Do you know what natural and technological risks threaten your home or community? To find out about them and prepare for them, there is an official and free online service.
Natural disasters and industrial accidents are very real risks to which we are all exposed to varying degrees. Earthquakes, exceptional floods, explosion of a chemical plant or rupture of a hydraulic dam, all of these events can occur and endanger your life, that of your loved ones as well as the safety of your property and your home. And global warming further aggravates the probability and magnitude of these phenomena. The shrinkage and swelling of soils, still uncommon a few years ago, now affects more and more homes, with serious consequences for their integrity and their occupants.
To prepare and protect yourself as much as possible from these dramatic events, it is first essential to know the risks to which your place of life is exposed. With the media attention given to these phenomena, many private companies and other “start-ups” saw an opportunity and began to offer “revolutionary” applications to inform you of the potential dangers that threaten your home. But these services are often paid for and simply resell you public data, which is in reality accessible free of charge and easily via an online service set up by the public authorities: Geohazards.
This official portal, public and free, constitutes a veritable gold mine for information on the natural and technological risks of any place in French territory. It is extremely simple to use: simply enter an address in a search bar or select a point on a map to obtain a clear and detailed list of the risks to which a place, structure or accommodation is exposed. The different types of risks, natural and technological, are presented in a concise and easily understandable manner for the selected address and the municipality in which it is located.
The major natural risks are of course listed, such as floods, earthquakes or the famous shrinkage and swelling of land, but also the lesser known technological risks, such as classified industrial installations or pipes transporting dangerous materials.
For each of them, it is possible to access much more complete and detailed information, such as the Departmental Major Risk File (DDRM) established by the Prefecture or a history of natural disasters which have occurred in the territory concerned. . And for each type of natural or technological risk, the Georisks portal offers a complete thematic file to understand the phenomenon, know its effects and find solutions to guard against it and protect yourself as much as possible. In short, a beneficial tool and a quality public service, accessible to all free of charge.