Vulnerability to coastal flood hazard of residential buildings on Noirmoutier Island (France)

International audienceStorm Xynthia was responsible for the death of 41 people by drowning after the flooding by thesea of low-lying areas along French Atlantic coast in February 2010. This toll was partlyexplained by inadequacy of houses to flood hazard: 78% of the deaths occur in single-storeyconstructions.In this paper, we propose a map linking architectural typology of constructions withpotential water depth in case of coastal flood event. The goal is to identify residentialhouses which present a high level of vulnerability for people to a potential coastal floodevent. This work is presented on Noirmoutier Island which was few impacted by StormXynthia. However, it presents some common points with the most hit territories during thestorm: 70% of the territory is under Xynthia level; 65% of the houses located in this lowlyingarea are single-storey constructionsThis map shows us different vulnerability between the four towns of the island