Urbanization in exposed areas increases the cost of disasters. For industrial risks, potential victims raise firms’ liabilities. For natural risks, overexposure by some undermines mutualization. Land use policy (particularly exclusion zones) and insurance shape urbanization, but their...

Natural and industrial disasters are major risks with the common specificity of a strong geographic dimension. Their main difference is that compensation for natural disasters relies on solidarity, whereas industrial risks imply the liability of the industrialist. This thesis brings parts of...

This paper addresses the urbanization of areas exposed to natural disasters and studies its dependency on land-use and insurance policies. The risk-map paradox that we describe explains why an insurance system with simplistic maps and tariffs is the rule. Indeed, in practice we observe simple...

The industrialists are liable for any damage they cause to neighboring households. Consequently, households do not have to pay for the risk they create by locating in exposed areas. A common and efficient self-insurance strategy for the firm is to freeze land, or to negotiate land-use...