River Modeling

River Engineering, River Morphology, Hydraulic Modeling, Flow, Hydraulic Structures and Works, Flooding, Impacts and Compensation
. Discipline: Free-Surface Hydraulics

This course unit is designed to help students acquire solid skills in hydraulic modeling. Students will learn the equations of free-surface hydraulics in both steady-state and transient conditions. They learn to translate field observations into hydraulic models by taking topographic and hydrometric measurements, observing indicators of hydraulic activity (flood marks, hydrogeomorphological features, hydraulic jumps, etc.), and subsequently formulating in situ hypotheses regarding river behavior.
Several scales can be explored in depth depending on the chosen topic: the habitat scale, the developed reach scale, and the flooding watercourse scale. For each scale, students can study and incorporate specific structures into their models (fish passes, side spillways, weirs, levees, dams, etc.). The impacts of development, maintenance, and structures are simulated and analyzed in terms of hydrodynamics and hydraulic continuity.
The study is conducted using a single real-world case, from the fieldwork phase through modeling to the presentation of the impacts of the developments. The work is done in groups.

A field trip allows students to analyze a site and represent it in a topographic and hydraulic model. Hypotheses about how the site functions in situ are formulated and then compared with the models and results.

Finally, the EU offers learners an analysis based on a real-world case of a watercourse development or intervention, including an assessment of the initial condition, an analysis of the intervention’s impacts, and proposals for hydraulic compensation measures, if applicable.

 

- Survey the topography of an actual site; identify flood marks, hydrogeomorphological features, and flow zones in situ
- Understand the mechanisms governing the equations of steady-state and unsteady-state free-surface hydraulics and the role of boundary conditions
- Characterize flow at different scales (the river, the reach, the structure, the habitat)
- Develop a hydraulic model of an actual, modified reach
- Use the modeling tool to study the behavior of the water level at a structure and deduce the structure’s impact on the environment
- Defend technical results in an oral presentation (detailed and technical presentation).

M1 Semester 2 course on Ecological Restoration (ecology, hydrology, morphology, connectivity, restoration) or equivalent; “Rivers and People” MOOC; reading of Degoutte’s book.

It is appropriate to follow up on this EU with the M2S3 “Ecological Engineering and Restoration” EU, which will make it possible to extend the concepts of hydraulic continuity and compensation to those of ecological continuity and restoration, as well as ERC sequences, in order to reintegrate the environment into development projects and watershed management action plans and programs.

Ongoing assessment of the final presentation of the completed project (and interim reports).