Evolution of the risk assessment and land use planning rules around industrial SEVESO II sites in France : a parallel with the ARAMIS methodology
Abstract
On July 30th, 2003 a law on the management of technological risks was voted in France. This law introduced a deep evolution of the principles of technological risk assessment and management and of land use planning around industrial sites. Initially mostly deterministic, the decision was now to be based on the assessment of probability, kinetics and level of damage of a potential accident. It took two years to produce the regulatory framework necessary to apply this legislation, i.e. to translate this general principle into a coherent set of precise implementation rules. In the same time, several European countries were involved in the ARAMIS project, a European project dedicated to the development of a risk assessment methodology based on a mixed probabilistic-deterministic approach. Part of the results obtained during this project was observed by the French authorities and has partly inspired the regulatory evolution in France. This paper presents and compares the main results of ARAMIS and the main features of the new French regulatory context.