is one of the charter members of the European Union with Germany. In 2013, it
has still been the 5th economy of the world just after Germany and before Italy inspite of the economic crisis that struck hardly EuroEuro Zone. Its currency is thenEuro and its motto is Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

French Republic is located in South-WesternSouth
Europe. It is bordered by Belgium and Luxembourg to
the North-East,
East, by Germany and Switzerland to the East,
by Italy and Monaco to the South and by Spain andAndorra to the South-West. The mainland of France is547,030 square kilometers but if we take into accountthe oversea territories of France, it is about 632,834
square kilometers, with one of the widest maritime
territory of the world.
Mainland is composed by large tracts of flat
lands crossed by several rivers, with natural borders ofhills and mountains from the East to the South. A
continental climate prevails in the Eastern inland areas,a Mediterranean climate in the South, under the Central
Mountains along the sea and a maritime climate in the
Atlantic coast areas.
Figure 1: France’s reliefs
France is also the first nuclearized country of the world with 58 nuclear reactors,
reactors 75% of its
energy comes for it (2012) and its technology is recognized internationally.
internationally One reactor of the next
generation is now under construction, and the first fusion reactor as well is under construction by aninternational cooperation team.
France is one of the five advisors countries for the Asian Disaster Reduction Center. It is the
only one from European Union.

2

Natural Hazards

2.1

Natural Hazards Likely to Affect France

Floods, landslides and storms often occurred in France. In summer times, heat waves, forest
fires and drought use to occur more and more frequently. South-Eastern
Eastern France also experiences
earthquakes and volcano activities.
The French laws define then a natural disaster (or natural catastrophe) by the abnormal
intensity of a natural agent (like river, snow or ground…) while all the habitual measures to prevent it
and reduce it were not enough to stop their incidence or could not be ensured
ensure by public offices. It is
officially stated by an inter-ministerial
ministerial decree.

~1~

Figure 2: Overview of natural disaster from 1980 to 2010:
No of events:

120

No of people killed:

21,633

Average killed per year:698

No of people affected:

4,095,496

Average affected per year:

132,113

Economic Damage (US$ X 1,000):

38,961,700

Economic Damage per year (US$ X 1,000):

1,256,829

Figure 3: Natural Disaster Occurrence Reported from 1980 to 2010:

These two figures come from the EM-DAT whose includes all disasters from 1900 until present
which fit at least one of the following criteria:
 10 or more people killed, 100 or more people affected,
 declaration of a state of emergency,
 Call for international assistance.

~2~This last decade, weather tends to change, because of global warming according to someexperts, and storms are becoming more violent, floods wider and more sudden, and heat waves
more common. The Government has then no other choice that preparing new plans of action against
floods, storms and heat waves mostly.
2.2

Recent Major Disasters
 Cyclone Xynthia, February 2010

From February 26th to March 7th of 2010, a violent windstorm struck Western and Central
Europe causing serious damages in 12 European countries. It claimed 63 lives of which 53 French
persons. Winds rose to maximal power of 228 km/h (142 mph). In France, strong winds combined toheavy rains and high tide caused the failure of several dykes in South-Western France so that waterrose quite quickly in some places and people found death by drowning in their own houses. It also
affected about 500,079 people because of floods and energy shutdown. It causes approximately
US$ 4.230 billion damages.

Figure 4 & 5: massive floods after dyke failure during the Cyclone Xynthia
Recovery time has been long as the local authorities with the help of the central
administration have worked on new laws on city plan in order to prevent any flooding risks. The factthat people died in their houses without the time to escape shocked the public opinion so that
authorities made a strong action and decided the expropriation of houses built in zone that could beunder water again. But it took a lot of time for authorities to make the new maps and design the mostdangerous zones where houses should be destroyed and other zones where new houses should not
be built anymore and so on, so that the recovery management has been a public issue and is still
controversial – as for instance the compensation given by the state to people who had to leave theirhouses built in dangerous zones.
It is also important to keep in mind that France benefited from the support of European Union
in the disaster phase of rehabilitation and recovery – 35.6 million Euros were given by the European
Commission for the victims of the storm.
 Heat Wave of August 2003
During two weeks temperatures of more than 40 degrees centigrade struck 9 countries ofSouth and Western Europe, claiming around 45,000 lives. For France, 19,490 people died and thecost of this weather has been estimated at US$ 4.4 million damages. It clearly showed the~3~inefficiency of medical and administrative authorities to manage the situation, and the instability of lotof old people isolated who died alone in their houses.
As other heat waves struck France in the following Summer – like in 2006 when 1,388
people died, central authorities established a special plan to secure old people and prevent themfrom the risk of dehydration.

