Presentation of the structure

The “Alpine Center for Natural Hazards and Risks Prevention” PARN

The association

The PARN association (non-profit organization law 1901) gathers 9 member organizations among research centers and universities of the Rhône-Alpes region that have an activity of study and research on natural hazards.

The association was created in 1988 as one of the recommendations of the “Isère Département Pilote” operation in the field of natural and technological risks: to make an effort in the field of research to develop more effective and less expensive methods.

The cluster has been created with the following objectives :

  • Bring together organizations with an activity of study and research in the field of natural hazards in order to develop coordinated research programs and so remedy the fragmentation of efforts in this area

  • Develop efficient scientific and technical tools and make them available to public authorities and operational services to improve the prediction and prevention of natural hazards.

In all, nearly 170 people (80 researchers or teacher-researchers, 50 engineers and technicians and 40 PhD students) are i working in the field of natural hazards.

Fields of expertise

They are the natural hazards with a significant part concerning the risks on mountainous territories :

  • Snow avalanches
  • Landslides
  • Floods
  • Torrential erosion and Debris flows
  • Seismic Hazards
  • Glacial Hazards

The PARN also intervenes on transverse working axes :

  • Impacts of climate change
  • Territorial resilience
  • Socioeconomic approaches of natural hazards
  • Risk governance

Various aspects of the researches conducted

  • Better understand the phenomena (origin, mechanisms, distribution) but also their effects on the settlements and the people and more generally on the society with an emerging social sciences dimension

  • Improve the forecast of these rough events to alert the populations concerned in due course

  • Define the most effective measures to be implemented regarding prevention (mapping and zoning of the risks) and of protection (works); optimize the costs of these works.

Services of the PARN

Assistance to the scientific and partenerial project assembly of, as well as to project valorization

  • Upstream to project calls, the PARN is at the disposal of research teams for helping them in editing projects in direction of various European programs presented (Science-Decision Action portal).

  • Downstream of the projects, the PARN can relieve and value the scientific results of projects and their partners.

Technical and scientific support of the project partners or the administrators

The PARN has internal skills to which you can appeal in the form of service. Its support will enrich and strengthen the strategic and multidisciplinary character of your projects. It will also accentuate the transfer of results, via dedicated and adapted initiatives (cf. support for the risk management activities).

The PARN is an actor recognized for the development of research actions and results. As such it proposes diverse working modalities to improve to carry him in knowledge with the target publics :

  • Writing of consumer documents stemming from scientific results ;
  • Publications of synthetic documents and distribution within the scientific, technical and/or institutional network ;
  • Organization of events to carry in knowledge ;
  • According to needs, the PARN can also produce specific states of the art

Provision of technical and scientific resources for project owners or managers

The PARN puts feeds and updates various portals(gates) and thematic and problematic bases :

  • The portal Alpes-Climat-Risques, the knowledge base of the impacts of the climate change in the Alpine Bow. Kept up to date annually by the PARN it includes not only an inventory of the bibliographical references (alphabetical and thematic) but also an analysis and thematic compilation of the knowledge as well as the thematic syntheses, built with groups of experts and gradually updated : click here

  • The portal of capitalization GIRN-Alps (Integrated Natural Hazards Management in the French Alps) details actions carried out by various experimental sites, lists the documentary resources and ready for delivery stemming from these actions), and proposes assessments and strategic analyses : click here

  • The Natural Hazards Projects Database capitalizes the results of research projects on the natural hazards in mountain regions stemming from departmental, regional, national and European programs (essentially those involving the Region Rhône-Alpes). A search engine allows to reach synthetic index cards, detailed index cards as well as in every ready for delivery associated to the projects : click here

The missions of the parn

Supported by anchored projects

in mountain areas

Partnership with local actors
Mountain assistance
Animation / Valorization

Organize and animate times

reflection and experience sharing

  • Multi-actor seminars
  • Thematic workshops
  • Focus group / specifications
  • Round tables for the general public

Support public policies

natural risk management

• Regional • Interregional • National • Entire alpine arc

Capitalize and make available

technical and scientific resources

• Mobilization of the Scientific and Technical Council
• Restitution of technical days
• PARN web thematic portals

GIRN

Alpes

Alpine Territories
Integrated Management
Natural Risks

Seminars Project

ALPES

Climate
Risks

Platform
Newsletter

Documentation on the PARN

Articles on parn (fr)

2014

La Rédaction [Sustrac G.], Boudières V. (2014) – Pôle Alpin d’étude et de prévention des Risques Naturels (PARN) : quelles voies pour transmettre les résultats de la R&D avec efficacité ? Revue Géologues, N° 182, 20–24. | PDF | [+]

2011

Vellot, P. (2011) – Le PARN, pôle de compétences sur les risques naturelsLes Affiches de Grenoble et du Dauphiné, N°4509, 4 février 2011, 28–29. | PDF

2009

Einhorn B., Vengeon JM. (2009) – Le Pole Grenoblois d’études et de recherche pour la prévention des Risques Naturels (PGRN)Revue Géologues, N°161(Spécial Alpes-Jura 2), 65–67. | PDF | [+]

2005

Vengeon JM. (2005) – PGRN, expert en risques naturelsRevue Ingénieurs INPG, 05-2, Juin 2005, p. 32. | PDF | [+]

communication on parn (fr)

2020

Peisser C. and Einhorn B. (2020) – Thematic Workshop 3: An integrated approach in territorial planning. EUSALP “Climate, Risks, Energy » Conference, Chamonix, September 30th – October 1st, 2020. | PDF | [+]


Einhorn B. (2020) – Objectives and the program of the French presidency 2020 for EUSALP / D.T 5.1 Policy Needs for a sustainability strategy for ecosystem-based risk management. [Presentation], GreenRisk4Alps Online Mid-Term Conference, 8-10th June, 2020. | PDF | [+]

Gérard S. (2020) – Outils d’évaluation et d’aide à la décision pour la Gestion Intégrée des Risques Naturels (GIRN) dans les territoires alpins. [Présentation], Colloque Géorisque 2020, Nîmes, 4-5 février 2020. | PDF | [+]

Financial support