Practical indicators for road infrastructure resilience to flood risks in France, case study of Nantes Ring Road network

Overview & Synopsis

After the adoption of the European Floods Directive in 2007, Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (EPRI) was carried out in 2011 in France. It highlighted the protection of road infrastructures from flood hazards as an important part of the flood risks management. Assessing infrastructures’ resilience by indicators helps urban stakeholders to better understand infrastructures facing flood risks. In order to achieve that, many French public and private institutions discuss relevant assessment indicators in wide varieties of documents, which can be defined as operational indicators. Some of these operational indicators are applied in practical local management, which we call practical indicators. This paper will present an approach to identify French practical and operational indicators of road infrastructures resilience to flood risks. We will also demonstrate how operational indictors can usefully serve as practical indicators in using Nantes Ring Road (NRR) network as the case study. Moreover, French multi-scales involved institutions (like national, regional, departmental and local) will be discussed to describe the national management structure.