Un simulateur d'écoulement en temps réel comme aide à la prévision et à la gestion des rivières

The development of watersheds complicates the management of hydraulic facilities. Managers are facing economic and social imperatives that are potentially conflicting. Generally, their decisions are based on operational rules established by experience. However, these rules do not ensure that certain minimal conditions be respected and they do not determine future conditions for the river as a whole. Therefore, the communication of these conditions between managers of a same river is difficult. The present paper provides an approach to improve this situation. The real time simulator XSIM, with a graphical interface, has been developed in order to assist managers in control, design, analysis, and information transmission. It is designed based on an intumescence model functioning in an unsteady flow regime. It allows the managers to input the considered operations and provides them with the design conditions in a format adapted to their needs. It ensures the distribution and the availability of the results by creating a web page automatically. Its application to the management of complex sections of a real river is presented in order to illustrate its usefulness for day-to-day management and in emergency situations, such as a sudden flood or the rupture of a dam.Key words: flood, decision aid, management, unsteady flow regime, hydrology, graphical interface, numerical simulation.