Interdisciplinary and transboundary approach of geohistorical reconstruction of floods in the Rhine Graben (1400 – 2010)

Because of its turbulent history, Alsace is one of French regions where the historic floods are the most underestimated. The damages connected to the wars (on 1870, 1914 - 1918, 1939 - 1945), the particular classification of archives and, especially, their writing in German during several periods of the recent history, is rebuffing numerous specialists Located in the same geographical area (the Rhine Graben), but by the other side of the the border constituted by the Rhine, the land of Bade is, him too, confronted with the problem of the misunderstanding of the historic floods, because of the destructions of the war also, but especially because of the harmful absence, for archives production, of a strong centralized state until the German unification after 1870. Hence the idea to set up a interdisciplinary French – German research program, to establish compared floods chronologies over several centuries in the Rhine Graben, both in France and in Germany, by associating historians, geographers, anthropologists and specialists of the languages from the universities of Mulhouse (France) and Freiburg in Breisgau (Germany). This program (called “TRANSRISK” 2008 - 2010), financed by the « Agence Nationale de la Recherche » and the « Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft , has multiple objectives: - filling the gaps in the knowledge of the floods in France and in Germany - building a common geohistory of the floods - optimizing the prevention and the information about the floods, thanks to the classification, the reconstruction and the mapping of the extreme phenomena - understanding the role of rivers developments responsible for an different floods evolution on both sides of the Rhine - contributing to the implementation of flood risk observatories on a French – German basis - contributing to define a common interdisciplinary vocabulary on risks (and a french – german – english glossary )