Vulnerability assessment of embankments and bridges exposed to flooding hazards

ended

Flooding is a significant threat to human-life, ecosystems, cultural heritage and society. In recent years Europe has experienced some of the largest flood events in its history. The three partner countries in the oVERFLOW project are particularly vulnerable to cross-border flooding from major European river systems. The resilience a flood defence system is controlled by the weakest link. Whilst the risk based method for assessing flood defences VNK2 developed in the Netherlands is the state of the art, the determination of the probability of failure is critically dependent on a number of highly uncertain parameters. The most significant uncertainties relate to length effects and the location of potential seepage. A number of recent collapses of major bridges due to scour shortly after inspection highlight the limitation of risk assessments based on periodic inspection. During flood induced failures the condition of a bridge or levee changes in a matter of minutes. The oVERFLOw project will implement a number of technologies developed by the applicants in recent EU projects to reduce these uncertainties and move to real-time risk assessment. The work will be performed by a consortium including 2 Civil Protection Agencies, 3 R&D focussed SMEs, a University and a Research Institute. The main output will be an improved method for assessing the vulnerability of levees and bridges to floods. This will be achieved by: 1. Reducing the known uncertainties in the VNK2 approach using techniques and procedures developed by the applicants in recent H2020 projects including sensors and drones to provide real-time response. 2. The technology will be deployed and demonstrated at two pilot sites in the Netherlands and Croatia in order to (i) validate the new technologies and increase the TRL levels, (ii) transfer the state of the art risk based approach from the Netherlands to Slovenia/Croatia and (iii) to provide validation and buy-in from a range of stakeholder.