Author(s)

F. Grelot & B. Guillaume

Abstract

'Flood-scale': a procedure to elicit public values in flood risk management F. re lot' & B. ~uillaume~ ' ~ ~ d r o l o ~ ~ - ~ ~ d r a u l i c s Research Unit; Cemagref Lyon 2~esearch Group on Risk, Information, and Decision; ~ c o l e Normale Supe'rieure de Cachan Abstract In this paper, we present and justify the relevance of a 'flood-scale' procedure, which allows a comprehensive classification of local experimented floods, describing their probabilities both in verbal and visual terms. We first discuss the importance of classifying floods by their infrequency rather than using their physical intensity, or even worse their consequences. We then propose our construction, based on intuitive definitions. Finally we show that the relevance of such an approach is threefold: (1) it is understandable by everyone, including lay-people; (2) it advantageously represents the randomness of floods; (3) it allows a better comprehension of the effectiveness of prevention policies. 1 Background Any decisio

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