Pilot Sites - Orleans
Due to the extent of the Loire flood plain, the Ville d’Orleans has established Flood Risk Management as one of its top priorities. Today, Orleans is committed to reducing its vulnerability by taking new adaptive approaches to sustainable flood risk management and flood risk management planning. During the recent years, the City of Orleans has been working on flood issues through information campaigns, spreading knowledge about floods in the communities and raising awareness. It is also putting in place rescue and recovery plans for the population and public services. The aim is to minimize damages and enable the City to recover as quickly as possible after flood events.
The three organizations which are working together have the following aims:
The Conseil Général de Loiret started a preliminary investigation of flood risk and its management in the “Middle Loire” shortly after the turn of the century. This preliminary stage which scopes and quantifies the work associated with flood risk management has also identified the organisational requirements within the Conseil Général de Loiret which employes over 2,000 people. The second, operational stage of the project is now under way. This work is being carried out in parallel with the Agglomération d’Orléans” and Ville D’Orleans which work at different scales. The State (Prefecture) is also carrying out similar work and the “Etablissement Public Loire” which works over all the Loire river basin and which includes 19 “départements”, has included actions in its priorities which financially and technically support the resilience of public infrastructure networks. The aim is to develop the emerging dynamic at all grades of the administration to address this issue of resiliency within the public services, utility organisations and the wider public.
The work with the wider public aims to increase their awareness of flood risk and how to reduce their vulnerability to flooding. This will be achieved by means of modelling to identify the probability and consequences of flooding within flood plains within which some 48,000 people lived and work. Other work will help to speed the process of restore normal life once a flood occurs, including the resumption of sewerage services by reduction of their vulnerability.
It is also intended to raise awareness and resilience through the promotion of a civil defence reserve that will be integrated with the Local Flood Rescue Authority.
In addition to the risk associated with river flooding, there are also concerns about the impact of rising ground water levels. Therefore it is intended to carry out ground water modelling to help assess the joint probability of flooding from both sources. Finally, a communication strategy will be developed to raise the awareness of the politicians, professionals and the general public to take adaptive measures in association with the spatial planning and development of the city.
The main aspects of relevance to the FloodProBE work programme are:
Conseil Général du Loiret, Agglomération of Orleans and City of Orleans are involved in a policy of vulnerability assessment and reduction. They focus theire activity in reducing vulnerability of:
- Buildings(houses, flats, companies...);
- Networks(energy supply, drinking water, sewer, roads...);
- Public services like waste management.
FloodProBE WP2 is focused on such activities and these three stakeholders are very interested in the deliverable that will be produced. Testing and assessing the results of WP2 on Orleans Region is wished by the three stakeholders.
Also, due to the extent of the Loire flood area, the three stakeholders would like to test the deliverable of task 4.2 dealing with concepts and technologies for damage mitigation and improved flood resilience and for integrated shelter functions in the urban built environment.
DREAL Centre is managing the flood defence assets in the Orleans Region. Most of the flood defences are earth embankments, with a lot of particular infrastructures integrated in the embankments and creating weak spots at the interfaces.
Under WP3, the development of improved understanding of failure processes, the piloting of the use of geophysical methods and the development of integrated assessment methods can all be trialled on the Orleans Region embankments and provide feedback as to their usefulness/appropriateness, particularly in regard to understanding fragility and breach.
