• Energy Research

International audience; URBEST research project examine growing adaptive governance in estuarine cities, in a context of climate change. Focus on estuarine cities to examine the issue of global change. Considers estuarine cities as laboratories to study the adaptive governance of climate change. Because a strong tension between socio-economic attractiveness and ecological vulnerability shaping this territories.

Este artículo se centra en el retorno de la experiencia (ROX) que consiste en el «aprendizaje de lecciones» a partir de un evento o una serie de eventos en las políticas de riesgos y desastres «naturales». A raíz de los huracanes ocurridos en el Caribe en 2017, examinamos un ROX y sus modalidades de «transferencia de aprendizaje» y conocimientos producidos. Analizamos cómo el equipo científico implicado en este ROX trabaja concretamente en diferentes condiciones de estatransferencia, en particular la credibilidad, la legitimidad y la relevancia del conocimiento para la acción. El estudio del caso de Saint-Martin demuestra que la legitimidad de los conocimientos es la dimensión más decisiva de esta transferencia, en un contexto de legitimación a menudo frágil y a veces conflictiva de las políticas públicas (de riesgo) en los territorios franceses de ultramar. Cet article prend pour objet les retours d’expérience (RETEX) consistant à « tirer les leçons » d’un événement ou d’une suite d’événements dans les politiques des risques et catastrophes « naturels ». À la suite des cyclones survenus dans l’arc antillais en 2017, nous nous appuyons sur l’examen d’un RETEX et ses modalités de « transfert des apprentissages » et des savoirs produits. Nous analysons comment le collectif impliqué dans ce RETEX travaille au concret différentesconditions de ce transfert, en particulier la crédibilité, la légitimité et la pertinence des savoirs pour l’action. Le cas d’étude de Saint-Martin permet à cet égard de montrer que la légitimité des savoirs est la dimension la plus déterminante de ce transfert, dans un contexte de légitimation souvent fragile et parfois conflictuelle des politiques publiques (du risque) dans les Outre-mer. This article deals with feedback learning (RETEX in French) consisting in “learning lessons” from an event or a series of events in “natural” risks and disasters management policies. Following the hurricanes that occurred in the Caribbean in 2017, we rely on the examination of a RETEX and its modalities of “transfer of learning” and knowledge produced. We analyze how the scientific team involved in this RETEX works concretely on different conditions of this transfer, in particular the credibility, legitimacy and salience of knowledge for action. The case study of Saint-Martin demonstrates that the legitimacy of knowledge is the most decisive dimension of this transfer, in a context of often fragile and sometimes conflicting legitimization of public (risk) policies in the French Overseas Territories.

Faced with sea level rise and the intensification of extreme events, human populations living on the coasts are developing responses to address local situations. A synthesis of the literature on responses to coastal adaptation allows us to highlight different adaptation strategies. Here, we analyze these strategies according to the complexity of their implementation, both institutionally and technically. First, we distinguish two opposing paradigms – fighting against rising sea levels or adapting to new climatic conditions; and second, we observe the level of integrated management of the strategies. This typology allows a distinction between four archetypes with the most commonly associated governance modalities for each. We then underline the need for hybrid approaches and adaptation trajectories over time to take into account local socio-cultural, geographical, and climatic conditions as well as to integrate stakeholders in the design and implementation of responses. We show that dynamic and participatory policies can foster collective learning processes and enable the evolution of social values and behaviors. Finally, adaptation policies rely on knowledge and participatory engagement, multi-scalar governance, policy monitoring, and territorial solidarity. These conditions are especially relevant for densely populated areas that will be confronted with sea level rise, thus for coastal cities in particular.

This paper examines the role of experimentation in devising coastal adaptation policies. It is based on an in-depth study of one such experiment organized by the French Ministry for the Environment from 2012 to 2015. In the experiment studied, a small number of coastal municipalities volunteered to simulate the implementation of planned retreat to their respective areas. These exercises involved the participation of state services, local authorities, and various local stakeholders. Using insights from discursive institutionalism, we tracked developments throughout the experimentation period, highlighting the social and political dynamics attached to policy making and the legitimization of planned retreat. We first argue why it is critical to re-introduce political dimensions (polity, politics and policy) when analyzing stakes involved in such experiments, and how we did so. The French planned retreat experiment is presented both as a governance process of experimentation and an example of the French government aiming to steer current and future coastal policy "at a distance". The tensions between these two forms of governing were taken into account, producing multi-level empirical results. At subnational level, the friction between these two forms of governance is examined through a case study of the Aquitaine Region in southwest France. Three experiment sites located in this area are all managed and coordinated by a single body: the Aquitaine Coastline Public Interest Group. Its position as a key player at the intersection of different worlds and the projections applied to it are the main features that mark it out as a “boundary entrepreneur”. We show how the resources and ability of this group to carry out political boundary work were key features of the experiment from start to finish, and how the organisation developed learning processes in the regulation of local conflicts. The planned retreat experiment has opened new ‘political space’ for potential changes in the legal and financial regulations governing coastal risk management. However, as we show, the technocratic nature of existing French coastal risk management systems severely limits the chances of planned retreat policy being institutionalised in the near future.

This article examines different forms of territorial appropriation of climate change adaptation in two French coastal areas: Aquitaine in southwest France and Martinique Island in the French West Indies. We first highlight difficulties for policy makers to govern such an issue, qualified as an unstructured or wicked problem due to its inherent transversal dimensions. We then identify key actors and processes that render this problem governable on (and by) local territories. The international and national framing process results from and contributes to an association and hybridization with other policies, especially those from coastal risk management. The comparison shows that boundary actors and organizations (a regional working group dealing with climate change and the public interest group of Aquitaine coastline) are able to facilitate territorial appropriation by mediating between different social worlds, mainly science and politics. Capacities to cross scales and boundaries in public policy making and to mobilize boundary objects are the main features of these boundary actors. However, the case studies indicate that territorial configurations of actors play a more determining role in the politicization and the making of climate change adaptation policies. Indeed, these actors are embedded in broader institutional configurations that shape the way they can perform their boundary work. Dans cet article, nous explorons les formes différenciées d'appropriation territoriale du problème de l'adaptation au changement climatique en zones côtières à l'échelle de deux régions françaises, la Martinique et l'Aquitaine. Nous exposons tout d'abord le fait que l'adaptation constitue un problème transversal, « mal structuré », et en ce sens difficilement gouvernable. Nous cherchons ensuite à identifier certains acteurs et mécanismes qui visent à rendre gouvernable ce problème, c'est-à-dire à problématiser, structurer, opérationnaliser une action publique territoriale d'adaptation. L'analyse comparée permet de montrer que cette appropriation dépend non seulement des capacités politiques d'acteurs et d'organisations-frontières (i.e de « médiateurs ») à structurer le problème, mais aussi et surtout des configurations territoriales dans lesquelles ils agissent.