Citation

Pottier N, Vuillet M, Rabemalanto N, Edjossan-Sossou AM. Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct. 2023; 95: e103858.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103858

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Are high-rise residents prepared to evacuate on their own in the event of a major flood that result in prolonged shutdown of utility networks? If a slow-moving flood of the Seine affecting Paris and its suburbs is predicted, crisis management services plan for preventive power cuts, evacuation of high-rise buildings, and halting of public transportation. This article explores the triggers for household evacuations through a survey of 533 households in 11 high-rise buildings located along the Seine River in Paris. Three main factors were studied: the ability to evacuate oneself, to temporarily relocate and to reach this temporary relocation by one's own means. The triggers for the decision to evacuate, for 7 types of households interviewed according to their willingness and ability to evacuate, reveal that most respondents are partially dependent on public authorities due to the lack of housing alternatives. Those who can evacuate preemptively attach great importance to receiving warning messages and their accuracy in deciding whether to evacuate. Many are unfamiliar with the consequences of prolonged urban power outages on their daily lives and the need for preemptive evacuation. These results show that more targeted information based on each household's profile could facilitate preventive evacuation. This would reduce people's dependence on the community and avoid cascading effects that could worsen crisis management. This pilot survey database is needed to calibrate agent-based simulation models that generate reliable and well-informed predictions for evacuation of high-rise buildings in the event of slow flooding and shutdown of urban service networks.

Language: en

Keywords

High-rise building; Household resilience; Large scale flood; Paris; Preventive evacuation; Survey; Triggers