A first RISK project:CDP Risk@UGA (2017-2021)

Steering Committee
 

Chair Didier GEORGES (Gipsa-Lab)
Co-Chairs Cécile CORNOU (ISTerre), Sandrine CAROLY (PACTE), Philippe GARNIER (AE&CC), Nicolas ECKERT (INRAE), Rémi KOUABENAN (LIP), Dominique DAUDON (3SR)

The Risk project’s goal was to develop cross-disciplinary research and scientific innovation in the field of disaster and risk management, specifically in areas that are made vulnerable due to a strong interdependency between human, natural or technological hazards. In addition to the Grenoble basin, the project had focused on other specific vulnerable territories such as the Beirut area (Lebanon), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), and areas in Peru and in Nepal. The project also aimed at proposing a risk institute within Univ. Grenoble Alpes.

This review gives an overview of the scientific work carried out around risk management in the laboratories of the University of Grenoble Alpes through the activity of the Cross Disciplinary Project RISK from 2018 to 2021.

Download the scientific results booklet 2028-2021

Project’s organization…

The project proposed an innovative scientific approach to address the following challenging issues: managing data heterogeneity through a participatory approach; integrating rare or emergent events and cascading effects; moving from a static/reactive risk management approach to a proactive/dynamic approach; and designing appropriate strategies for, on the one hand, disaster risk reduction (apart from a relevant assessment of vulnerabilities and local cultures) and for communications on the other, in order to better manage risk and strengthen the culture of risk.

… and its international visibility

The project was fully in line with Sendai’s United Nations conference framework on disaster risk prevention in 2015, which encourages countries to better prevent and anticipate disaster risks. It aimed at becoming a privileged interlocutor of the risk management stakeholders in France and abroad, in particular on the 5 selected study sites (economic sphere, public authorities, humanitarian organizations, academia or risk center networks).

The project offered a strong contribution to both the structure and visibility of Univ. Grenoble Alpes in the field of risk assessment and management, by proposing in fine a risk management institute, unique in France. The CDP Risk fostered the development of new interdisciplinary methodologies by research teams to better work together, and contributed to the transfer of research results to relevant stakeholders and decision-makers. It had also actively participated in reinforcing interdisciplinary curricula in risk management.

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The project was organized in 4 work-packages:

•     WP1 was dedicated to Risk management and governance modes
•     WP2 dealt with the problem of acquiring, processing and modeling some heterogeneous data sets coming from different sources (human and instrumental data) for characterizing and understanding complex systems
•     WP3 focused on the development of innovative approaches for multifactorial risk assessment and decision-making support for active risk/disaster mitigation, post-disaster response and disaster recovery
•     WP4 was dedicated to the design of a proposal for a future world-class Risk Institute in Grenoble

The following field sites were the focus of the research studies:

The Alpine Area

• Grenoble basin (impacts of floods and landslides, #T2, #T9) with a support of Urban Planning Agency of Grenoble area
• Harmalière landslide site (#T3, #T6),
• Alpine cryosphere /glaciers (Vanoise, #T5, #P2) with emergent hazards

International stage

• Peru (#T10)
• Haiti (#T11, #P3)
• Nepal (#T8, #P3)
• Lebanon (Beirut, #T7, #M3) for earthquakes.

The four foreign sites have been chosen for the scientific opportunities that they offer in seismic risk management. The sacred valley in Peru (#T10) allows archeological sites to be used as valuable markers for paleoseismicity and risk studies, including local resilience.
Haiti (#T11) and Nepal (#T8) are two countries recently affected by strong and destroying earthquakes and the research were focused on the resilience and strategy in post-disaster reconstruction projects in two different contexts.
Finally, Beirut (Lebanon) is a megapole strongly at risk (#T7), where the numerous collected data allow modeling of living-risk situations, including the impact of individual behavior on fatalities.
More prospectively, the Mekong Delta megalopolis area in Vietnam through possible collaborations with CARE international lab (Centre Asiatique de Recherche sur l’Eau) prone to increasing flooding hazards might be considered in the future.