Ante IVČEVIĆ - EARLY STAGE RESEARCHER - 2017 CLASS

To better assess the impact of natural risks (as earthquakes, but especially climate change impacts as landslides, marine submersions, floods…) on the environment and societies, both the physical geological and social-economical sciences need strong synergies and interdisciplinary collaborations. This strong impetus will not only improve the understanding of environmental responses to natural and anthropological forcing factors, but also strengthens risk assessment by establishing vulnerability indicators and societal resilience. Scientific researches on natural hazards that cross physical, environmental and social approaches are rare. In general, they often consist in a linear succession of different methodologies and analytical documents (hazard description, map of the risk, vulnerability maps, perception study) without a real integration of these different parameters in a global approach that is comprehensive for everyone. Risk is, however, a very cross-sectional domain because there is risk and vulnerability only if there is a potential impact on society. The scientific interest, and innovative part, of this thesis lies in the possible renewal of the concepts of each involved discipline and in a cross modeling of indicators that will allow the emergence of new problematic. This PhD thesis will mainly focus on Northern Morocco (Tangier-Tétouan). This region is characterized by high demographic and economic pressures (port and tourist infrastructures), which exacerbate the vulnerability of the coastal hazards (e.g., landslides, coastal erosion, floods). Lowering the buffering capacity of the beaches and dunes to climate variability, these pressures will necessarily negatively impact on any further coastal development. This PhD thesis aims at identifying reliable risk indicators and societal responses related to multiple risks (natural risk and climate change impacts) in order to provide a governance framework for the prevention of natural hazards in Morocco.