Created in December 2006 following a prefiguration study
The European Center for Flood Risk Prevention and Management (CEPRI) is an association of local authorities, created on December 1, 2006, following a prefiguration study conducted in 2005 by the Loiret Departmental Council and the Ministry of the Environment. The national associations of elected officials (AMF, ADF, ARF, AdCF, AMRF) participated in this creation and implemented their wish to have a place of technical expertise and dialogue with the State on this very particular theme of regional planning.
To capitalize on the innovations developed on the Loire
The CEPRI is the extension of the multidisciplinary team of the Loire Grandeur Plan, implemented in 1995 jointly by the State (Prefect of the Loire-Brittany Basin), the Etablissement Public Loire and the Loire-Brittany Water Agency, to elaborate a “strategy for reducing flood risks in the middle Loire” which was presented to the partners in June 1998 and contributed to the first “plan Loire grandeur nature” in parallel with the State-Region plan contracts 2000-2006.
To answer the question: what strategy is the most relevant to implement to reduce flood damage and restart the territories as soon as possible, the team was the first in France to finely model floods village by village, develop damage curves to assess the cost of flooding, assess the vulnerability of the various issues present in the territories: housing, public networks, businesses, agriculture, natural environments, identify the weaknesses of protective dykes and the need to strengthen studies, invent a way to share the results with elected officials living along the river and their inhabitants, through innovative communication.
And make it available on a national level by continuing to develop it
CEPRI has thus continued to innovate in the field of risk prevention by broadening the themes and approaches, the exploration of which has led to the publication of methodological guides and reports. Since its creation, it has been strongly involved, at the request of the State, in the transposition of the Flood Directive into French law and has accompanied the new policy that resulted from it.
Since then, the competence of GEMAPI has been entrusted to EPCIs
For them and all local authorities, CEPRI is a place of expertise and exchange of best practices; it provides the interface with the Ministries in charge of flood risk prevention and management and accompanies the implementation of the Flood Directive (of which it has closely accompanied the declension in French law).
As a center with a European influence since its creation, it has participated and is participating in several European cooperations in the field of flood risk prevention, thus allowing its members to benefit from the feedback of other European countries.
CEPRI’s actions
– In 2015, CEPRI set up a network for structures in charge of PAPI and local flood risk management strategies (SLGRI).
It relies on its experience acquired as a facilitator, since 2009, of a network of exchanges for structures bearing PAPI to propose the creation of a new network for holders of SLGRI.