Figure 6: Temperature across Western Europe, 2003/08/20
 Cyclones Lothar and Martin, December 1999
These two cyclones crossed the North ofFrance between December the 26th and the 28th of1999 and caused damages across North-Western
Europe. They claimed 88 lives in France and caused
about US$ 8 billion damages. Winds rose until 195km/h (121 mph) and 140,000,000 m3 (4,944,053,340ft3) of wood fell in France causing huge damages tonational forests. The palace of Versailles and its French
gardens were hardly affected and the electricity network
as well so that 3,400,011 people were affected by thestorms.
Figure 7: Way of the two cyclones across France~4~

Figure 8: Versailles and its gardens wereseverely damaged, about 10,000 trees fell.

From these cyclones, French Meteorological Company in cooperation with the central
administration developed system for informing people in order to prevent next storms and reduce
damages. National Electric Company also learnt from this disaster and created plans for more
efficient and rapid answers in order to reestablish as quick as possible energy network.

Figure 9 & 10: Countryside suffered a lot from fallen trees but cities suffered as well fromcollapsed roofs.
 Flood of Vaison-la-Romaine, September 22nd of 1992
In 1992, heavy rains and storms claimed 41 lives and caused about 76 million of Euros
damages. The rapidity of the flood marked an impression on public opinion as in only four hours theheavy rains created the flood.
 The Great Flood in Paris, from January 18th to March 8th of 1910
In 1910, during two months, the Great
Flood immobilized the capital and even if noone died, the economical damages were huge.
They are now estimated at 15 billion of Euros.
In Paris 20,000 buildings were inundated andhalf of the subway network as well.
Figure 11: In order to promote restart ofwork, deputies go to the house of
Parliament despite the water.

~5~This Great Flood is also known as the Centennial flood, so that now, one century after,
French authorities are expecting a new massive flood in the capital just like Japan is expecting a big
earthquake. In spite of the dams built before Paris, in 2013 the Seine reached its critical threshold.
Preventing the next flood is a major issue of central administration as it is difficult to foresee thedamages that a new flood would cause in this modern-old city with full of tourists.

Figure 12: prevision of thenext flood in Paris. Dark bluerefers to the Great Flood of
1910; light blue refers to thenext possible flood. The Two
centralislands
including
Notre-Dame-de-Paris would
be under water and main
touristic places as well.

 Provence Earthquake, June 11th of 1909
France may also suffer from earthquakes, like in June 1909 in the South areas of France
when an earthquake of measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale occurred. 46 people died, 250 were
injured and 2,000 buildings were damaged. This is the largest earthquake ever recorded in mainlandof France.

Figure 13 & 14: Epicenter of the earthquake and postcard giving an idea of the damages.

~6~

3

Disaster Management System

3.1

Administrative System of France

Note: this section is written while the French government is working on a law to reorganize completely all the Frenchadministration system in order to make economy and to improve its efficiency. This part might not be up to date in the following
years even if the law is not foretold before 2017 at least.

French administrative system is divided into two branches: Central Administration and
Decentralized Administration.
Central Administration is composed by the State administrations like Ministry or different
institutions working on special fields such as Scientific Council or Employment Agencies. French
territory is divided in 25 Regions under the authority of Regional Prefect. Regions are also divided indepartments for a total number of 95 departments – in the mainland – which are under the authorityof Departmental Prefect. In each department and region, these prefects ensure the direct liaisonsfrom the capital and the ministries to local population. They are responsible of the state control andauthority upon every French territory so that they have lot of powers in terms of security
management – with police forces but also medical and rescue team in case of disaster. They andtheir offices also make sure that the French laws are respected by other offices on local scale.

Figure 15: Administrative divisions of France, departments.

