Stationarity analysis of historical flood series in France and Spain (14th–20th centuries)

International audienceInterdisciplinary frameworks for studying natural hazards and their temporal trends have an important potential in data generation for risk assessment, land use planning, and therefore the sustainable management of resources. This paper focuses on the adjustments required because of the wide variety of scientific fields involved in the reconstruction and characterisation of flood events for the past 1000 years. The aim of this paper is to describe various methodological aspects of the study of flood events in their historical dimension, including the critical evaluation of old documentary and instrumental sources, flood-event classification and hydraulic modelling, and homogeneity and quality control tests. Standardized criteria for flood classification have been defined and applied to the Isère and Drac floods in France, from 1600 to 1950, and to the Ter, the Llobregat and the Segre floods, in Spain, from 1300 to 1980. The analysis on the Drac and Isère data series from 1600 to the present day showed that extraordinary and catastrophic floods were not distributed uniformly in time. However, the largest floods (general catastrophic floods) were homogeneously distributed in time within the period 1600–1900. No major flood occurred during the 20th century in these rivers. From 1300 to the present day, no homogeneous behaviour was observed for extraordinary floods in the Spanish rivers. The largest floods were uniformly distributed in time within the period 1300–1900, for the Segre and Ter rivers

APPRENDRE DU PASSE POUR OPTIMISER LA PREVENTION ET LA GESTION DES INONDATIONS SUR LE FERROVIAIRE

International audienceArchives records dealing with historical floods constitute a remarkable heritage for railway system analysis, but they are under-exploited. This article deals with their interest. Then a methodology to build a chronological synthesis from historical records is presented. Finally, the advantages of geovisualisation, as a tool to ease the exploitation of historical information, are presented.Les archives sur les inondations historiques constituent un patrimoine riche pour l'analyse du système ferroviaire, mais actuellement sous-exploité. Nous expliquons ce qu'elles peuvent apporter, puis nous présentons une méthode de synthèse des données issues d'archives. Enfin, nous présentons les apports de la géovisualisation, comme outil pour faciliter l'utilisation de l'information historique

OH DETECTION USING OFF-AXIS INTEGRATED CAVITY OUTPUT SPECTROSCOPY (OA-ICOS)

Author Institution: Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie de l'Atmosphere, Universite du littoral Cote d'Opale, Dunkerque - France; Laboratoire de Physicochimie des Processus de Combustion et de l' Atmosphere, Universite des Sciences et Technologies de Lille; 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex - FranceThe OA-ICOS cavity consisted of two 1{\textquotedbl} high reflectivity spherical mirrors with 1 m radius of curvature, separated by a 0.5-m long quartz coated stainless steel tube. The mirrors reflectivity was {\textgreater} 99.996\% at 1435 nm as specified by the manufacturer (Layertec, GmbH). The effective optical path length of the OA-ICOS approach was determined with direct absorption signal intensity of the pure H2O vapor line at 6965.80233 cm{}-1 and was found to be 1.263 km. \bigskip The OH radicals were generated with the help of a 2.45 GHz microwave discharge in water vapor flow under low pressure (1 mbar) to evaluate the developed OA-ICOS performance. The OH radical concentration of 7.28 e+13 OH/cm{}3 was determined using calibration with a close H2O absorption line at 6965.80 cm{}-1. The detection limit, deduced from the signal to noise ratio, was 3.86 e+11 OH/cm{}3. Experimental instrument detail and the preliminary measurement results will be presented and discussed

The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer, studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory, a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), it aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over an hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR, browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters. Finally we briefly discuss on the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, and touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation, and finally on the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. (abridged).Comment: 48 pages, 29 figures, Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy with minor editin

The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory. Athena is a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, as selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), X-IFU aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over a hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR (i.e. in the course of its preliminary definition phase, so-called B1), browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters, such as the instrument efficiency, spectral resolution, energy scale knowledge, count rate capability, non X-ray background and target of opportunity efficiency. Finally, we briefly discuss the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation and the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. The X-IFU will be provided by an international consortium led by France, The Netherlands and Italy, with ESA member state contributions from Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, with additional contributions from the United States and Japan.The French contribution to X-IFU is funded by CNES, CNRS and CEA. This work has been also supported by ASI (Italian Space Agency) through the Contract 2019-27-HH.0, and by the ESA (European Space Agency) Core Technology Program (CTP) Contract No. 4000114932/15/NL/BW and the AREMBES - ESA CTP No.4000116655/16/NL/BW. This publication is part of grant RTI2018-096686-B-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. This publication is part of grant RTI2018-096686-B-C21 and PID2020-115325GB-C31 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033

