**1. Introduction**

262 Novel Approaches and Their Applications in Risk Assessment

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The recent and dramatic floods of the last years in Europe (Windstorm Xynthia, February 2010) and United-States (Hurricane Katrina, August 2005) showed the vulnerability of flood defence systems. The first key point for avoiding these dramatic damages and the high cost of a failure and its consequences lies in the conception and construction of the dams and dikes, taking into account the past flooding events. A well-designed dike with the correct height avoids failure and overtopping.

In this chapter, a dike is defined as a flood defence system, in dry condition (no contact with water). The term "levee" is often used, specially in the USA.

Many factors introduce weaknesses in the dike. Most of them are old structures. For instance, some of the French Loire River dikes were built several centuries ago. They may have been rebuilt, modified, heightened several times, with some materials that do not necessarily match the original conception of the structure. In other aspects, trees, roots, burrows or nests could modify the structure of the dike and reduce the mechanical properties.

Particular geological formation and their evolution could also threaten the dike. This is the case in the city of Orléans, France, where levees have collapsed in karstic areas. In urban context, the dikes present many other singularities, such as networks, canalisations, human constructions like houses and walls. Due to all these factors, dikes have to be considered as heterogeneous structures. Considering the social impact of a possible breach, the stretch of hundreds of kilometres and the heterogeneity of the materials, rapid, cost-effective and reliable techniques for surveying the dike must be carried out.

This chapter presents the general approach for assessing earth embankments. The first part briefly presents a synthesis of the French approach related to dike diagnosis. The second part shows the recent improvements in this geophysical area given by current applied researches and international experiments. The third part is dedicated to the airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology, which provides extremely accurate topographic

*<sup>1</sup>EDF – R&D, Chatou, France* 

*<sup>2</sup>Institut Français des sciences et technologies des transports, de l'aménagement et des réseaux, Nantes, France*

*<sup>3</sup>Laboratoire Régional des Ponts et Chaussées de Rouen, CETE NC, France 4Cemagref d'Aix-En-Provence, France* 

Methodology Applied to the Diagnosis and Monitoring of Dikes and Dams 265

**General methodology for dike study with geophysical and geotechnical methods**

4 – Topography 5 – Visual inspection 6 – Hydrology and hydraulics

And/Or

**Method** Result

**Method** Result

**Seismic reflexion** Mechanical impedances

**Ground Penetrating Radar** Networks, layers

**Seismic refraction** Contact dike body/substratum

**III – Geotechnical studies** 

**Waves** 

(source Fauchard & Mériaux, 2007)

**II – Geophysical studies** 

*1 - Efficient survey: first zoning*

*Method*: **Slingram, AEM or RMT** *Result* : **First dike zoning**

1 – Historical research 2 – Geological study 3 - Morphodynamic analysis

of the watercourse

*3 – Other methods, other targets*

**Multy-Channel Analysis of Surface** 

**I – Preliminary studies**

**Penetrometric tests** Dynamic resistance / depth **Loggings of Boreholes permeability** Permeability /depth **Mechanical shovel** Local visual control **Destructive drillings** Material distribution / depth **Core drillings** Material distribution / depth and

**IV – Diagnosis, stability studies, improvement of dike model** 

Fig. 1. General methodology proposed in 2007 by the French National Project CriTerre

samples for laboratory tests

*2 – Efficient and local survey : local* 

*Method* : **Electrical Resistivity** 

*Result:* **local zoning/material** 

*zoning* 

**Tomography** 

**distribution**

Contact dike body/substratum

data at a high efficient rate. The last part is a presentation of a current research work where the Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) method is implemented and tested on an experimental test dam as well as real ones in order to monitor the effect of internal erosion within the structure.
