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KNOW4DRR Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge

27 May 2015 in Chambéry (Savoie, France) Université Savoie Mont-Blanc

Achievements of the WebTV on « natural » and technological risks

www.irma-grenoble.com

Sébastien Gominet - Institut des Risques Majeurs (Grenoble, France)

www.risques.tv

ü  L’Institut des Risques Majeurs (Institute of natural and technological hazard) work in the fields of disseminating preventive information and municipal crisis management.

ü We are financed by the government at three levels : national, regional and departmental §  Ministry of the environment, §  Rhone Alpes region §  department of Isere.


The team consists of 5 permanent staff. We work in 4 main areas :

ü we help local districts/municipalities/councils in the elaboration and implementation of crisis management plans.

ü we provide training to locally elected representatives and local government workers.


ü we provide an up-to-date information service (notably covering new legislation but also events, publications and political reporting).

ü we develop educational materials : exhibitions, information trails (for example, along hiking paths), books and information brochures, websites, films, “web documentaries”, etc.


ü web, photography and video are totally complementary and inseparable in our work : the photos and video give the content and the websites provide the visibility.


Database of photography in the website www.irma-grenoble.com

Documentation section in the website www.irma-grenoble.com

In 2006, the first videos consisted of short interviews made with minimal budgets.

After this we started to write and film short documentaries based on research carried out as a part of specific projects. These were films on :


Earthquakes (12 mn) Landslides (14 mn) Flooding (14 mn)

Since 2009, we have chosen to concentrate on working on video by creating the web TV (www.risques.tv). We had 3 aims:

ü Making the pre-existing videos more visible

ü Having a way of broadcasting video so as to develop other formats

ü Broadcasting videos of partner organisations such as France 3 Alpes


The decision to develop video was of course linked to the fact that video has become an integral part of the web experience. But there are also other reasons:

1.  It is possible to use video in a number of different contexts (training courses, public meetings, academic talks, conferences or lectures…)

2.  It is a tool which can be taken and used easily by other people or organisations : school teachers, university lecturers, local municipalities, environment agencies, government offices, etc.


3.  Video can be seen by many people at the same time, for example during a festival.

The web doc “ça n’arrive pas qu’aux autres” was broadcast to 2500 high school students last year during a festival “Science and Mountains” in Grenoble.

This web doc was also broadcast during the festival “Deauville Green Award” where it was nominated for an award in 2014.


4.  Video is also a medium which has the potential to go beyond the usual audiences and reach people who are unfamiliar with the issue of natural and technological hazard.


For example, in the series “Risques VS Fiction” in which we asked specialists of a particular hazard to give their opinion on films about disasters, we hoped to reach the “cinephiles” or the film fans.

We made 11 episodes for example about the film “The day after tomorrow” where new York city is completely frozen, or “Twister” about tornadoes in America


Episode 5, which focused on the cartoon “Tokyo Magnitude 8” and in which we interviewed a psychiatrist specialising in disasters, was much talked about on many Manga websites.

http://www.risques.tv/video.php?id_DTvideo=237

5.  With video we can vary the tone of our message more easily than with other mediums. For example, it is possible to integrate humour.


Video clip, of one minute, on the security protocol that must be carried out in the event of the release of a toxic cloud from a nearby chemical factory.


6.  Finally, video is an opportunity for us to question our relationship with nature. In particular to try to change the way people perceive nature.


In the 3 episodes of “Manival, the bad torrent”, we wanted to make the torrent talk for itself, it became the main narrator of the film. We wanted to make it seem more real, with a persona to help people realise that it is really a living, changing entity which physically changes from year to year.


ü  This is what we did in the district around the Manival torrent, where there is a local residents association : §  We got in touch with them and

had several discussions with them during the filming period.

§  And in the end we spent a day walking along the path which runs along the torrent


ü But that’s not enough to make a film. It is also necessary to go and meet the people once the films are finished to continue to explain to them, to persuade them and to discuss with them.

ü  These residents were very interested to learn more about their local area.

ü But certain aspects explained in the film were still not correctly understood by these people.

ü So coming back into the field, seeing the infrastructure, the torrent, the mountain slopes is also very important.


Certain residents wanted, at that time, to really understand how the torrent operates and how the infrastructure, that has been built to protect them, works.

Some of them even started to question some of the big decisions that had had to be taken concerning these infrastructures. For example:


ü Why isn’t the sediment trap cleared out regularly ?

ü Who looks after the check dams, why, how and with what frequency ?

Sediment trap of the Manival torrent

The Manival project was a very positive experience but it is also important to get some perspective :

ü  these people represent only a handful on the scale of the numbers affected by this particular hazard

ü  and it is unsure that this mobilisation of interest expressed by these people would last over time....


Thank you for your attention !

Contact : [email protected]

Institut des Risques Majeurs

15 rue Eugène Faure 38 000 Grenoble 04 76 47 73 73


Environment

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