Risle Valley
150 km long, the Risle has its source in the department of Orn and flows into the Seine, upstream of Honfleur. Its catchment area, with a reach of nearly 2,300 km², is located mainly in the department of Eure.
The Risle Valley is a wide, flat-bottomed valley, mostly occupied by bocage meadows (mixed woodland and pasture). It has tourist assets, land and water, which highlight its environmental richness and are the subject of numerous inventory or protection zoning, such as the RAMSAR site of the Marais Vernier.
The town of Pont-Audemer, halfway between Caen and Rouen and 20 km from the English Channel, has a strong link with the Risle due to the presence of canals in its old centre, which have earned it the nickname of “small Norman Venice”. In the main urban center downstream, its industrial past is still visible, as evidenced by the old COSTIL tannery, now abandoned.
Issues & Objectives
The valley is regularly affected by floods, the last major of which occurred in 1995, 1999 and 2001. These are essentially slow winter floods linked to prolonged rainfall over the entire catchment area, sometimes combined with high tides that slow the flow of water.
If there is an issue of developing a culture of risk among the entire population, the city has two districts designated in the urban social cohesion contract for which targeted actions can be undertaken.
Main Outputs :
- In this sector, Cerema wishes to develop the culture of risk by promoting the presence of water. On the one hand, it will rely on existing networks of actors to seek new ways of approaching the subject of floods. It will also seek to test tools for raising awareness and preparing for crisis management:
- “Flooding” safety plans indicating the instructions to be followed in the event of flooding in the dwellings, like the fire safety plans,
- Augmented virtual reality tools,
- Tools for rapid flood modeling, detection of building openings, location of individual and collective protection (cofferdam, mobile dams) in the event of flooding.
- The Ogoxe flood warning and forecasting systems (totems and smart devices) will also be tested
For more details on our activities and ongoing actions in this pilot site, please visit our Interreg-BRIC web platform bric-network page :
Collaborators
