Regional Mountain Conference

La Bérarde disaster of the 21 June 2024 in the Écrins massif (France), was made possible by the concurrence of various factors including a high availability of sediments, an intense rain-on-snow event, and the discharging of a supraglacial lake.

Following this event, a large diversity of scientists from different fields (glaciology, geomorphology, hydrology, torrential hydraulics, meteorology, snow science, seismology, and social sciences) was mobilised by the French State to investigate causes and chronology of the event. This case study has become particularly meaningful of the dynamics of scientific expertise during a crisis.

Based on around twenty semi-structured interviews with experts, this study examines the position of scientific experts in the production of knowledge in a crisis context.

Expert activity appears to be plural, negotiated and anchored in concrete situations. It includes distinguished ways of assuming one’s role, depending on the contexts of intervention, the temporalities involved, and uncertainties. At La Bérarde, expertise is largely embedded in a public commissioning process and aims at producing knowledge mobilised for action, without direct participation in decision-making.

When confronted with complex and multifactorial phenomena, multidisciplinary constitutes a central resource, enabling the articulation of partial but complementary forms of knowledge. This dialogue between different forms of knowledge contributes to consolidating diagnoses, while integrating uncertainty as a constitutive dimension of expertise. This uncertainty is discussed collectively and communicated to institutional decision-makers.