The Efficiency of Community-Developed Flood Warning Systems: The Example of Deux-Sèvres

Based on a field survey conducted on three watersheds in the Deux-Sèvres district (Sèvre Niortaise, Thouet and Sèvre Nantaise), this paper focuses on the social efficiency, or relevance, of “institutional” flood warning systems. We study the coping strategies developed by riparian communities to generate and disseminate flood-related warning and information. Expected added-value of user-based approaches is twofold: first, an improvement of existing and planned official warning systems; second, a reduction of post-disaster legal cases triggered by actual or perceived failures in the warning process.