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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2007

A proposition of classification of the catastrophe systems based on complexity criteria

Résumé

A classification system of catastrophic events is a methodology
assembling all the catastrophes groups. It is possible to identify several catastrophes
classifications. The most widely known are classified into: nature, consequences
of the event, duration, affected territories and areas of the destroyed
zone, and at last into the needed intervention measures. But these criteria of
classification allow with difficulty to apprehend the complexity of the catastrophe.
Thus we propose a classification based on the complex characteristics
of the risks and catastrophes. Within the scope of this paper, we focus first
on the complexity of the organization and the emergence of the phenomenon
which result from it, and then, on the complexities resulting to the spatial
and temporal scales of the catastrophe. The organization is considered as a
central concept of the complexity. In the field of the catastrophe, the complexity
of organization results essentially from the self-organization of the systems
(the system develops its internal constitution and its behaviour thanks to the
interactions between its various components and not thanks to an external
strength). Phenomena as different as mantels of snow, seismic hazards, behaviours
of people and population have characteristics of self-organization allowing
the emergence of new events: snowslides, earthquakes, collective panic.
A particular attention will be given to the emergence of this kind of panic in
situation of disaster. There is indeed a double-way within two levels, a double
action of the crowd on the individual and the individual on the crowd,
without leader. It means that we need to take into account the multi-scales
aspect in order to be able to study the behaviours. The complex systems of
catastrophe have characteristics able to emerge at higher or lower levels of
scales. It allows us to apprehend the complexity of the disasters through the
scales. The disasters belong to the multifarious temporal- and space scales.
First, the disasters can not be classified in one single category of spatial scale.
Some of them appear on the scale of a territory, a region, a country or the
planet. If we speak about a natural or technological disaster, none of them will be automatically associated with a spatial scale. Furthermore, a local disaster
can have large-scale impacts. Various events (attacks of September 11th,
2001 in New-York, the tsunami which ravaged the South of Asia in December
2004, the hurricane Katrina who destroys New-Orleans in 2005) remind us
that the catastrophe is not always an event restricted at the affected area but
can have consequences outside this area. The increase of the complexity of
the disaster can result from the movement between different spatial levels and
from systemic relations between these levels. The complexity also results from
various temporal scales of the risks and the disasters. Three temporal phases
can be found. The first one is relative to the temporality of the potential risk
I mean what takes place before the disaster. The second phase refers to the
temporality of the disaster I mean all what happens during the catastrophe.
We show that during the disaster, the temporalities of the hazard, the vulnerability
and the domino effects rarely happen together. The third and last
phase refers to the time after the disaster and to the experience feedback for
the risk management. These three temporal phases are based on two scales of
time: a short time, I mean a time - action, inherent to the functioning of any
dynamic system (Ch.-P. P´eguy, 2001) and a long time. Thus, the catastrophe
must be approached in various scales. And the study in each of the scales
gives several information of the disaster in its whole, or about some of its
components (hazard, vulnerability and domino effects).

Domaines

Géographie
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Dates et versions

halshs-00193836 , version 1 (04-12-2007)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : halshs-00193836 , version 1

Citer

Damienne Provitolo. A proposition of classification of the catastrophe systems based on complexity criteria. European Conference Complex Systems-EPNACS'07, Emergent Properties in Natural and Artificial Complex Systems, 2007, Dresden, Germany. 14 p. ⟨halshs-00193836⟩
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