Jul 12

A new Technical Committe in ICOLD : “Levees”

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to inform you of the creation of a Technical Committee “Levees” within ICOLD.

The General Assembly of ICOLD voted and approved this creation during its meeting last Friday (07/07) in Prague, at the 2017 annual meeting.

This excellent news for the international Levees and Flood Defences community is the result of many years of work and actions that have demonstrated to the Large Dams community the interest of working on Levees as well:
– the International Levee Handbook (2009-2013),
– inclusion of the topic by many National Committees, including CFBR (France), NETHCOLD (NL), USSD (USA), BDS (UK) and many more,
– creation in 2015 of our Working Group under the European Club of ICOLD on “Levees and Flood Defences”,
– recognition by the European Club and ICOLD Boards of our WG activity,
– of course, the vast amount of research and guidance from many recent national and international projects (including National Committees products),
– the active support of the National Committees from France, Netherlands and USA and the receptivity of the ICOLD Central Office and Board,
– finally, the vote of the member countries representatives in the General Assembly.

The creation of this Technical Committee (which I hope will have a fruitful production), coupled with Question 103 (Small dams and levees) of the next ICOLD Congress in Vienna in 2018, makes it possible to consider that these particular structures definitively join dams, large and small, among the topics of this major international organization in the field of Hydraulic Works: ICOLD; even if we are not yet ready (joke) to change its-laws or to rename ICOLD as the International Commission on Levees and Dams.

Next year will be essential in terms of activity. We will have to work hard in the EurCOLD LFD WG to present final deliverables to the European Club. The new TC will have to produce draft Terms of Reference and prepare its first Meeting and Workshop in 2018 ICOLD Congress in Vienna, where its ToR will be finalized. The transition between the two groups will need to be as smooth as possible.

Finally, I was chosen as Chairman of this new Technical Committee, which must eventually succeed and replace our European Club WG. I thank all the colleagues, within and without our WG, and from many countries and National Committees, too many to name them, who made all this possible. This is just a beginning!

During the General Assembly: introduction of the proposition by ICOLD President, Mr Anton Schleiss
Picture by Eija Isomäki

During the General Assembly: defending the cause of Levees
Picture by Cees Henk Oostinga

Jun 30

Prague WG Meeting and Workshop

A meeting and a workshop of our Working Group on Levees and Flood Defences will take place during the ICOLD meeting in Prague on July 7, 2017 (see details in the agenda).
WG members are all invited to attend the meeting. ICOLD National Committees have been informed of the event and are invited to send a representative to join us during the meeting. The workshop, as such, is open to all ICOLD meeting participants.

Mar 20

WG meeting in Prague (07/07/2017)

Our Working Group will hold its meeting on Friday, July 7, during the ICOLD Meeting and in the same venue thanks to the help of the local organizing committee. Apologies to members not being able to attend the meting at this date.
The formal meeting will be held during the morning (9:00-12:30), the afternoon (13:30-17:00) will be a workshop type meeting.
Attendance by non-members is possible if place permits, registration in advance.
Our members are welcome to fill (or update)) the following doodle poll in order for us to know who will be present.

Feb 22

USSD Conference

Dear all,

here is a message from our colleagues in USSD. Unfortunately the page layout is lost when copying in the post.

There are several levee related activities planned during the whole conference week.

Best regards, Rémy

 

 

The 2017 USSD Annual Conference and Exhibition starts in just 41 days!

From April 3-7, 2017 the world of dam and levee engineering gathers in Anaheim, California for five days. Our 71-booth exhibition is SOLD OUT. The California Department of Water Resources, at the center of Oroville and related water resources challenges being faced by California, is our host and their officials will be with us making presentations.


You will find a fantastic program, unique sponsorship opportunities, and additional projects we are engaged in with awards, scholarships, and recognitions that make a USSD annual conference truly unique.

All we need now is – YOU.

See you in Southern California April 3rd.

Nov 15

FLOODRISK2016-Lyon – More than just a conference

Marcel Bottema, 8 Nov 2016

 

Short report from FLOODrisk 2016 Conference

From 18-20 October the 3rd European Conference on Flood Risk Management took place in Lyon, together with some side events (FLOODrisk 2016, www.floodrisk2016.net ). Over 200 papers were presented covering a wide range of Flood Risk Management issues. The number of participants was over 500, covering research institutes as well as consultants, government and NGO’s, and covering not only many European Countries, but people outside Europe, notably the US. Some highlights of relevance to both the dam and levee world are given below. But first and foremost, it should be mentioned that FLOODrisk is as much a Community of Practice gathering as a conference.

