anglais

Overview & Synopsis

Flood protection levees are often old structures that have not been properly managed and maintained for long periods of time. In many countries, flood events in recent decades have shown the importance of a proper management. After an assessment of national port-folios, it is found that, for many of these levees, important retrofitting works are necessary to ensure performance and safety of these structures. After flood events, earthquakes or accident, it is often necessary to repair existing levees. Given the specificities of flood pro-tection levees, there is a strong need for guidance on the design and implementation of re-inforcement and repair works. CFBR (the French Committee on Dams and Reservoirs) has been addressing levees related issues since 2004 and a CFBR working group on reinforce-ment and repair of levees was set up in 2014. Its deliverable is a substantial report present-ing the overall approach to consolidation and repair of existing levees, from assessment and diagnosis to design and then implementation. It is available on CFBR's web site in French language and will be available in English at the beginning of 2023. Future editions of this document are planned to include additional and innovative solutions. The paper presents as an introduction a general situation of flood protection structures and systems in France. Then, it presents the general principles for designing levee repairs or reinforce-ments presented in the first part of the report, as well as some of the specific techniques presented in the second part of the report.