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VanAverbeke_42511800_2023.pdf
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- Water, an essential element for life, can suddenly turn into an enemy in special circumstances. These situations can sometimes lead to the occurrence of flooding phenomena that can affect every corner of the world. The recurrence and increasing scale of these events are causing growing concern, partly as a result of climate change. A striking example of this reality occurred from July 13 to 17, 2021, in Belgium, where floods caused one of the country's largest natural disasters. The inhabitants of Theux were particularly affected when the Hoëgne, the river that runs through the town, burst its banks. This trauma reinforced the population's desire to take measures to prevent such events from happening again in the future. The aim of this thesis is to numerically model the flooding that occurred in the commune of Theux, with the ultimate aim of proposing development solutions to fight this phenomenon. To this end, the "Hydroflow" calculation code was used to simulate the flow within the town in response to rainfall in July 2021. This program solves the two-dimensional Saint-Venant equations using the finite volume method on an unstructured mesh. To reproduce the flow in the Hoëgne during this event at the entrance of Theux, the "SCS-LR" distributed hydrological model, available in the ATHYS software package, was used. This work showed that the "SCS-LR" hydrological model and the "Hydroflow" calculation code were able to reproduce the flow and flooding at Theux in July 2021 fairly accurately, despite some minor inaccuracies in the data. Using these models, we were able to study other, less exceptional rainfall events than that of July 2021, and come up with development solutions. The proposal for a flood expansion zone seems feasible in the future and would enable us to fight heavy rainfall, although it requires further study before concrete implementation. It is important to note that this solution would not prevent flooding on a scale similar to that of July 2021, but it would still considerably reduce water levels in the city.