Benchmarking trip of a Philippine delegation to France on the theme of decentralization of flood risk management

A cooperation program has been initiated by France and the European Union for the benefit of the Philippines for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Cerema, the Agence Française de Développement et Expertise France (AFD Group) accompany the Philippine government, represented by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Finance (DOF) in the implementation of its decentralization and disaster risk management policy (reference to the web page https://www.cerema.fr/fr/actualites/cerema-accompagne-agence-francaise-developpement-aux). 

Cerema’s activities were defined on the basis of a precise understanding of the need for technical assistance

The mission conducted from November 15 to 30, 2024, allowed, through a broad consultation of partners (ministries, national agencies, and territorial collectivities), to identify the most relevant actions in the context of the Philippines:

• Large-scale hydraulic modeling, considering in priority the agglomeration of Manila;
• Benchmarking trips on French territory (metropolitan and overseas) connecting representatives of the main risk management institutions in the Philippines and France, by including in the programs site visits and analyses of administrative and financial devices and emblematic technical projects.

A first benchmarking trip was organized in Toulouse and Paris from October 13 to 17, 2025. Expertise France and Cerema had the honor of receiving a delegation composed of 15 Filipinos representing the Department of the Interior and local government, the Department of Finance, the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, PAGASA and PHIVOLCS, two agencies under the Department of Science and Technology, that do warning and information, risk assessment, and provide science-based risk reduction measures, the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) and the City of Makati, located in the heart of the agglomeration of Manila.

During the first three days, the delegates successively discovered the operational activities of the flood forecasting service (DREAL Occitanie), the hydro-sedimentary functioning at the confluence of the Ariège and the Garonne (Regional Natural Reserve), the activities of Cerema in the fields of risks and the environment, the 2025 edition of the National Conference on Natural Risks (organized by the General Directorate for Risk Prevention (DGPR)), the aerospace activities at the service of disaster management and climate observation, the Garonne levee system as well as the crisis management device and the participatory approaches led by the City and the Metropolis of Toulouse. 

As an extension of these three days in Toulouse, the visit continued over two days in Paris. The delegates were received by a major player in flood prevention in Ile de France: the Syndicat Mixte Seine Ouest, for a presentation on the implementation of GEMAPI (competence entrusted to the local authorities in the field of aquatic environment management and flood prevention), followed by technical visits of the levee restoration operation at Sartrouville, the construction site of the levee at Montesson and nature-based solutions for flood prevention implemented in La Mauldre watershed. Finally, the delegation met with the Preventive Conservation and Natural Risk Management services of the Louvre Museum to learn about flood risk management practices for the protection of the building and its art collections. A capitalization workshop allowed to draw lessons from the benchmarking trip, particularly in view of the national conference organized in Manila on October 29, 2025 (National policy dialogue on climate and resilience to disasters).

The first lessons were formalized by four thematic working groups respectively on:

• Group 1 : Resilient grey, green and blue infrastructure
• Group 2 : Leveraging technologies for risk knowledge
• Group 3 : Early warning, anticipatory action and crisis management
• Group 4 : Decentralized governance and municipal action for Disaster Risk reduction.

This benchmarking trip offered to the Filipino actors the opportunity to discover the different components of flood risk management in France, to understand the associated institutional and financial organization and to observe through field visits the concrete translation of public policies both in natural spaces and in urban spaces. In exchange, the French actors benefited from very high quality interventions by our Filipino counterparts on the organization, methodologies and projects implemented by their respective services. This dialogue, nourished over a full week, represents a major contribution to the program of decentralization of risk management in the Philippines; the transformation of such a complex system is only possible if all the actors involved share common references.

The detailed program of the week was as follows

October 13, 2025

At the headquarters of the DREAL Occitanie:

• Welcome and presentation of the missions of DREAL Occitanie, by Mrs. Rachel PUECHBERTY, Deputy Director
• Decentralization, a fundamental principle of the French policy for managing natural hazards by Mr. Pierre-Olivier DUBOIS, Head of the Department of Flood Forecasting and Hydrometry, DREAL Occitanie
• Developments in the management of natural hazards in the Philippines by Ms. Adelaida DURAN, Senior Weather Specialist, Head of the Planning and Project Management Office, Hydrometeorology Division, PAGASA
• The tools of hydro-meteorological anticipation and visit to the facilities of the Flood Forecasting Service by Mr. Arthur MARCHANDISE, Head of the Flood Forecasting and Knowledge Unit, DREAL Occitanie
• AI4FLOOD project: The main principles and expected results by Mr. Rémy GASSET, Manager of hazard and modeling activities in the Water Risks Resilience Group, Cerema, Territorial Directorate South West

At the Regional Natural Reserve Confluence Garonne-Ariège:

• Welcome and presentation of the Regional Natural Reserve by Mr. Jean-Louis COLL, Mayor of Pinsaguel, president of the Association ConfluenceS, governance body of the Regional Natural Reserve
• National Geohazard Assessment and Mapping Program by Ms. Beverly Mae BREBANTE, Director, DENR-MGB XI and Ms. Michelle Angela MENDOZA, Senior Geologist, DENR-MGB CENTRAL
• Integrated Watershed Management in the Philippines by Forester Ma. Teresa G. AQUINO, and Forester Jeric I. ANGELES, Office of Forest Management – DENR
• Presentation of the management plan for the regional natural reserve and guided tour by Mr. Antoine FIRMIN, Warden of the Réserve Naturelle Régionale Confluence Garonne-Ariège