Coastal inconsistencies: Living with and anticipating coastal flood risks in southern France

Résumé En

As coastal floods will grow stronger due to climate change, coastal communities' capacity to perceive, understand and adapt to an evolving environment must be assessed. This study explores how inhabitants of two Mediterranean French cities, Fréjus and Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône (PSLR), understand and prepare for coastal flood risk. A constructivist approach was adopted combining elements of the Theory of Social Representations and the Social Amplification of Risk Framework. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 41 inhabitants of these two localities. Local dwellers of the two cities base their knowledge of coastal flood risk on previous fluvial flood experiences. Affective attachment to the coast is expressed differently between localities-PSLR inhabitants describe an environmental history that is part of their personal history; whereas Fréjus inhabitants have elected this place to live. Risk attenuation argumentative strategies are identified: social comparison, risk comparison and fatalism. A shared understanding that 'something must happen' before coastal floods are taken seriously was also identified. This is discussed as an example of how the objectification process of social representations contributes to raising the societal awareness of new risks, or to their social amplification.