Flooding and inequality: A multilevel analysis of exposure to floods and poverty in French cities

While floods represent the most damaging hazard in France, this study focuses on flooding exposure and the spatial distribution of poverty and home ownership in French cities. Based on the combination of high-resolution topographic and socio-demographic data with flood-risk maps, this study highlights the extensive flooding exposure of French cities, with approximately 2.5 million residents exposed in the designated high-risk territories. Using multilevel regression models, it appears that non-owners and, to a much lesser extent, poor people, are over-represented in flood-risk areas, controlling for demographic and urban structure. Significant spatial variations in the relationship between flooding exposure, non-ownership and poverty are also brought to light, confirming the major role played by local urban contexts in the existence of socio-environmental inequalities. •A nationwide assessment of flooding exposure is provided and related to socio-environmental inequalities.•High-resolution datasets are used to obtain a realistic spatial distribution of the population and its characteristics.•Multilevel models allow variations observed in the patterns of socio-environmental inequalities to be taken into account.•Among the disadvantaged populations under study, non-owners and, to a much lesser extent, the poor are over-exposed to floods.