When flood risk transforms a territory: the Lully effect

Abstract

Drawing on a study of floods in Lully, Geneva, the authors describe the plural dimensions of flood risk and extend the conventional understanding of risk, often limited to mapping a hazard zone and gradation of consequences. They analyse the dynamics of risk beyond the immediate phenomenon, through time and space. They draw on various kinds of knowledge of risk, from those affected by the floods, from locals with expert knowledge and from officialdom. A detailed analysis tracks how events transform these types of knowledge and how they evolve through time. In a sense, the flooding in Lully can be seen as a focusing event – an event that led to a shake-up of knowledge and practice and became an agent in the process of change.