~7~

Decentralized Administration is composed by regional, departmental and municipal councils
elected on a local scale. They are also known as ‘territorial collectivities’. They should ensure better
policies according to the local needs and data, but the increasing number of institutions,organizations and councils between these territorial collectivities has complicated the decision
process so that responsibilities are often lost and time of enforcement is increasing.
French Administrative law is actually the body governing the activities of the administrationand distributing the different missions to the different institutions and councils from central todecentralized administrations.

Figure 16: example of administration system in France. With the red arrows is the central
administration with its prefects. Green shows the Rhone-Alpes region and light blue shows thedepartment of Isere which is one of the departments of Rhone-Alpes region.

3.2

Legal System and Framework What about France?
In France, disaster management used to have two main components: natural disasters andtechnological disasters, because during the last century several severe industrial accidents
happened. Recently nevertheless, the regulation tends to focus on particular type of disasters suchas heat waves or floods.

~8~The legal framework for disaster management is mainly composed by two laws. In 1995 wasadopted the Law for the Reinforcement of the Protection of the Environment. It gave a definition ofprinciples that should be taken into account for any policy or action on the environment. For instanceit reminds the principle of precaution in order to be careful despite scientific uncertainty or also theprinciple of participation for a more democratic management and so on. This law also gives theframework for Risk Prevention Plan in its second title, chapter two. Finally it determines and shares
responsibilities between all the scales of French administrations, central and local ones.
The other main law on this field is the Law for the Prevention of Natural and Technologic
Risks and their Recovery adopted in 2003. It deals first with the prevention of technologic risks andhow to organize city plan around high risked installations or factories. In its second part, it deals withnatural disaster and how should be used grounds and forests.
In parallel to these laws made by the parliament, several regulations are made directly by theoffices of the ministries usually in order to clarify some laws or to complete them rapidly to improve
the public response to disaster. Ministry but also prefect in regions and departments can adopt thiskind of rules to face special local situation as well.

 What about the European Union?
Talking about legal framework in France in 2013 automatically leads to talk about theEuropean Union as the European Commission and Parliament now write lot of communitarian laws
in order to harmonize national laws and to answer more efficiently to disasters that can affect several
countries of the Union. It is the case for instance with the Seveso Directive - directive 96/82/CE adopted in 1984 and up-loaded in 2012. It aims to prevent industrial accident after the disaster that
happened in Italy in 1976 while a chemistry factory failed and released toxic materials in the air,contaminating the entire environment and the cities around.
On the alarming observation of recent European floods that between 1998 and 2002 claimed
700 lives, caused the evacuation of 500,000 people and 25 billion Euros of damages, the EU has
recently affirmed its will to work more deeply on this topic. Its first step in 2007 was the creation of
the Communitarian Mechanism for Civil Protection. It aims to coordinate national rescue teams incase of natural or human disaster for a quick and rapid answer.
In 2007 as well, European Commission adopted the Directive 2007/60/CE on theassessment and management of flood risks is intended to reduce and manage the risks that floods
pose to human health, the environment, cultural heritage and economic activity, in order to prevent
more efficiently floods and the damages they can produce. Actually it was the first step for wider
programs as FLAPP project - Flood Awareness & Prevention Policy in border areas – which was led
in 2009 in order to create maps of dangerous zone across the Union. Through this program, newcooperations were established between local municipalities and authorities from all European
countries independently from central authorities. The next step should be the elaboration of plans forflood management and should be led around 2015.

~9~

3.3

Structure of Disaster Management

The structure of disaster management in France is quite complex as several reports
denounce it regularly. Indeed the French Court of Audit recently wrote that the dispersion of themeans and the dispersal of responsibilities between all administrations and offices is the main
problem towards a more efficient management of disasters.
The complexity of the structure might also explain why there is really little literature on this
topic, because trying to resume it and explain it clearly seems to be a long way to go. Nevertheless,
we can here see the main line of the system.

