French – German flood risk geohistory in the Rhine Graben

1. IDRC International Disaster and RiskConference DAVOS 02/06/2010 French – German flood risk geohistoryin the Rhine Graben(1400 – 2010) Brice MARTIN, Romain ANSEL, Karine DIETRICH–CHENELOuarda GUERROUAH, Marie-Claire VITOUX, Lauriane WITH (CRESAT, Mulhouse) Axel DRESCHER, Rüdiger GLASER, Iso HIMMELSBACH, Johannes SCHÖNBEIN (IPG, Freiburg) French – german program ANR – DFG TRANSRISK 2008 - 2010

2. Introduction Topic Teams French, German Interdisciplinary work

4. 1. Studied area South Rhine Graben Homogeneous… …with borders 40km France Germany Vosges Black Forrest . 1424 . 1493 Swiss

5. 1. Studied area Land of wars 1870 1914 – 1918 1939- 1945 Changes Administration Languages

6. 1. Studied area Lack of memories / informations Destructions Losses Unacessibility

7. 2. Stakes (crossed – stakes) Filling the gaps in the knowledge of the floods in France and in Germany Building a common geohistory of the floods Optimizing the prevention and the information about the floods, Understanding the role of rivers developments responsible for different floods evolution on both sides of the Rhine Contributing to the implementation of flood risk observatories on a French – German basis Contributing to define a common interdisciplinary vocabulary on risks (and a french – german – english glossary )

8. 3. Methods Simultaneous actions (FRA – GER) Archives study Floods Landuse Climate Connecting the actors Investigations on memories and perceptions

9. 4. Analysis Comparisons Differentscales (time / space) France – Germany River systems Cities on each river system Districts in eachcities Contextualisation Classification Maping Oldevents / extremevents risks Database / website

10. 5. Results Floods 1400 – 2010 : 691 events (FRA) 453 events (GER) France by Rivers Germany

11. 5. Results 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21th Chronology overflows 1480 – 2009 Rhine graben France / Germany

13. Not known ?

14. Forgotten ?

15. Underestimated ?

16. Differencies (FRA – GER) ?Flood of 1910 (Paris flood) Known as “the biggest one”... ...Only on the french side... ...not taken into account

17. Example (flood of 1910) Archives problem ? No : many archives on both sides of the Rhine Elsässer Kurier 20/01/1910

18. Example (flood of 1910) Climatic differencies ? 17 - 18 januar : 60cm snow cover 18 - 19 januar : SW flow  Temperature (5° at 1.000m) heavay rainfall (192mm / 24h) total snow melt 19 - 20 januar : NW flow  temperature (-5° at 1.000m) heavy snowfall (50cm)

20. January

21. high water : everywhere

22. overflows : french sideMuch more archives on french side

24. Destructive floods in Mulhouse Destructive floods in all the Ill basin Destructive floods in Mulhouse Destructive floods in all the Ill basin 1910

25. Example (flood of 1910) overflows 1480 – 2009 Rhine graben France / Germany 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21th Disconnection after 1880 (human factors, local aspects) 1910

27. crossed analysis

28. interdisciplinary

29. transboundaryEuropean Directive 2007/60/EC on the assessment and management of flood risks

30. Thanks a lot for your attention