1. Catastrophe models: needs, concepts and operational implementation.  The purpose of catastrophe modelling is to help communities and companies anticipate the likelihood and severity of potential future catastrophes before they occur so that they can adequately prepare for their financial impact. Insurances and reinsurance companies at the worldwide scale currently develop these approaches. Catastrophe modelling combines the four components - hazard, inventory, vulnerability, and loss - to aid insurers in making their decisions on what type of protection they can offer against a particular risk. Integration of hydroinformatics methods and tools in these approaches is a real challenge that will be discussed trough examples from USA, Europe and Asia. The session will offer the possibility to various communities to exchanges on their practices and to explore further closer collaborations. 

2. Maths & hydroinformatics: emerging approaches. In the field of environmental hydraulics, there has been a notable increase in the use of numerical models for more and more complex problems in the last ten years. This was made possible, among other things, thanks to a strong collaboration between mathematicians and hydraulic practionners. We can notice as varied applications as modelling of complex of physical processes (sludge flow, debris flows etc), real-time flood forecasting, shape optimization etc. This symposium will focus on practical illustrations of the contribution and need for mathematical techniques in the field of hydro-environmental modelling.

3. Models for coastal areas management: Population and economic growths, climate change, exert increasing pressures on the coastal areas. Modelling tools can provide support for the analysis of many risk situations, such as coastal submersion and coastal erosion risks, wave damages on fixed and floating structures, pollution monitoring (oil drift, dispersion of pollutants, etc.), propagation of tsunami waves, etc. Models with different approaches are adapted to different contexts: hazard and risk appraisal, damage and resilience evaluation, crisis management including evacuation of populations and help web services. As in other domains, models addressing coastal risk situations are progressively improved to produce evaluation of uncertainties regarding input data and other constraints. This session will be an opportunity to discuss all these points including the robustness and flexibility of the models.

4. Physical models & numerical models: Physical models are often used today in conjunction with numerical models when designing or analyzing hydraulic structures or river stretches. For some extreme situations, it’s still necessary to use physical models. This is for example the case for flows with high solid transport, or when multiple and complex physical phenomena are involved. The evolution and development of sensors or measurement techniques also allow to improve the content and quality of results. The objective of this session is to illustrate, on the basis of specific projects, the advantages of these two types of modelling and their synergy. Highlight will be done especially on the benefit of the physical model / numerical model coupling.

5. Urban hydrogeology and stormwater management : Urban land-use changes the water balance drastically and urban groundwater is threatened by overexploitation and contamination from a multitude of sources. Urban groundwater has also become subject to geothermal use. Overexploitation may have critical consequences such as deep depletion, warming, pollution, and high salinization in coastal areas. Here, all contributions are encouraged on urban groundwater use and urban impacts on groundwater and its receiving waters. Among these questions, the session will focus on the interaction between groundwater and all systems of stormwater management. The quantity of recharge by a portion of net rainfall, through either direct infiltration from the ground surface or indirect leakage from the sewers and drainage network, has a considerable impact on the groundwater dynamics. This may be enhanced by intentionally recharging aquifers by rainwater. Treated wastewater disposal through groundwater recharge projects is a parallel problematic. In some cases, the aquifer is crucial as an element within the global concept of flood management. This is when an integrated hydraulic modelling tool is an asset for water resources management.