 The National Platform
French platform for the prevention of Major Risks gathers all the public and private structureswith associations as well working on disaster reduction. It is under the authority of the Advisory
Committee for Major Natural Hazards (COPRNM: le Conseil d'Orientation pour la Prevention desRisques Naturels Majeurs), which is composed by people from different backgrounds like deputies,
members of NGOs and civil society, members of local administrations and so on. It actually dependsof the Ministry of Ecology.
This Advisory Committee was created in 2007 with the help of the French Association for
Natural Disaster Prevention (AFPCN: l'Association Francaise pour la Prevention des Catastrophes
Naturelles), which is an independent institution working on disaster reduction. It also contributed tobuild a European network of all National Platforms in order to develop European cooperation andcommunication.
 CATNAT
CATNAT – also known as Permanent Observatory of Natural Disaster - is actually a French
web-database gathering information on disasters from all over the world with documents, laws andacademic articles. Made by a private company specialized in expertise and consulting on natural
disaster, it gives lot of information and gathers every useful material about French and European
regulations or institutions.
 National and local organizations
Actually, the disaster management system is divided into two parts in France. Prevention is
the responsibility of the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy while theprotection of people and goods is the affair of the Minister of the Interior which manages the Civil
Protection teams and then organizes rescue operations.
Then, the Ministry of Ecology has done efforts in order to facilitate the access to information
about risks. The web portal georisque gives for instance all the information about risk of disaster for
any address in France depending of what studies have been done by the municipalities. You canthen check if your city or your habitation is in zone subjected to floods or near a factory classified as
dangerous or even near a nuclear installation.
From that web portal we can see the risk of flood inside Paris. We can also find out that no
more than 10 kilometers in the South of Paris, there is a nuclear installation – not a power plant, but
an installation that might release radioactive materials in case of accident.

~ 10 ~

Figure 17: sudden flooding risk in Paris. Blue zones are the most exposed zones while green
ones are the most secure.

Then it is the responsibility of the Minister of the Interior and its offices to ensure themobilization and the cooperation between rescue teams, medical staffs, firefighters, Civil Security
Squad and army. The rapidity of the answer is of course the key for an efficient rescue operation sothat the Minister of the Interior in cooperation with other administrations such as the Ministry of
Public Health regularly organize drills in order to test the organization of the rescue operation andthe cooperation and communication between all the actors.
Prefects, as a direct servitor of the State and then Mayors, as a responsible for the safety ofthe population on its territory, have wide powers in order to mobilize quickly forces and rescue forcesfrom police and medical staff and to answer to emergency situation.
All the actors that might intervene in disaster management system are then defined asfollowing with their main responsibilities as they are defined by the French laws.

ActorsCentraladministration

State and its offices(prefects)

Main Missions
 Make the regulations, Inform the populations and make public therisks (Risk Prevention Plan, vigilance map…),
 Prescribe and elaborate Risk Prevention Plans– for predicable risks, Control legality of ground occupation – likecity plans, Organize the means of prevention and crisis
management that depend on the state,
 Lead the rescue teams,
 Manage infrastructures (national roads, forest) Decree the Emergency situation of natural
disaster.

~ 11 ~

Region

Department
Decentralized
authorities

City Mayor

Justice

Experts, public or
privateInsurance

Private individuals
and associations

Propriety owners
Developer
contractors

 Can finance formation and information on risk
and work in high-schools depending on its
policies, Manage regional infrastructures like roads Can finance as well such formations orinformation in Junior high schools depending
on its policies, Finance and manage the departmental serviceof rescue and fire Manage departmental infrastructures
 Takes an inventory of underground andsubmarine cavities,
 Must inform populations about the risks,
 Takes into account the risks for the city plans, Helps and negotiates with the prefect for the
Risk Prevention Plan, Gives the legal authorization for construction
on its territory,
 Establishes the Communal plan for safety,
 Responsible of the security of populations on
its territory, He can also ensure the project ownership ofprotection facilities.
 Can take to court actors of disastermanagement in case of fault following civil,
administrative or penal procedure.
 Define the natural phenomenon – beginning,
propagation and ending.
 Analysis the risks,
 Can propose scenarii of protection like special
structures.
 Ensure compensation after the disaster andstate’s decree of natural disaster Must follow the rules of urbanism and Risk
Prevention Plans, Can participate to the elaboration of the Risk
Prevention Plans, Must participate to the preventive information– for acquirer.
 Manage its territories with responsibility
according to the risks
 Work on maintenance of public facilities,
 Work on city’s settlement.

Figure 18: Actors and their main missions in disaster management system.

