A map of the homes most at risk has been drawn up.
This is one of the big questions for the future: what will the landscape of France be like in a few years in the face of the metamorphoses imposed by climatic upheavals? While the post-war period was marked by rampant construction across the country, many of these homes are now in great danger. In certain departments, the alert has even already been sounded about the future of certain houses, which could simply disappear from the map.
With rising water levels due to global warming and the storms that can sometimes hit the country, the French coastline is suffering. Whether on the Mediterranean coast or along the Atlantic, the sea and the ocean scratch the rock and accentuate erosion. A phenomenon which is not going to slow down and whose consequences could very quickly be felt and seen.
According to a study carried out by Cerema, an expert center on environmental risks, 560 houses and apartments are under threat of destruction by nature in the short term. The water is eating away at the earth and risks either swallowing up housing built on the seaside, or literally causing those built on the edge of a cliff to fall into the void, as in La Hague, in the English Channel. A very probable destruction, as for four others, elsewhere in this department. And many others, all over France.
Cerema has in fact mapped the homes most in danger throughout France. The survey results estimate that within four years, 560 houses and apartments could disappear from the landscape across the country due to erosion. The Channel is certainly concerned, but it is not the territory most at risk.
Forecasts made by experts judge that Corsica is most likely to suffer damage with the retreat of the coastline. And in a very short time: 2028. 197 housing units could disappear from the Isle of Beauty by this date due to rising water levels. More precisely, 123 are targeted in Haute-Corse and 74 in Corse-du-Sud. Elsewhere, it is the Var which is very at risk with 96 homes which could disappear in less than five years, as well as the Pyrénées-Atlantiques (60), Seine-Maritime (51) and the Somme (48).
If, taking into account climatic hazards, “it is not possible to be certain whether or not buildings will be affected by the retreat of the coastline” and that “the study does not take into account the state of the works” nor the safeguarding measures possibly undertaken locally, one thing is certain: the equivalent of a football field disappears every week from the French coasts.