Abstract
In the context of changing climate and growing population, river floods pose an escalating threat for the human and economic losses that they may cause. The current earthen defence systems are crucial assets for the safety of the built environment but require a reliability assessment and possible renovation to keep up with new safety standards. To this purpose, the numerical methods represent an effective tool, when the soil-atmosphere interaction is accurately modelled and the relevant constitutive parameters are identified. Their effectiveness hinges also on the possibility to use environmental data from site monitoring as input loads. Within this framework, the paper presents thermo-hydraulic finite element analyses of a floodplain and river levee, aimed to assess the system response to a flood event. The role of two aspects is discussed: (i) the unsaturated soil properties, namely the soil water retention curve and the permeability function, and (ii) the soil initial saturation condition that depends on the environmental load history preceding the flood event. The results confirm that the soil’s natural capability to mitigate the flood event is driven by its saturation condition.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andersen, T.K., Shepherd, J.M.: Floods in a changing climate. Geogr. Compass 7(2), 95–115 (2013)
Buijs, F., Simm, J., Wallis, M., Sayers, P.: Performance and reliability of flood and coastal defences. Technical report FD2318/TR1, Joint Defra/EA Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management R&D Programme. UK Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (2007)
Caruso, M., Jommi, C.: An evaluation of indirect methods for the estimation of hydraulic properties of unsaturated soils. Eastern Mediterranean University Press, Proceedings of International Conference on Problematic Soils, 25–27 May, Famagusta, Cyprus, 183–191 (2005)
Cui, Y., Tang, A.M., Mantho, A.T., de Laure, E.: Monitoring field soil suction using a miniature tensiometer. Geotech. Test. J. ASTM Int. 31(1), 95–100 (2008)
Daniell, J.: Natural disaster since 1900: over 8 million deaths and 7 trillion US Dollars damage. KIT Press Release, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, vol. 58, pp. 1–5 (2016)
EEA European Environment Agency: Flood risks and environmental vulnerability – Exploring the synergies between floodplain restoration, water policies and thematic policies. EEA Report 1/2016 (2016)
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation. Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press (2012)
Jommi, C., Sterpi, D., de Gast, T., Muraro, S., Ponzoni, E., van Hemert, H.: Coupled hydro-mechanical analysis of the pre-failure and the failure behaviour of a dyke on soft subsoil: formulation and synthesis of results. In: Bolzon, G., Sterpi, D., Mazzà , G., Frigerio, A. (eds.) ICOLD-BW 2019. LNCE, vol. 91, pp. 645–665. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51085-5_36
Jongman, B., Ward, P.J., Aerts, J.C.J.H.: Global exposure to river and coastal flooding: long term trends and changes. Glob. Environ. Chang. 22, 823–835 (2012)
Martel, J.-L., Brissette, F.P., Lucas-Picher, P., Troin, M., Arsenault, R.: Climate change and rainfall Intensity–duration–frequency curves: overview of science and guidelines for adaptation. J. Hydrol. Eng. 26(10), 03121001 (2021)
Milly, P.C.D.: Moisture and heat transport in hysteretic, inhomogeneous porous media: a matric head-based formulation and a numerical model. Water Resour. Res. 18(3), 489–498 (1982)
Olivella, S., Gens, A., Carrera, J., Alonso, E.E.: Numerical formulation for a simulator (CODE_BRIGHT) for the coupled analysis of saline media. Eng. Comput. 13(7), 87–112 (1996)
Olivella, S., Vaunat, J., Rodriguez-Dono, A.: CODE_BRIGHT 2021 User’s guide. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, March 2020 (2020)
Rajkai, K., Kabos, S., van Genuchten, M.: Estimating the water retention curve from soil properties: comparison of linear, nonlinear and concomitant variable methods. Soil Tillage Res. 79(2), 145–152 (2004)
Rossignoli, C., Sterpi, D.: Numerical prediction of the drying-wetting process in a river levee and floodplain. In: Proceedings of 6th World Congress CSEE-21, Lisbon, Portugal (2021)
Yu, X., Cohn, T.A., Stedinger, J.R.: Flood frequency analysis in the context of climate change. In: Proceedings of World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, 2015, Austin, USA, pp. 2376–2385 (2015)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Rossignoli, C., Caruso, M., Sterpi, D. (2023). On the Role of Soil Properties and Initial Conditions in the Response of River Levees to Flood Events. In: Barla, M., Di Donna, A., Sterpi, D., Insana, A. (eds) Challenges and Innovations in Geomechanics. IACMAG 2022. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 288. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12851-6_68
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12851-6_68
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-12850-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-12851-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)