Risk perception, a key component of systemic vulnerability of coastal zones to erosion-submersion. Case study on the French Mediterranean coast.

International audienceThis research is based on a view of vulnerability comprised of four main components: hazards (marine-meteorological factors and climate change, geomorphologic process), assets at stake (identification and valuation, commercial and non commercial goods, damage valuation), management (public policies of prevention and reparation), and perception of risk. Risks perception has a major position in systemic vulnerability evaluations because it gives precious indications on the variability of the points of view of the stakeholders, the degree of conscientiousness and sensibility of the exposed inhabitants, their attachment to their territory, their reactions to the hazards, etc. So it provides indications on their adaptation capacity. The results of a large survey conducted in 2009 of over more than 560 inhabitants and shopkeepers of a low and very urbanised stretch of the French Mediterranean coast (Palavas zone, Hérault) are analysed