Daily reports of Team_3@Hydro-Europe while in Nice

Monday 2003-02-24 (1st day)

During the first day, we identified a problem in the map's dimensions because of the huge difference between the real discharges in the Var and the simulated ones in MIKE SHE. So, in order to avoid such phenomenon of water storage in the catchment and to improve the description of the Var river, we realised that the cell dimensions of the grid we get in MIKE SHE (from the initial data) were not appropriate.

Tuesday 2003-02-25 (2nd day)

Actually, we miss some precision to represent the network geometry so we had to use the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the Topography (MIKE SHE) to design the river's cross sections according to the relief and elevation data.

In this case, the different profiles are automatically located between two pixels of the DEM with the software. Then, to have the slope of each side of the river we need to use the elevation data of two cells at each side.

Here, we use the following methodology:

• Identification of the relation between MIKE11 and MIKE SHE geographical references.
• In MIKE 11, quote the (x;y) coordinates of the cross section we want to design.
• In MIKE SHE elevation model, select the (x;y;z) coordinates of each pixel around the profile to calculate his two slopes and his minimum elevation.

Wednesday 2003-02-26 (3rd day)

The way followed here was to work in two different groups to compare different ways of cross- section derivation. The first sub team was working on the upstream slope, the second on the downstream one. There was some common working area as well in order to supply the most precise results possible.

As the amount of cross-sections obtained was huge, the clear necessity of simplification arose for the whole slope to be represented by those cross-sections where the slope change was the most significant. As the result the longitudinal profile of the tributary was defined by the points with lowest elevation.

Subgroups had chosen different points for the representation of the slope and therefore the graphs built on their basis had the varying degree of precision. The one derived by the first sub team was considered to be more representative and will be therefore used for the future calculations.

	Upstream slope	Downstream slope
real
simplified

Thursday 2003-02-27 (4th day)

Based on the existing network, we inserted the different cross sections previously defined in places chosen as the most representative of the longitudinal profile of the network:

It has to be noted that each team of the Var project only carries about one sub-catchment in this step ; Team 3 worked on the Vésubie's one, in the red square drawn above. In this case, we selected one point at each changes of the slope (topography and excel calculations).

Friday 2003-02-28 (5th day)

Friday was presentation day. You may find our presentation here (Powerpoint viewer needed).

Saturday 2003-03-01 (6th day)

On Saturday we had an excursion to the Var river valley with the bus. We started at the airport where the river runs into the sea. From there on we travelled upstream and we stopped about every 15 minutes to listen to the professional explanation of Prof. Jean-Jaques Peters, who is a river specialist and has studied the Var river. Prof. Peters told us about and we saw the sills that were destroyed during the 1994 flood.

Monday 2003-03-03 (8th day)

Another week has started. Our international team is finally complete and we are getting along greatly.

In the morning there was the lecture on Web based information systems given by Mr. Frank Molkenthin from BTU Cottbus. The lecture gave us an overview not only of the technologies for information sharing available at the moment, but also of those that are under development and will hopefully be in use in the near future. Audience was also introduced to the idea of technical culture, which included the set of rules needed to be respected by all participants.

The coupling between Mike SHE and Mike 11 was completed and as the result of this the Mike SHE model was launched right after the lunch. The results obtained in Mike View were "very beautiful", from the point of view of one of the team members, as it showed the maximum discharge on the level of 3500 m³/s, which is also the estimated discharge of the Q-h relation and the measured height of the 1994 flood. We were very happy and went to the beach.

Tuesday 2003-03-04 (9th day)

Prof. Jean-Jaques Peters gave a lecture this morning and explained a whole bunch of problems and solutions in river-engineering, giving several examples of rivers on which he worked (in Mexico, Bangladesh, Bolivia). All gathered under the headline "basic fluvial hydraulics and sediment transport".

Finished the Avenue project. Started to have the daily reports in proper HTML (web-capable) format.

In the afternoon we proceeded with the work on Mike11. There where several "experiments" by means of trial and error. The first simulation was carried out with the use of the hydrograph generated by MikeSHE the previous days. In order to make it work properly, we had to change the time-step of the hydrograph from 5 min to 1 hour. The second simulation was executed with the use of Soil Conservation Service and CEMAGREF hydrologic method; this method enables the computation of the runoff and discharges using measured heights of rainfall. The hydrographs we have used have been generated by our friend from Nice who started earlier. The results are slightly different and conclusions will be made tomorrow.

The situation is a strange one - our group has virtually only 2 computers available. Despite the fact, that we are largest group(s) (together with team 4), this is a really digusting situation with 10 people in front of 1 computer (or similar). Benoît, our "president", requested a meeting for tomorrow 13:30.

Wednesday 2003-03-05 (10th day)

Another seminar/lecture given by Prof. Jean-Jaques Peters with a documentation from 1993 (BBC). Afterwards we had the chance to ask questions and he presented the work of one of his students, Lauro Rossi, about current situation modelled using a sediment transport (numerical) model and about the future perspectives (80 year forecast).

No meeting took place at 13:30 (also not later) - instead Oliver just initiated a brainstorming on what has to be part of both presentation and final report: It can be found here.

The group continued and finished the work with MIKE. Thanks to Koen who is familiar with the use of this bundle of programs (mostly the rest of the group was looking or proposing next steps), the work could be finished in a quick and proper way. There have been really lively discussions during the work.

Thursday 2003-03-06 (11th day)

There was a discussion on wether or not to simulate the flood with sill 2 and 3 intact, initiated by Joseph.