Nexus and disaster prevention : what can we learn from the Genevan urban area
Résumé
The nexus concept has been applied in the Canton of Geneva since the early 1950s maintaining an agricultural belt for the city that was aimed in the meantime to sustain the city with locally produced food, to provide geothermal energy, and to safeguard it from floods. The article discusses the many contradictions of such nexus approach when the latter is adopted at the local level, neglecting the many loops and feedbacks that need to be considered at multiple scales. Specifically, in the case of Geneva, the green belt policy transferred the urbanization process upstream across the French border. This process unwillingly increased flood-risk disasters for the Swiss part of Geneva itself, and can be understood as an unwanted feedback loop. Even more, the 2002 Swiss disaster in Lully had also unwillingly been prepared by the local nexus unwanted side effects. Therefore, the need for a more comprehensive, integrated and multilevel approach while considering the nexus is discussed. In this case, the nexus helps illustrating and discussing what resilience could be.