Modelling farm vulnerability to flooding: towards the appraisal of vulnerability mitigation policies

In France, two new kinds of flood management policies are promoted: floodplain restoration and vulnerability mitigation. Few experience feedback exist on these policies but they may have strong impacts on farms. Flood management on Rhône River is highly illustrative of these policies and local authorities would like to appraise the efficiency of these policies with an economic tool (Cost-Benefit Analysis) to help decision making. But the current methods of flood damage modelling do not make the appraisal of these policies possible; mainly because they do not take into account the organizational and temporal dimensions of damage formation and propagation at farm scale. After a presentation of the Rhône River context and policies, we review existing methods of flood damage modelling for agriculture and show the interest to focus on the farm scale instead of land plot scale. Based upon the theoretical frameworks for systemic approach, we detail the construction of our conceptual model of farm vulnerability before presenting a case study that shows how the model can be implemented to compute flood damage at farm scale. Finally, the outlooks concerning the use of the model to appraise vulnerability mitigation policies and its application at regional scale are developed.Modélisation;Vulnérabilité;Langage UML;Évaluation des risques;Exploitation agricole;Inondation

A control-oriented model of the current profile in Tokamak plasma

International audienceThis paper proposes a control-oriented approach to the tokamak plasma current profile dynamics. It is established based on a consistent set of simplified relationships, in particular for the microwave current drive sources, rather than exact physical modelling. Assuming that a proper model for advanced control schemes can be established using the socalled cylindrical approximation and neglecting the diamagnetic effects, we propose a model that focuses on the flux diffusion (from which the current profile is inferred). Its inputs are some real-time measurements available on modern tokamaks and the effects of some major actuators, such as the magnetic coils, Lower Hybrid (LHCD), Electron and Ion Cyclotron Frequency (ECCD and ICRH) systems, are particularly taken into account. More precisely, the non-inductive current profile sources are modelled as 3-parameters functions of the control inputs derived either from approximate theoretical formulae for the ECCD and bootstrap terms or from experimental scaling laws specifically developed from Hard X-ray Tore Supra data for the LHCD influence. The use of scaling laws in this model reflects the fact that the operation of future reactors will certainly depend upon a great number of scaling laws and specific engineering parameters. The discretisation issues are also specifically addressed, to ensure the robustness with respect to discretisation errors and the efficiency (in terms of computation time) of the associated algorithm. This model is compared with experimental results and the CRONOS solver for Tore Supra Tokamak

Caractérisation des stratégies de gestion pour la modélisation de la vulnérabilité des exploitations agricoles aux inondations : Lier les dimensions spatiale, organisationnelle et temporelle d'un système complexe

Les politiques publiques de gestion des inondations s'orientent vers la restauration des champs d'expansion de crue et de réduction de la vulnérabilité, qui auront un impact important sur les exploitations agricoles. L'évaluation des effets de ces politiques sur les exploitations agricoles n'est pas envisageable avec les méthodologies actuelles et le retour d'expérience quasiment inexistant. Il était donc nécessaire de développer un modèle de simulation des dommages directs et induits en prenant en compte la dimension systémique de l'exploitation agricole. Pour cela, nous proposons un modèle conceptuel de la vulnérabilité à l'échelle de l'exploitation agricole et montrons comment il nous a permis de mettre en évidence l'importance des stratégies de gestion post-inondation pour la modélisation des dommages. Nous présentons ensuite les résultats des enquêtes réalisées sur les exploitations arboricoles de la zone aval du Rhône pour la caractérisation de ces stratégies. Enfin, nous montrons comment nous avons intégré dans le modèle de simulation des dommages, les données recueillies par enquêtes. Les premiers résultats de simulation des dommages confirment l'importance de prendre en compte les effets induits de l'inondation sur le système " exploitation agricole ". En perspective, l'utilisation du modèle de simulation des dommages dans le cadre d'une évaluation économique des politiques de réduction de la vulnérabilité des exploitations agricoles sur la zone aval du Rhône est discutée.INONDATION;POLITIQUE PUBLIQUE;EXPLOITATION AGRICOLE;VULNERABILITE;SIMULATION;STRATEGIE

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Interaction of ITER-like ICRF antenna with Tore Supra plasmas: insight from modelling

The non-linear interaction of ion cyclotron resonance frequency (ICRF) waves with the plasma edge is one of the challenges faced by high power wave heating systems in next step devices. Such interaction is often associated with parallel RF electric fields excited by spurious parallel RF currents flowing on the antenna front face I -Experimental results 1 -ICRF antenna configurations. The prototype launcher ITER-lik

Assistive technologies to address capabilities of people with dementia: from research to practice

Assistive technologies (AT) became pervasive and virtually present in all our life domains. They can be either an enabler or an obstacle leading to social exclusion. The Fondation Médéric Alzheimer gathered international experts of dementia care, with backgrounds in biomedical, human and social sciences, to analyse how AT can address the capabilities of people with dementia, on the basis of their needs. Discussion covered the unmet needs of people with dementia, the domains of daily life activities where AT can provide help to people with dementia, the enabling and empowering impact of technology to improve their safety and wellbeing, barriers and limits of use, technology assessment, ethical and legal issues. The capability approach (possible freedom) appears particularly relevant in person-centered dementia care and technology development. The focus is not on the solution, rather on what the person can do with it: seeing dementia as disability, with technology as an enabler to promote capabilities of the person, provides a useful framework for both research and practice. This article summarizes how these concepts took momentum in professional practice and public policies in the past fifteen years (2000-2015), discusses current issues in the design, development and economic model of AT for people with dementia, and covers how these technologies are being used and assessed