 

FLOODrisk as an overarching Community of Practice

Although the FLOODrisk conference only takes place every four years, FLOODrisk can still be considered to be an event that facilitates communities of practice within Flood Risk Management (FRM). This is partly due to the history of the FLOODrisk conferences, linked to the EU-FLOODsite and FloodProBE projects and the International Levee Handbook. But it is equally linked to the special character of the Conference, which is not just a set of lectures, but also includes some side events and planned as well as spontaneous workshops. In fact FLOODrisk serves not only to support individual Communities of Practice, but acts rather like an overarching FRM-community gathering, connecting various topic-specific Communities as well as different types of actors.

 

Workshops and side events

The FLOODrisk conference included a range of special sessions in workshop format. These sessions covered topics like the EU Floods Directive Implementation, Governance of FRM Programs, Natural and Nature-based FRM-solutions, Levee breach and failure mechanisms, Risk model validation and Communities of practice. More details can be found www.floodrisk2016.net and at https://lfd-eurcold.inrae.fr/index.php/floodrisk-2016-as-an-interactive-conference-workshops/

The side events included:

Besides this, informal meetings besides the official program took place, for example a meeting of the levee breaching community.

 

Plenary and parallel conference sessions – on a wide range of topics

The term ‘parallel conference sessions’ may not seem inspiring. Yet it contains as many as 6 overarching topics and 24 sub-topics, each covering a set of interesting papers.

The overarching topics were Flood Hazard, Consequences, Flood Risk characterization, Risk reduction, Flood Event Management and Decision making. All these topics are not only relevant to the FRM-community in general, but also to the levees and dams communities. We intend to explore the added value to the latter communities in a symposium paper for the 2017 ICOLD Annual Meeting in Prague. A brief preliminary summary can be found at https://lfd-eurcold.inrae.fr/index.php/floodrisk-2016-conference-sessions-and-papers/

 

Planning for future (FLOOD)risk – Next time better?

The final plenary session included a future outlook, where increasing risk and vulnerability are likely, as well as uncertainties and financing issues. Yet the ambition for a future overarching FRM Community of Practice may help in coping with these issues together; moreover the European Commission begins to recognize the importance of Communities and Science-Policy-Interfaces, especially on Secure-Safe-Resilient Societies.

All in all the conference was highly successful. There is only one aspect about FLOODrisk that might be disappointing: those who feel inspired to soon attend the next FLOODrisk conference, will have to wait another four years. The good message is that FLOODrisk 2020 is planned to take place in Budapest: a lovely city in a country with an interesting history on floods and Flood Risk Management.

Oct 24

WG meeting in Lyon: a success

The second Working Group meeting, in Irstea’s Lyon office on the 17 October 2016, has been quite a success.

We had 29 attendants from 10 countries. In the morning we had 9 technical and scientific presentations. The formal WG meeting was held in the afternoon. Minutes will be disseminated in the next two weeks.

Thanks to all participants and presenters for your involvement !

p1020182

Sep 20

Working Group meeting : Lyon, 17 October 2016

 

A working group meeting will be held in Lyon, on Monday, October 17th, 2016, beginning the week of the FLOODrisk2016 international conference.

A draft agenda is available and has been sent to the working group members, asking them to confirm their attendance.

Non members wanting to participate need to get in touch with the Working Group bureau (Chair or Secretary). The morning will be dedicated to technical or scientific presentations related to levees and flood defence issues, projects, … The afternoon will be a formal Working Group meeting. There is now (21/09/2016) only a small number of available places.

Members and non members are welcome to submit a presentation topic. Non members can be welcome as guests during the formal meeting in the afternoon.

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Sep 07

Vienna 2018 ICOLD Congress

The next ICOLD Congress (2018) will be held in Vienna (Austria). 

As you already know, a question regarding levees has been introduced in the program, and it is of utmost importance to demonstrate at this occasion to the whole dam community that levees is a natural topic linked to its activities.

See: http://icoldaustria2018.com/

We strongly encourage our members to present abstracts in relation to levees and flood defences,  possibly linking to dams. The submission process has to be done through the national committees, so the deadline will probably change according to your country. The date can be quite early, please check with your own national committee. Your deadline may be before the end of this year.

