The Joint Syndicate for Floods, Development, and Water Management – SMIAGE was established in 2017 in response to the deadly floods of October 3, 2015, which affected the coastline of the Alpes-Maritimes. This tool, unique in France, aims to pool risk prevention policies. Its importance and effectiveness were particularly demonstrated during Storm Alex in October 2020.
SMIAGE operates throughout the Alpes-Maritimes department and partially in the Var and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence departments. This area covers 1.1 million inhabitants and 11,000 km of waterways. The syndicate has significant resources: 80 agents and a budget of 50 million euros per year, enabling it to fulfill the following 7 missions: hydrometeorological risk forecasting; flood prevention; management of aquatic environments; water resource management; biodiversity protection; population awareness; advising and monitoring of drinking water and sanitation issues.
Since its inception, SMIAGE has had to manage several crises, including three successive large-scale storms within a month in 2019, followed by Storm Alex on October 2, 2020.
The 6th IPCC report identifies a recurrence of weather events in the near future, thus reinforcing the importance of the syndicate in anticipating these extreme events and providing appropriate responses, both in terms of prevention, crisis management, and post-disaster reconstruction.
Thus, SMIAGE provides the Alpes-Maritimes Department with a unique and essential operational tool for managing weather events and monitoring water resources.
