Predicting the flow in the floodplains with evolving land occupations during extreme flood events (FlowRes ANR project)

• Main Authors: Proust Sébastien, Berni Céline, Boudou Martin, Chiaverini Antoine, Dupuis Victor, Faure Jean-Baptiste, Paquier André, Lang Michel, Guillen-Ludena Sebastian, Lopez Diego, Mignot Emmanuel, Rivière Nicolas, Chagot Loic, Rouzes Maxime, Moulin Frédéric, Goutal Nicole, Oukacine Marina, Peltier Yann, Ferreira Rui M.L., Brito Moisés, Alves Elsa, Gymnopoulos Miltiadis, Leal Joao, Mathurin Bastien, Soarez-Frazao Sandra, Bousmar Didier, Fernandes Joao, Eiff Olivier
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2016-01-01
• Series: E3S Web of Conferences
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20160704004

Flood hazards (flow depth and velocity) must be accurately assessed in high-risk areas during extreme flood events. However, the prediction of the very high flows is not an easy task due to the lack of field data and to the strong link between flow resistance and the land occupation of the floodplain. Confinement and inhomogeneity in lateral and longitudinal directions of hydraulic roughness strongly vary with return period T. The physical processes are complex, some still largely unexplored, and the assumptions linked to numerical modelling cannot be validated without field data. The FlowRes project (2015-2018), funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), aims at improving the flood hazard assessment in floodplains in: 1) investigating in laboratory the hydrodynamic structure associated with extreme flood flows for various land occupations and flow discharge magnitudes; 2) assessing if the existing numerical modelling practices used for T ~ 100 years are still valid for extreme events with T > 1000 years, relying on the experimental data and on one field case. This paper reports some results obtained during the first year of the project.