Please let the group know if you submit such levees of flood defences related abstracts, by sending an email to Marcel Bottema and Rémy Tourment, and/or by commenting this post on the website. Try also if possible to associate co-athors from other countries.

We are also considering to submit one or more abstracts on behalf of the Working Group, directly to ICOLD given the international status of our WG. We will keep you updated on this.

Thanks for your interest,

Rémy Tourment

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Sep 07

Prague 2017 ICOLD Meeting

The next ICOLD Annual Meeting (2017) will be held in Prague (Czech Republic). 

Abstracts can be submitted up to September 15th.

See: http://www.icold2017.cz/en/call-for-abstracts

We strongly encourage our members to present an abstract in relation to levees and flood defences. Please let the group know if you submit such a paper, by sending an email to Marcel Bottema and Rémy Tourment, or by commenting this post on the website.

We also think about submitting one or two abstracts on behalf of the Working Group, if enough people are committed in collaborating to write the paper itself. Also let us know if you are interested in such an initiative.

Thanks for your interest,

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Jul 11

FLOODrisk 2016 conference program

The FLOODrisk 2016 conference program is now online. See http://floodrisk2016.net/programme/

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May 23

Levee ICOLD question

SAMSUNG CSC

SAMSUNG CSC

An important news for our levees and flood defenses woking group!

Here is the message sent on Monday, May 23rd to the WG members :
Dear Member of the EURCOLD Working Group on Levees and Flood Defences,
 
during our start-up meeting last year, we mentioned the importance of having the topic of levees on the agenda of the next Congress of ICOLD, in 2018 in Vienna, all the more so because that would allow us to present the results of our Working Group at an ICOLD Congress.
 
We now have the pleasure to inform you, that during the ICOLD General Assembly of last week, in Johannesburg, ICOLD selected levees as a topic (an “ICOLD-Question”) for the next congress in Vienna, in 2018. Question 103 will be “Small dams and Levees”. We don’t have the details on the question for the moment but we will make it available as soon as we have the official information.
 
This is a great step towards the acknowledgement of the importance of levees and flood defences in general, and within the dam community in particular. It will also allow to better share dam- and levee-related knowledge, and to exploit mutual synergies.
We would like to thank all those who made it possible, after the initial disappointment caused by the question we wrote not being pre-selected by ICOLD for discussion in Johannesburg.
 
This is great news indeed, worth a celebration (probably in Lyon during our next meeting)!
 
Thanks to all of you who participated to this collective effort, drafting and convincing.
I particularly want to thank the officials in BDS, CFBR, NETHCOLD and USSD (in alphabetical order) who spent time defending the cause of this question. We also thank all the other persons who, directly or indirectly, contributed through their actions and discussions.
 
This is only the beginning. Now we have two years of work ahead, to make this an even bigger success and convince ICOLD to make levees a permanent topic. I am sure this success will be a great boost to the collective spirit that we need to succeed, as there is too much work ahead to achieve real success without support from our whole Working Group.
However, with sufficient effort from all of us, we are likely to succeed with high quality outcomes from our working group and many interesting papers for the congress, and a success that can be shared by all of us.
 
Our best regards
Rémy Tourment, Chairman, and Marcel Bottema, Secretary

May 03

2016 Working Group meeting

Our WG meeting in 2016 will be held on October 17th in Lyon (France). More details soon.

The next days, also in Lyon, will be the international FLOODrisk conference.

LFD Eurcold Logo

May 03

FLOODrisk international conference

The 3rd European Conference on Flood Risk Management will be held in Lyon (France) on 
Registration is now open.
http://floodrisk2016.net/.

FLOODrisk 2016 will explore research advances in flood risk analysis and innovations in flood risk management practice. The conference will consider all aspects of flood risk and will cover the causes of floods, their impacts on people, property and the environment, and portfolios of risk management measures.

second-announcement

May 03

European Club of ICOLD Symposium

In 25-30 October 2016, the 10th ICOLD European Club Symposium will be held in Antalya (Turkey).

icold_en

May 02

ICOLD meeting 2016 Johannesburg, South Africa

84th ICOLD meeting will be held in Johannesburg, South Arica, 15-20 May 2016.

A report of our WG activities have been produced and will be presented during the meeting of the European Club.

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