~ 12 ~

Then the system also defines the précised missions and phases of disaster management.
They are actually detailed and defined very deeply with all the different actors, councils or officesthat should held and ensure these missions, which is quite complicated so that here is an abstract
giving the main mission and their main definition.

Missions

Main lines

Prevention

Knowing and making public the hazards andrisks

 Learning and improving the knowledge
on natural disasters,
 Defining the risks and vulnerability,
 Making public the regulations: from thecentral administration to local authorities
through prefects,

Observation and alerting From the central authorities through all
the public offices to the populations,private owners and private offices orcompanies.
 Protection by reducing the hazards –with structures for instance, the idea is to
reduce its intensity and its frequency asmuch as possible,
 Protection by reducing exposition to therisks – through the Risk Reduction Plan,
 Protection by reducing the vulnerability(mitigation) through information or
structures, Take the risks into account for city
settlement, Here is the importance of the Risk
Prevention Plan decided by the prefects
and made by municipal authorities with
consultation of the populations,

Preventive information

Protecting

Crisis and post-crisis management
Observation
Foresee
Alert
Rescueoperation:
protect,
cure,evacuate, and preserve material needs,
psychological support….
 Saving populations: information, alerting,supporting…


Anticipate the crisis

Manage the crisis~ 13 ~

 Compensation by insurance company(personalormaterials
damages,
agriculture damages, …),
 Reparation,
 Finance, Go to court if necessary Public offices or agencies should
mobilize team in order to point out andanalysis the details of the crisis from the
beginning – the disaster and its
characteristics – to the management andthe recovery. General Inspection of theEnvironment should endorse such
mission in cooperation with otheragencies.
 Implementation of the results of thereports – like ground division or use,
construction of preventive structures,
regulations…
 This step will be divided between the
different administrations depending on
their remits.

RecoveryInsuring and learning lessons

Finance and manage plan

Figure 19: Detailed steps of crisis management as defined in French regulations
So that the prevention mission is mostly covered by the Ministry of Ecology anddecentralized administrators in charge of senior high-school (region) and junior high-school(department), while rescue mission in emergency situation is held by the Minister of the Interior andthe prefects and mayors who have the local authority to mobilize quickly rescue forces. Then,
recovery is shared between private insurance companies and all administrations depending on theircompetences. Justice might also intervene in case of wrong management in order to understandwhere the mistake was and which administration should be improved.

4

Disaster Management Strategy, Policy and Plan

The main strategy of disaster management in France passes by the Prevention Risk Plan
which was defined in the law for the Reinforcement of the Protection of the Environment (1995). The
procedure is quite complex but normally it should be initiated by the prefect in each department foreach city depending on the background. The mayor and municipal team then should mobilize
experts in order to know well the risks and create maps that show the risks on the territory of the city.
After consultation of the population, prefect should validate the plan and then work on relevant
structures could begin. The plan itself would mostly cover the predictable natural risks by knowing
well the grounds and the rivers of the territory. Plan can also be done on predictable technology risks
or predictable mining risks. It is a long work, but after nearly twenty years, a database is now
available on the website of the Ministry of Ecology which lists all the risks known of every territory sothat people can easily find out about their place.

~ 14 ~

After the terrible storm of 2010 that claimed so many lives and the observation that between
1982 and 2010 floods had claimed 200 lives and caused 20 billion Euros of damages, central
administration has worked on a special plan against rapid submersion in case of failed dykes for
instance or heavy rain. This plan aims to improve city settlement and to encourage a betterknowledge about the risks. It also aims to promote education as a way to raise awareness of
populations. This plan is actually a first step for a national strategy for flooding management. The
first studies were led from 2012 and in July 2014 first results were available. They pointed out thatnow 1 inhabitant on 4 and 1 job on 3 are subjected to flooding risks which is always more importantbecause of the global warming and the elevation of mean sea level. Every year, floods cause
between 650 and 800 million Euros damages so that for the first time, central administration has
adopted a proactive strategy against flood for the whole territory – exposed territory but also non
exposed territory. The strategy involves all the administrations but also citizens, companies andprivate offices.
Three main objectives have then been adopted through this strategy:•••

Improve the security of populations,
Reduce the cost of damages,
Reduce the time of recovery in damaged territory.

