Development of the River Seine Estuary: Case Study

A movable bed scale model of the Seine estuary in France was originally developed more than 30 years ago to study the means of stabilizing the main shipping channel. This is a detailed account of how the model was designed, built, calibrated and operated, to provide valuable information for design of the channel training works completed in 1963. After this first success, a new version of the model was built in 1967, with certain detailed changes, and has continued serving for studies of development works in the estuary to the present day. Hydraulic and sedimentological characteristics of the estuary are described, as well as the model design criteria which led to the choice of scales and bed material. Other modelled features are waves, tides, and offshore current. The calibration tests included the successful reproduction of the natural evolution of the estuary observed over a period of almost 100 years. The conclusion shows how optimum efficiency can be achieved by using a mathematical model of estuary tides and currents in combination with a movable bed scale model.