Grille de lecture pour la caractérisation d’évènements remarquables d’inondations en France : Exemple d’application pour la crue de mars 1930 dans le bassin de la Garonne et du Tarn

International audienceThe 2007 Flood Directive, voted by European Union, establish a new framework for public policies of flooding risk, particularly doing an emphasis on historical floods integration. In 2011, a preliminary assessment on French territory allowed to distinguish 2000 floods events, and then a subset of 176 remarkables floods. These floods were documented in a computer database, for their future integration by flood risk managers. Basing on this selection, this article proposes a reflection about the remarkability concept analyzing major French floods. To distinguish the mains remarkability factors, an evaluation grid is developed by comparing qualitative and quantitative information. The grid methodology is detailed with three main axes: spatial extension, hazard level (intensity) and gravity (impacts). To justify the evaluation grid’s interest, a concrete application is effectuated on March 1930 flood in South-West of France by completing a description of its mains characteristics.La Directive Inondation, votée en 2007 par l’Union Européenne, dessine un nouveau cadre aux politiques publiques de gestion du risque. L’accent y est notamment mis sur la prise en compte des risques d’inondations passés. Dans ce contexte, une analyse préalable du risque sur le territoire métropolitain français a permis de dégager 2000 évènements, restreints par la suite à 176 dits remarquables. Ces évènements sont renseignés au sein d’une base de données informatique en vue d’une appropriation par les différents acteurs de la gestion du risque. En se basant sur cette sélection, l’article propose une réflexion sur le concept de remarquabilité, avec l’analyse d’inondations majeures sur le territoire français. Pour dégager les facteurs principaux de remarquabilité, une grille de lecture est développée, mettant en relation informations historiques et récentes, données qualitatives et quantitatives. La méthodologie de la grille est détaillée au travers de trois axes principaux : extension spatiale, intensité et gravité. Afin de justifier l’emploi de cette grille, une application concrète est effectuée sur la crue de mars 1930 dans le sud-ouest de la France, en revenant sur ses principales caractéristiques

Lessons from analysing mortality from six major flood events in France(1930-2010)

Evolution of flood mortality is complex as several opposite factors come into play. On one side, flood risk has been aggravated due to an increase of the number of inhabitants within the area at risk, and to an increasing of simple-storey houses without safe area. On the other side, flood risk is better managed due to a better efficiency of warning offices and civil protection actors. It is intended to demonstrate the potential of historical information on past flood events to give a better understanding of the main factors leading to mortality during flood events. This paper focuses on a set of six fatal floods from 1930 to 2010 in France, with a variable number of fatalities (from 25 to 423). Information was gathered on the main characteristics of past flood mortality: number of fatalities, death location, date and time of death, death circumstances, age and gender of victims. Based on the six flood events, the paper shows contrasted patterns on flood mortality in terms of spatial distribution, death location (inside/outside buildings), age of flood victims. The main factors leading to flood mortality are considered, such as population exposed to violent and sudden flooding, vulnerable built environment, inadequate behaviour of individuals and warning failures

Lessons from analysing mortality from six major flood events in France(1930-2010)

Evolution of flood mortality is complex as several opposite factors come into play. On one side, flood risk has been aggravated due to an increase of the number of inhabitants within the area at risk, and to an increasing of simple-storey houses without safe area. On the other side, flood risk is better managed due to a better efficiency of warning offices and civil protection actors. It is intended to demonstrate the potential of historical information on past flood events to give a better understanding of the main factors leading to mortality during flood events. This paper focuses on a set of six fatal floods from 1930 to 2010 in France, with a variable number of fatalities (from 25 to 423). Information was gathered on the main characteristics of past flood mortality: number of fatalities, death location, date and time of death, death circumstances, age and gender of victims. Based on the six flood events, the paper shows contrasted patterns on flood mortality in terms of spatial distribution, death location (inside/outside buildings), age of flood victims. The main factors leading to flood mortality are considered, such as population exposed to violent and sudden flooding, vulnerable built environment, inadequate behaviour of individuals and warning failures