The national strategy is now on the tracks under the observation of the Mix Commission of
Floods, maybe the next step would be a European strategy for the longest rivers crossing several
countries.

Since several disasters have struck France and Europe more often these last decades,
central administration has also worked on special plans to prevent the most common hazards. For
instance after the heat wave of 2003, authorities created a heat wave plan also known as Plan
Canicule following different steps of action depending on the temperatures. Every summer, theauthorities establish a close observation of the temperature and can activate different level of theplan depending on the situation in order to mobilize special means and tools.

~ 15 ~

Figure 20: Plan Canicule
Level 3, Maximal mobilization:
the Prime Minister decides
requisition of tools like army,transportation, media…in orderto manage extreme temperature.

Level 2, Risk of heat wave: any
prefect
canactivatethedepartmental plan to mobilize all
the offices in charge of care(hospital, civil security squad,firefighters, retirement home…).
The Ministry of Health will holdcrisis center to support thesituation.

Level 1, from June the 1st to
August31st,
seasonal
observation with publication ofadvices.

French administration usually deals with natural and technological disasters in the same way
so that the disaster management system is following the same steps with the same actors.
Nevertheless, as France is the first nulcearized country of the world, the prevention against nuclear
accident is a main part of public issue.
Here are two maps to remember the importance of nuclear industry in France and why it is amain issue in prevention risk. The attention is also focusing on the oldest plants from the first
technologies and on factories that may release radioactive elements in the environment.
When France chose nuclear energy as the national energy strategy and by learning from thedifferent accidents that happened in Chernobyl, Three Miles Islands and Fukushima – but also theminus accidents/incidents – a special plan has been adopted in case of disaster. A prevention policy
as well is existing to inform populations living in the direct neighbor of the plants. This prevention
policy, with education also passes by the distribution of medication to local population: in case of
official alert, population should stay at home and closed all the doors and windows and by listening
to the national radio or television they will get information on the situation. If necessary they shouldtake the special medication that protect thyroid from radioactivity.

~ 16 ~

Figure 21: all the nuclear
power plants in France andtheir age in 2012. In red
are those more than 30
years old, in orange thosebetween 21 and 30 years
ears
old and in green thosebetween 10 and 20 years
old.

Figure 22: all the nuclear installation in
France, power plants, reprocessing
plants, storage sites and the different
transportation of nuclear materials
between the units.

~ 17 ~

In parallel to these first security measures, the plan for nuclear disaster management isdefined as follow; it actually combines two plans from internal point-of-view of the company andpublic point-of-view.

Missions

Person in Charge

Figure 23: Nuclear Crisis Organization

French Electricity

Public offices

Internal Emergency Plan
Plan d’Urgence Interne (PUI)

Plan for Particular Intervention (PPI)Manager of the site with the help of
National Organization for Crisis of EDF

The Prefect with the advices of the French
Authority of Nuclear Safety and the Civil
Security Direction

Decide and react inside the site
• Must alert and mobilize theresources,• Manage the situation and limit
the consequences,• Protect, secure and inform
employees,• Inform and communicate with the
public offices and the media.

Decide and react outside the site
• Alert and protect populations,• Foresee the measures and themeans of rescue in order to face thesituation,• Inform populations, media and local
administrations.

After the nuclear disaster in Japan, the central administration in France has worked on a newplan1, much more detailed in order to resume clearly which office and which person should held thisor this charge, in order to reassure populations as well.
1

http://www.risques.gouv.fr/actu-risques-crises/actualites/nouveau-plan-national-accident-nucleaireou-radiologique-majeur (August 25, 2014)~ 18 ~

5

Budget Size on National Level (budget for 2013)

Here is the budget of the General Direction of Risk Prevention (La direction générale de laprévention des risques) under the authority of the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development andEnergy.
 Figure 24: Risk Prevention Program: 285 M
M€

Risk Prevention Program
Prevention of Natural and Hydraulic
Risks : 41,7 M€
MNuclear Safety Control andRadioprotection (French Nuclear
Safety Agency): 58,3 M€
MPrevention of Technological Risks
and Pollutions: 143,2 M€
M
Mitigation structures,
Compensetion and Expropriation
41,8 M€ Research Program on Risk and Sustainable Development fields: 267 M€
M Human resources: 238 persons in central administration and 2
2,961 persons indeconcentrated administrations (local administrations).

