4th European Conference on Flood Risk Management

The special session 'Understanding and Managing Transitions in Levees and Flood Defences' will take place virtually on Thursday 24 June 2021 from 11:00 to 12:30.

The session will be led by Jonathan Simm, Jaap Flikweert and Matt Arthur

Transitions between levees (earthen flood embankments) and other hard structures are areas of weakness within an overall system of flood defences and can be found at any location, on or within a flood defence where there is a change in flood defence structure or of protection revetment (slope or crest, road, etc.), in an internal cross section and in the construction or foundation materials. The transition typically promotes the processes of internal and external erosion. If these processes are undetected, or left unchecked, they can ultimately lead to flood defence failure and breach. This special session outlines the results of UK research on the inspection, performance assessment and management of transitions. There will be plenty of time for discussion to explore experiences of attendees related to transitions, to compare different approaches in Europe and elsewhere to their assessment and management and to identify future research needs.

The programme of this special session will include:

11:00    Introductions - Participants to enter in chat function their name, organisation, country, topics of interest
11:05    Introduction (1): the context and drivers for considering transitions (Matthew Arthur, EA)
11:15    Introduction (2): Transitions failure mechanisms, reliability analysis and sensitivity analysis (Jonathan Simm
11:30    Introduction (3): Inspection, assessment and remediation of levee transitions (Jaap Flikweert)
11:45    Plenary discussion on experiences with transitions: challenges, solutions, outcomes
11:55    Break out group discussions on three topics:

• Examples/case studies of issues/solutions with transitions.
• Management processes around transitions, including
• Inspection/survey/data capture
• Prioritisation of transitions for attention, including any assessment of reliability/probability of failure
• Remediation
• Possible future research areas for transitions.

12:15    Feedback from breakout groups
12:25    Concluding remarks
12:30    Close of session

Please use the 'add to Schedule' button on the Special Session Programme, to register your interest in participating in this special session.

For more information visit the Special Session Hub and the webpage hub.floodrisk2020.net/theme/specials/levee-transition/.

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