During the night of February 28th, 2010, the French Atlantic coastline was struck by a particularly violent storm, associated with a sea surge, which caused the death of 47 people. The flooded zones where the victims were most numerous corresponded mainly territories urbanized during the last three decades. For the littoral’s population, the civil protection and the policymakers, this was a total surprise and the catastrophe was presented like a completely new and thus unforeseeable phenomenon. However, neighbouring countries close to France had coped with several similar events, sometimes more disastrous still, within the last 50 years. An example is the famous “Great storm” of 1953 which caused the death of several thousands of people in Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and which had also struck the North of France, illustrating that in France the memory of these extreme events had apparently been lost.

The idea of this book has a direct link with the so-called Xynthia event mentioned above. It was indeed suggested by the first author whose parents had been hit by the storm in the small town of Boyardville (Oléron Island) and experienced confusion following the event concerning the way in which expertise was used to delineate areas where houses at risk were to be destroyed and links with current policies were far from being well explained and understood by concerned citizens. The very same event triggered discussions at EU level regarding the consideration of storm surges in the context of the EU Flood Directive and Integrated Coastal Zone Management related measures. It also encouraged the EU to design research topics in the 7th Framework Programme on Research and Development to better understand the mechanisms of such disaster-prone events and to provide an improved knowledge base supporting existing and developing policies.

One of these projects was the so-called MICORE project (Morphological Impacts and COastal Risks induced by Extreme storm events) which aimed to develop a prototype Early Warning System (EWS) for predicting coastal storm risk. This paved the way for the currently running RISC-KIT project (Resilience-Increasing Strategies for Coasts – Toolkit) which aims to develop methods, tools and management approaches with links to EU and national policies, and which takes the historical dimension into consideration.

This book therefore starts by discussing the current regulatory framework related to coastal storms and flooding, with considerations about the need to develop a “culture of risks”. It includes international and EU policies in the area of natural disaster reduction, civil protection and adaptation to climate change. Chapter 1 written by Philippe Quevauviller also discusses the need for better communication of scientific knowledge and policies, with an accent on interactions among different actors and implementation needs.

The second chapter focuses on the technical and scientific aspects related to the assessment of coastal storm risks. It is built on Paolo Ciavola's experience in the coordination of the above-mentioned MICORE project and his involvement in the RISC-KIT project, leading the construction of storm impact databases in cooperation with Emmanuel Garnier, the author to the third chapter. The author provides a synthesis of gathered knowledge on the evaluation of coastal vulnerability, including mapping and modeling, and a summary of recommended disaster risk reduction measures.

Finally, the historical knowledge dimension is fully developed in Chapter 3 written by Emmanuel Garnier. It focuses on understanding the mechanisms which may explain the magnitude of the Xynthia disaster occurring in a developed country and important member of the European Union. In particular the chapter focused on the example of the coastal town of La Faute-sur-Mer where 29 people of the same district drowned in the night. For this purpose, the chapter discusses the trajectory of vulnerability followed from the 18th century until 2010, with the objective of showing how a lesson learned, extracted from historical documentation, could have reduced this vulnerability considerably, like it has already done in certain countries of Northern Europe.

The book is aimed to address a wide readership covering the policy-making community, scientists and academia, practitioners as well as regional and coastal city authorities. It is hoped that the language will also be accessible to provide background information to citizens.

Philippe QUEVAUVILLER
Paolo CIAVOLA
Emmanuel GARNIER
January 2017