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Science et changements planétaires / Sécheresse. Volume 2, Number 4, 265-70, Décembre 1991, Synthèse

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Author(s) : Georges Henri Ducreux

Summary : The drought of 1989-1990 which affected the Alpes de Haute-Provence département caused a lot of damage to buildings. As a result of this, several village communes were declared disaster areas. Following a survey of the drought among five of these villages and the drawing up of «sensitivity maps», it was shown that certain land-types were more sensitive to drought than others. In the future, it will be possible to take advance action against further periods of drought by taking the foundation soil’s potential sensitivity to drought into consideration prior to construction. This presupposes that a) the concept of «normal» foundations be dropped and b) it be made widely known that, for a given foundation layer and building, one not only can but in fact should calculate the type of foundations required to withstand periods of intense soil desiccation.

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