6

Progress of the Implementation of Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA)In the last national report covering 2011 to 2013, each pillar of the HFA is detailed more orless clearly as followed.

~ 19 ~

Priority Action 1: Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with astrong institutional basis for implementation.
Results and objectives: several laws and regulations have been adopted in order topromote and insert the risk prevention in each public project. These laws are actually translated inseveral law codes such as the Environmental Code, Insurance Code and so on. But there is still a lot
to do in order to raise the awareness of the citizens and to improve some fundamental aspects suchas financial resources and operational capacity. The context of budgetary discipline in Europe is also
an obstacle. Nevertheless, the National platform creates the link between every institution frompublic or private spheres and civil society organizations as well, working on risk prevention andmanagement under the authority of the Orientation Council for the Prevention of Major Natural Risks.
With the Association for the Prevention of Natural Disaster they have actually created a network on
the European scale and contribute to cooperation with the UNO and the HFA. Through these
networks, tools and means can be exchange or share for any policies or actions. Moreover, France
will ensure the presidency of the European Forum for Disaster Reduction in 2015.
Priority Action 2: Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning.
Results and objectives: The institutional commitments are now asserted but they must be
now realized. Databases have been completed and a National Observatory of Natural Risks has
been founded in 2012 in order to collect, share and release information and reports from and forevery actor of the risk prevention. Since 2007, an observation system for hydro-meteorological risks
has been created in order to look after phenomenon such as storm, rains, floods, heat waves and soon. It gives important information that can help prefects to trigger alert and to take action to protect
populations. Nevertheless, there are still lots of improvements to do in order to make communication
and action more efficient. It also takes time to implement in the local and national scale theEuropean directives like the one on the floods.
Priority Action 3: Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety andresilience at all levels.
Results and objectives: These last years, lots of efforts have been done in order tocommunicate to mayors information and definition of natural disasters and risks so that theawareness of local authorities is raising. The same for individuals as since 2006, owners, seller orbuyer have to inform the other part of the contract about the local risk prevention plan attached tothe property. There is also a network of trainers going to school in order to teach the children about
the disasters, but it is still a small network which needs to be develop in coordination which the local
authorities in charge of education. As for public sphere, information is a part of the observation
program but it still needs to gather the different associations in order to generalize these actions.
Priority Action 4: Reduce the underlying risk factors.
Results and objectives: Important realizations have been done but still improvement must
be done in fields like financial resources or operation capacity. Nevertheless France has now astrong legal framework for construction – in terms of earthquakes, floods, grounds, avalanches andso on. Moreover, every settlement project is now submitted to environmental evaluation. It is also
integrated in the phase of recovery and reconstruction. A complete method of feedback is applied inorder to find out everything that should be improved or modified like city plan or regulations. The
concept of social memory after the Xynthia Storm in 2010 has been created in order to create a
useful memory that could help to face similar disasters. Nevertheless, there is still work to do inorder to define well the different situations and events for a better understanding between all theadministrations, offices and actors that intervene on disaster fields.
Priority Action 5: Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels.
Results and objectives: Lots of things have been done to improve preparedness such as
the generalization of drills. Preparedness is mostly the responsibility of mayors and prefects but~ 20 ~

every administration or public office now has a plan for continuing action in case of disaster in orderto ensure that public work will not be stopped. Some companies as well have prepared this kind ofplan mostly during the epidemics of H5N1 and H1N1. Moreover, different funds are available
immediately after disasters and mainly the Funds of immediate help in order to help injured people
for basic needs. Different NGOs or the Red-Cross as well have this kind of emergency funds. Finally,a vast study has been led in order to know the flooding risk better. The study actually pointed outthat 1 inhabitant on 4 and 1 job on 3 might be impacted by floods. From that result in 2013, theestablishment of local map and cartography of zones liable to flooding is now a priority.

