Reconstruction post-Irma à Saint-Martin : réviser les documents d’occupation des sols pour recomposer un territoire moins vulnérable

Abstract

On September 6, 2017, Hurricane Irma (category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale) passed through Saint Martin (French West Indies). Based on a field survey conducted in the French part of the island, this work aims to characterise the preventive opportunity of the post-disaster reconstruction period by questioning the land use reorganisation (via the revision of the Plan de Prévention des Risques Naturels – PPRN). The IPCC, in its 2019 report on the Oceans and Cryosphere, highlights that societies are developing a multitude of measures to adapt to coastal risks, most often in response to disasters. The analysis of reconstruction choices and their consequences therefore provides information on the concrete adaptation processes. By analysing the revision procedure of the PPRN of Saint-Martin, we examine the State’s willingness to integrate the ‘lessons learned’ from Irma, and question how it reveals the dysfunctions and tensions that pre-existed in the socio-territorial system. This concrete example shows the obstacles and levers to the implementation of a preventive reconstruction strategy that involves the reorganisation of the territory to take better account of present and future risks. This study allows us to conclude on the paradox of post-disaster recovery, which is both a ‘window of opportunity’ and a catalyst of vulnerabilities, an opportunity for change and an illustration of the weight of past legacies and the inertia of systems.

Keywords

• Vulnerabilities
• Governance
• Preventive adaptations
• Tropical cyclone
• French west Indies
• Saint-Martin