Abstract
Storm Xynthia, which hit the French Atlantic coast on 28 February 2010, flooded vast territories despite coastal defences. This disaster highlighted the need to further study the behaviour of the coastal flood protection systems at an adapted geographical scale by considering the kinematics of the events. This objective has been achieved through a combination of conceptual input on the definition of protection systems, significant breakthroughs in the knowledge of the mechanisms governing the flooding, and via the improvement of strategies and methods dedicated to flood analysis and representation. The developed methodology was successfully tested on four sites submerged during Xynthia (Loix, Les Boucholeurs, and Boyardville, located in Charente-Maritime, and Batz-sur-Mer, located in Loire-Atlantique). This work is intended to guide the diagnosis of sites prone to marine flooding from the first investigations until the delivery of study reports. Beyond the usual focus on hydraulic structures, it provides guidelines to better analyse the interactions with the natural environment (sea, soil, dune, wetlands, etc.) and with the built environment (roads and urban networks, ponds used for fish farming, buildings, etc.). This systemic approach, which is applied to a territory considered as a complex adaptive system, is fundamental to understanding the reaction of a territory during a marine submersion event and subsequently developing adaptation or transformation strategies.
Highlights
In the field of coastal flooding and, more generally, coastal hazards, many factors lead to an increase in risk or the emergence of new risks: climate change, demographic change, unplanned and rapid urbanization, poor land management, unsustainable uses of natural resources, and declining ecosystems [1]
Flood risk management on a site is made by the implementation of a coherent programme of measures
Flood risk management on aarea site made the implementation of a coherent pro‐
Summary
In the field of coastal flooding and, more generally, coastal hazards, many factors lead to an increase in risk or the emergence of new risks: climate change, demographic change, unplanned and rapid urbanization, poor land management, unsustainable uses of natural resources, and declining ecosystems [1]. Since the protection against coastal hazards is organised through systems with, in general, multiple structures, the issue of performance limits and risk of failure was addressed by considering the combined effect of several structures On this topic, previous research [26] has assessed the safety of a double-levee system. Other authors investigated the effectiveness of two anthropogenic works (e.g., a storm surge barrier and levees [27]) or the effectiveness of hybrid solutions combining a land-based structure (e.g., a dike) with the effects of natural formations, such as coastal wetlands and mangroves [28,29] Despite all these methodological developments, the state-of-the-art relative to risk understanding and adaptation strategies remains incomplete. The definition of a methodology and its associated methods requires having a conce
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