Real-time flow simulator as a tool for predicting and managing river behavior

The development of watersheds complicates the management of hydraulic facil ities. Managers are facing economic and social imperatives that are potenti ally conflicting. Generally, their decisions are based on operational rules established by experience. However, these rules do not ensure that certain minimal conditions be respected and they do not determine future condition s for the river as a whole. Therefore, the communication of these condition s between managers of a same river is difficult. The present paper provides an approach to improve this situation. The real time simulator XSIM, with a graphical interface, has been developed in order to assist managers in co ntrol, design, analysis, and information transmission. It is designed based on an intumescence model functioning in an unsteady flow regime. It allows the managers to input the considered operations and provides them with the design conditions in a format adapted to their needs. It ensures the distr ibution and the availability of the results by creating a web page automati cally. Its application to the management of complex sections of a real rive r is presented in order to illustrate its usefulness for day-to-day managem ent and in emergency situations, such as a sudden flood or the rupture of a dam.