Natural hazard prevention plan (France, PPRN)

The natural hazard prevention plan was created by the French law of 2 February 1995, known as the Barnier law, and sits in articles L. 562-1 et seq. of the Environmental Code. Prescribed and approved by the prefect after a public inquiry, it delineates areas exposed to a hazard, flood, landslide, avalanche, wildfire, coastal flooding, and classifies them by the intensity of the danger: in the red zone, new construction is in principle prohibited; in the blue zone, it is allowed subject to requirements. The plan is a public easement and overrides the local zoning plan. Its link with insurance is direct. Article L. 125-6 of the Insurance Code lets the insurer refuse natural catastrophe cover for property built in breach of the plan's rules, and an insured who fails to carry out the prescribed vulnerability reduction measures faces the same sanction. For a long time, the natural catastrophe deductible was also increased in municipalities without an approved plan, a modulation since abolished. For the underwriter, the plan's zoning is an input to pricing and accumulation; for public policy, it is the tool that keeps pooled compensation from financing rebuilding in the same place.