Publications related to Flood-plain mapping: a critical discussion of deterministic and probabilistic approaches

Hydromorphological assessment of sediment augmentation measures in gravel-bed rivers

In the riverine environment, the riverscape, sediment and flow regime are essential drivers for natural habitat dynamics. Today, most water courses in Europe are regulated, and their natural dynamics are impaired. Flood releases coupled with the artificial ...

EPFL2023

Continuous monitoring of morphological changes from sediment augmentation by field measurements and flume experiments

Giovanni De Cesare, Christian Mörtl

In this study, we present results from continuous field monitoring and a flume ex-periment of a sediment augmentation measure in a residual flow reach of the Swiss midlands. A straight morphological channel with fixed bed material was constructed to repres ...

2023

Flood of 23 November 2019 on the French Riviera: a comparison of discharges estimated by image analysis and hydrological modelling

Etienne Robert, Gauthier Paul Daniel Marie Rousseau

The short and heavy rainfall events observed on the French Riviera often lead to flash floods on coastal catchments: during the flood of 2 October 2015, a peak discharge between 185 and 295 m(3)/s was estimated on the Brague at Biot at 8:00 PM, whereas the ...

ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD2022

River morphology and sediment transport processes numerical modeling applied to the fluvial environment of the Rhône River in Valais

Giovanni De Cesare, Azin Amini, Jean-Noël Saugy, Francesc Molné Correig

Within the frame of the Third Rhône Correction, the river bend in Martigny is considered a top priority measure for flood protection. During the preliminary project, physical and numerical modeling tests were considered necessary. For the latter, the softw ...

International Research Society INTERPRAEVENT2021

Sediment replenishment as a measure to enhance river habitats in a residual flow reach downstream of a dam

Anton Schleiss, Mário Jorge Rodrigues Pereira Da Franca, Severin Stähly

Floodplains downstream of a dam, where the natural flow regime is replaced by a constant residual flow discharge, often lack sediment supply and periodic inundation due to the absence of natural flood events. In this study, a flood with a one-year return p ...

Canadian Dam Association2019

Artificial floods in residual flow reaches – How do they affect hydraulic habitats

Severin Stähly

Floodplains in hydropower-controlled rivers, where a constant residual flow discharge is imposed, often lack sediment supply and periodic inundation due to the absence of natural flood events. In this study we compare two residual flow systems. The first r ...

2019

Erosion processes of a novel configuration of sediment replenishment during an artificial flood

Anton Schleiss, Mário Jorge Rodrigues Pereira Da Franca, Christopher Robinson, Severin Stähly

Floodplains downstream of dams with constant residual flow discharge often lack sediment supply and periodic inundation due to the absence of flood events. At the Sarine floodplain in Fribourg, western Switzerland, an artificial flood was released from Ros ...

2019

Innovative methods to release fine sediments from reservoirs developed at EPFL, Switzerland

Giovanni De Cesare, Anton Schleiss, Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Azin Amini, Sabine Chamoun

Electricity generation, water supply, flood protection, flow regulation and navigation are amongst the main services provided by reservoirs. Sedimentation affects the sustainability of reservoirs, by reducing their storage capacity, and increases the negat ...

2019

Dependence properties of spatial rainfall extremes and areal reduction factors

Anthony Christopher Davison, Sebastian Engelke

Areal reduction factors (ARFs) transform an estimate of extreme rainfall at a point to an estimate of extreme rainfall over a spatial domain, and are commonly used in flood risk estimation. For applications such as the design of large infrastructure, dam s ...

2018

Probabilistic failure analysis of riprap as riverbank protection under flood uncertainties

Eugen Brühwiler, Anton Schleiss, Mona Jafarnejad Chaghooshi, Michael Pfister

Existing riverbank riprap could face the risk of failure if the flood regime changes in future. Additionally, changed sediment transport in rivers, as a possible result of climate change, impacts the failure risk of flood protection measures. Evaluation of ...

