WP 4: Impact mitigation: society and economy

 

Leader: Jean Paul Vanderlinden, UVSQ

 

The general aim of WP4 is to analyze and develop the contributions of social science and economics at addressing the challenges of transforming the concept of resilience into a portfolio of tested operational innovative tools for policy and management purposes of coastal flooding risks. THESEUS research will develop a multi-faceted analytical tool that will be used to investigate different spatial planning policies that might be used at the coast. The aim of this development is to allow users to fine-tune their spatial planning policy arrangements to minimize the net cost of coastal defence and urban investments. THESEUS will investigate how far these measures might minimize the need for (or the design standards of) the kinds of major coastal defence structures that otherwise would be needed in the future with climate-change induced sea level rise. Damage to business from coastal hazard include the direct physical damage to property and infrastructure upon which business depends for its operation, and the consequent loss of value added (profit) that results if the business operation is disrupted by the hazard itself or the threat of hazard. Insurance is vital for speedy recovery, thus enhancing resilience. It is also a “luxury good” in the sense that the poor often cannot afford it, so the rich gain at their expense. In these regards THESEUS will address the following questions:

  • what are the advantages and disadvantages of a system of flood insurance to compensate for the losses of flood victims?
  • all flood management policies result in “losers” and “gainers”.Who gains and who loses from flood insurance?

 

WT 4.1   Insurance programs  (Leader: François Hissel, CETMEF)


Baseline: Current methodologies for increasing socio-economic resilience to floods (FLOODsite)

 Performance/ Research Indicators:

  • Consolidated methodologies for the development of a coherent portfolio of risk management approaches
  • Ground tested guidelines for innovative coastal risk governance in terms of insurance schemes, land use planning, private sector strategies, post crisis management, knowledge mobilization and crisis planning protocols