| According to the Plan de Prévention des Risques d'Inondation (PPRI) of the Ill basin, approved in 2006, the town of Mulhouse (Haut – Rhin, France) is almost totally shielded from floods. This situation appears as the result of the construction in the 19th century of an important work of channeling and diversion of waters of Ill (canal de décharge). If its goal was, especially, to allow the urbanization and the industrial development of the" French Manchester ", the channel transformed this town established in swampy and easily flooded area, in a space a priori without any risk of flood. The chronology of the events is exemplary : not only the floods, numerous until the middle of the 19th century, disappear in Mulhouse, but the city becomes a particular case in the Ill basin where the destructive floods continue nevertheless to occur in the current period (the latest having occurred in August, 2007). Beyond a some meteorological fate, the efficiency of this channel seems thus indisputable. But, at the same time, alarmist reports, notably in the sector of the insurances, evoke the eventuality of a flood touching 70.000 of 110.000 inhabitants of Mulhouse. What is there really? For the researchers as for the local actors in charge of risks management, the question thus arises of a systemic, geohistoric, evaluation of the protection of the city. |
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1Romain Ansel 1
