Coastal flood protection systems - concepts and analysis

Storm Xynthia, which hit French coasts on February 28th, 2010, flooded vast territories despite coastal defences. This disaster highlighted the need of studying the behaviour of our coastal flood protection systems at an adapted geographical scale and by taking into account the kinematics of the events. The research project led by Cerema has made significant breakthroughs in the knowledge of mechanisms governing the flooding and in strategies and methods dedicated to their analysis and their representation. The developed methodology was successfully tested on four sites submerged during Xynthia (Loix, Les Boucholeurs and Boyardville in Charente-Maritime, Batz-sur-mer in Loire-Atlantique). It is intented to guide the diagnosis of sites prone to marine flood, since the first investigations until the delivery of study reports.