7

Recent Major Projects on Disaster Risk Reduction

Recently, central authorities have focused on the flooding risk so that they led national
studies in the framework of the National Strategy for flooding prevention (see p. 15). The new issue
is now to develop European cooperation as Europe has a quite similar environment and climate,disasters such as storms, floods, cyclones, heat waves, earthquakes and so on, often affect wide
areas and several countries. Nearly all the capital cities built several centuries ago on long rivers
now suffer from high flooding risks. Even if the cooperation does exist for material support in case offorest fires or floods, it is still depending on each country’s will. It did not exist a true European
strategy until the first European Directive on flooding management adopted in 2007, but as usual in
Europe, it takes lot of time for each state to translate it in its national regulation. So the work to do isstill important to coordinate the different states’ strategy.
Moreover, the economical situation of Europe dominated by budget restriction and discipline
does not help the process to go quickly and further.
Nevertheless, following the Hyogo Framework for Action, France has pointed out threeobjectives in order to improve the risk reduction.
1. Integrate risk reduction in every policy and plans linked to sustainable development.
Mostly by integrating climate changes in the new policies and regulations following theEuropean tendency which aims to reduce the consequences of floods.
2. Develop and reinforce institutions, mechanism and capacity to increase resiliency
against hazards. Mostly through the National Platform and the National Strategy against
flooding risk which gather many actors from different backgrounds.
3. Take into account risk reduction for every program of preparation to emergency,
crisis answer and recovery. Important efforts are done for instance to modernize the tools
and means of prevention, to generalize the use of model from the past experiences, and to
reinforce the chain of transmission and elaboration of data.

~ 21 ~

8

ADRC Counterpart

Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
Grande ArcheTour Pascal A et B
92055 La Défense CEDEX
http://www.developpement-durabl
durable.gouv.fr/
Phone Number: + 33 1 40 81 21 22~ 22 ~

Table of figures
Figure 1: France’s reliefs .................................................................................................................. 1
Figure 2: Overview of Natural disaster from 1980 to 2010: ............................................................... 2
Figure 3: Natural Disaster Occurrence Reported: ............................................................................. 2
Figure 4 & 5: massive floods after dyke failure after the Cyclone Xynthia ......................................... 3
Figure 6: Temperature across Western Europe, 2003/08/20 ............................................................. 4
Figure 7: Way of the two cyclones across France ............................................................................. 4
Figure 8: Versailles and its gardens were severely damaged, about 10,000 trees fell. ...................... 5
Figure 9 & 10: Countryside suffered a lot from fallen trees but cities suffered as well from collapsed
roofs. ................................................................................................................................................ 5
Figure 11: In order to promote restart of work, deputies go to the house of Parliament despite thewater. ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Figure 12: prevision of the next flood in Paris. .................................................................................. 6
Figure 13 & 14: Epicenter of the earthquake and postcard giving an idea of the damages. ............... 6
Figure 15: Administrative divisions of France, department ................................................................ 7
Figure 16: example of administration system in France.. .................................................................. 8
Figure 17: sudden flooding risk in Paris. ......................................................................................... 11
Figure 18: Actors and their main missions in disaster management system. ................................... 12
Figure 19: Detailed steps of crisis management as defined in French regulations........................... 14
Figure 20: Plan Canicule ................................................................................................................ 16
Figure 21: all the nuclear power plants in France and their age in 2012. ......................................... 17
Figure 22: all the nuclear installations in France ............................................................................. 17
Figure 23: Nuclear Crisis Organization ........................................................................................... 18
Figure 24: Risk Prevention Program: 285 M€ ................................................................................. 19~ 23 ~

References State offices

Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/
French Platform
http://www.prim.net/
Official webpage on risks’ web portal
http://www.georisques.gouv.fr/
Minister of the Interior
http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/
Official webpage on risk prevention
http://www.risques.gouv.fr/
French Documentation, the Citizens’ Library
http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/
 Other institutions

Official Website of the European Union – database of the European laws can be found and several
languages
http://europa.eu/
French Association for Natural Disaster Prevention – Association Francaise de la Prevention desCatastrophes Naturelles
http://afpcn.org/
CATNAT – Permanent Observatory of Natural Disaster
http://www.catnat.net/index.php
The International Platform on Risk reduction
http://www.preventionweb.net/english/
The Emergency Events Database, EM-DAT made by Centre for Research on the Epidemiology ofDisasters, Université catholique de Louvain
http://www.emdat.be/ Database of French laws

Legifrance, the whole codes of laws and regulations are digitized in it, sometimes translated in
Englishhttp://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/~ 24 ~