Managing protection in torrential mountain watersheds: A new conceptual integrated decision-aiding framework

[Departement_IRSTEA]Eaux [TR1_IRSTEA]RIVAGEInternational audienceIn mountains, natural hazards such as torrential phenomena are damageable for elements at risk. Land use management policies depend on natural risk analysis and on its reduction by protective measures such as civil engineering structures (e.g. check dams, dikes) and forest. Managing these systems is thus needed to help land use planning. It is related to multidisciplinary decision-making problems, from technical effectiveness assessment of protective measures (structural, functional) to their socio-economic efficiency to reduce risk. Decision-aiding tools such as Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) have been recently introduced in mountain watersheds’ management field. Nevertheless, traceability of involved expert reasoning is still missing such as the link between technical and socio-economic problems. This paper aims to show how decision-aiding tools can help to improve these aspects within an innovative integrated decision-aiding framework at the torrential watershed scale. Therefore, a brief overview of decision-aiding approaches, involving several theoretical frameworks, is provided. The integrated decision-aiding framework is then introduced. Finally, improvements are discussed showing that field applications are now needed