Springer Verlag2017

Effects of flooding on phosphorus and iron mobilization in highly weathered soils under different land-use types: Short-term effects and mechanisms

Thomas Guillaume

The strong affinity of phosphorus (P) to iron (Fe) oxides and hydroxides in highly weathered tropical soils limits P availability and therefore plant productivity in tropics. In flooded soils, however, P fixed by Fe oxides and hydroxides can be released in ...

Elsevier Science Bv2017

Time-dependent failure analysis of large block size riprap as bank protection in mountain rivers

Mona Jafarnejad Chaghooshi

Erodible river banks need to be safe against the possible scouring during flood events in mountain rivers. The consequences of the bank failure are probably lateral uncontrolled erosion and flooding with disastrous losses in residential areas or damage of ...

EPFL2016

Ecomorphodynamic approaches to river anabranching patterns

Benoît Crouzy, Paolo Perona

We investigate the influence of vegetation on river morphological instabilities using an analytical framework. We first discuss the important role of the hydrological (flooding frequency) and biological (vegetation development rate) timescales. As long as ...

Elsevier2016

Case study – Delta restoration at a steep river mouth

Giovanni De Cesare, Anton Schleiss, Stéphanie Joëlle André, Stéphane Christian Olivier Terrier

The mouth of the Baye de Clarens torrent in Switzerland is currently constrained by lateral training walls, sequent sills and a bridge with a low hydraulic capacity. Due to a bed load trap upstream, few sediments reach the mouth. To improve flood protectio ...

IAHR2015

Integrated flood forecasting and management system in a complex catchment area in the Alps—implementation of the MINERVE project in the Canton of Valais

Bastien Roquier, Javier García Hernández

A complex hydrologic-hydraulic model has been developed for the Upper Rhone River basin in Switzerland. It is currently operational in the Canton of Valais for real-time flood forecasting and management, providing automatic warnings to the crisis cell of t ...

2014

Physical Modeling of Sediment Trap for Le Bez River, Switzerland

Giovanni De Cesare, Azin Amini, Najla Schaller, Romain Nathan Hippolyte Merlin Van Mol

The Le Bez torrent in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, is known for flashy and violent floods due to its watershed topography and vegetation conditions. Such floods can bring a substantial amount of sediment and wood into the small downstream village of Vi ...

2023

Active flood management in Alpine catchment areas equipped with storage hydropower schemes

Frédéric Jordan, Anton Schleiss, Martin Peter Bieri

The simulation of runoff in Alpine catchment areas is essential for the optimal operation of high-head storage hydropower plants (HPP) under normal flow conditions, but also in case of flood events. A semi-distributed conceptual numerical approach has been ...

Crc Press-Taylor & Francis Group2013

Impact of floods on the statistical distribution of riverbed vegetation

Benoît Crouzy, Paolo Perona, Katharina Maria Edmaier

Investigating the colonization of river bars by pioneer vegetation, we discuss how the balance between uprooting by flooding events and reinforcement of plant roots determines the ability for vegetation to colonize the riverbed. In order to access the comp ...

Elsevier Science Bv2013

Improving Alpine Flood Prediction through Hydrological Process Characterization and Uncertainty Analysis

Cara Christine Tobin

Among the many challenges of Alpine flood prediction is describing complex, meteo-hydrological processes in a simplified, robust manner that can be easily integrated into operational forecasting. In this dissertation, improved methods to characterize these ...

EPFL2012

Improved interpolation of meteorological forcings and hydrologic implications for a Swiss alpine region

Marc Parlange, Alexis Berne, Cara Christine Tobin, Andrea Rinaldo, Ludovico Nicotina

This paper presents a comparative study on the mapping of temperature and precipitation fields in complex Alpine terrain. Its relevance hinges on the major impact that inadequate interpolations of meteorological forcings bear on the accuracy of hydrologic ...

2011