Assessing resilience to floods in an holistic perspective in French Polynesia

Abstract

The increase in flood events intensity and recurrence has considerably weakened urban areas and populations. The material and human damages led to social, economic, political, political and environmental impacts that can weaken the urban scale but also the national or even international scale. Faced with this, scientists and managers integrate the resilience concept into risk strategies. Resilience is defined as the ability of a system to absorb disturbances, maintain its functions and restart activities after it. However, resilience is still a concept difficult to operationalize. The objective of this research is therefore to propose an approach to address this lack of operationality. While some researches tried to operationalize the concept of resilience it is essentially a technical and organizational resilience, without taking into consideration the systemic dimension of the territory. This research therefore aims to operationalize the concept of resilience at the communal level through the creation of a decision-making tool, addressing resilience in the most holistic way possible, around three indicators in order to analyze urban, social and technical resilience characteristics. The idea behind this approach is that urban resilience embodies the abilities and capacities of a city and its population to develop before, during and after a disruptive event in order to limit its negative impacts. This scientific positioning therefore makes possible to analyze urban resilience as a continuum, highlighting proactive capacities that the urban system must develop in order to (re)act in the face of flooding. The originality of the methodology is justified by a collaborative approach, characterized by a socio-economic partnership with local actors. This approach is a part of a longer-term reflection to define the first steps in the construction of an Urban Resilience Observatory focusing on the design and dissemination of theoretical and practical knowledge around urban risk and resilience issues in order to reach the consensus needed for action and decision-making with a particular focus in French Polynesia.