A l'UM la science [S04-ep18]: Town halls and natural disasters
This week in A l'UM la science, Carla Morvan, researcher at the CEE-M presents her study on municipal budgetary responses to natural disasters. Alexis Verhassel takes us on a tour of the History of Law Library and Thomas Pichery gives us the programme for the next next Science Bar. Broadcast every Wednesday on Divergence FM 93.9.
At the end of January, 70 communes in Brittany , including Rennes, suffered the worst flooding the region had seen in at least 40 years. According to the Caisse Centrale de Réassurance, between 6,000 and 8,000 homes were affected, with damage estimated at between 130 and 160 million euros. A drop in the bucket, if I may say so, compared to the floods that hit the Valencia region and Catalonia in the autumn of 2024. While the material damage was colossal - this time in the billions of euros - it was the heavy human toll, with 240 dead or missing, that will go down in history.
And what about Mayotte, hit by cyclone Chido last December? While the human toll remains unclear (39 deaths are currently being reported), the insured material damage has been put at 800 million euros, according to the public reinsurer, bearing in mind that only 6% of Mahorais have insurance.
Floods, storms, droughts, cyclones, landslides: wherever natural disasters strike, it takes years for regions to recover. In these situations, France's administrative patchwork is revealed. Who do you turn to when your house is ravaged? When a road is no longer passable or your children's high school is condemned? Town hall, département, region, state... Each has its own remit, so when in doubt, citizens usually turn to the elected official closest to them: their mayor.
How do these often rural municipalities manage natural disasters? What leverage do they have? What budgetary responses can they provide? These are just some of the questions addressed by Carla Morvan, a researcher at the Centre d'économie de l'environnement in Montpellier, in her latest study, published in La revue économique last December and entitled Les réponses budgétaires des municipalités aux catastrophes naturelles (Municipal budgetary responses to natural disasters).
In the second half of the show, we take you to the Faculty of Law and Political Science, where Alexis Verhassel shows us around the Law History Library.
Like the calm after the storm, our guest for the last 3 minutes returns regularly to the set. Thomas Pichery will introduce us to the next Science Bar, which takes place this Thursday at 8.30pm at the Dôme on the theme: In search of rare earths: geosciences in the energy transition.
At UM la science you've got the program, let's go!
Coproduction: Divergence FM / Université de Montpellier
Animation: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews : Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Reporting and editing: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Production: Robin Laillou
Listen to the program "A l'UM la science" on Divergence FM 93.9
