  The
Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) was founded in 1425.
With a community of 19900 students (3600 of them come from foreign
countries), this is the most populated French-speaking University
in Belgium. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
belongs to the Faculty of Applied Sciences (Engineering) which is
one of the ten Faculties of the University. Basic research carried
out by the Hydraulics group is centred on floods and flood control.
Inside this field, hydraulic problems related to urban development
and river engineering are treated in both their hydraulics and sedimentology
aspects. In fluvial hydraulics, several domains related to flood control
are studied: flood forecasting, stochastic simulation, physical and
mathematical modelling of fast hydraulic transients (flash floods,
dam break), compound channel flow, etc. Various PhD theses were completed
on those topics, others are currently in progress. A large expertise
was developed in 1D and 2D numerical modelling, covering hydrodynamics,
sediment transport and morphological evolution. The hydraulic laboratory
is well equipped for hydraulic and geomorphological experiments: three
devices are devoted to fluvial hydraulics (a canal 32 m long and 3.2
m wide, a tilting canal with compound sections 10 m long and 1.2 m
wide, and a tilting flume 7.5 m long and 0.5 m wide for sedimentological
studies). For experimental measurement, digital imaging techniques
were developed. The hydraulics Unit is also involved in several projects,
dealing with fluvial hydrodynamics and sediment transport : (1) Meuse
watershed : participation to the preparation of an integrated Meuse
Basin model for flood forecasting; (2) Meuse River : flood propagation
on the Upper Meuse, and between Ampsin-Neuville and Yvoz-Ramet; (3)
Sambre River : flow study in two reaches during flood events; (4)
Ichilo-Mamore River (Amazon tributary, Bolivia) : morphological evolution
study of Ichilo River near the harbour project of Mamorecillo and
of Mamore River at Trinidad and Guyaramerin.
For further information visit the Université catholique de
Louvain website on: www.ucl.ac.be
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