L'aggravation du risque d'inondation en Tunisie : éléments de réflexion

Abstract

Flooding in Tunisia is an old phenomenon. Throughout history, regions have been affected tens of times. The events that are best described, best known, and which most still impact people's memories, are those recorded since the beginning of the last century and especially after the 1950s. The floods of 1969 (the whole country especially the Centre and the North), 1973 (medium and low Medjerda), 1982 (Sfax), 1990 (Region of Sidi Bouzid), 1995 (Tataouine), 2003 (Grand Tunis), 2007 (Sabbalet Ben Ammar), 2009 (Redayef)... are all episodes that have marked for a long time the hydrological chronicles of the country.Are rainfall extremes becoming more recurrent to explain the high price we pay due to flooding that occurred in last five or six decades? It is hard to decide on this question especially since in most cases we do not have enough long chronicles to detect possible stationarity ruptures in rainfall series. In the face of scientific uncertainty about the issue of climate change in general and on the question of their impact on rainfall patterns in particular, one thing is sure, however, the inherent hydrological changes to urbanization which is done excessively and various management actions that are sometimes impudent are increasing the vulnerability of our cities and our spaces in front of the flood risk.

Keywords

• Tunisia
• management
• floods
• extreme rainfall
• rainfall patterns
• urbanization