Simulation of the Paris 1910 flood with a lumped hydrological model: the influence of frozen soil.

Abstract: In 1910, Paris experienced its biggest flood in the 20th century. In 2010, for the anniversary of this event – supposed to happen every 100 years ! – the flood prediction model that is now used on the Seine basin was tested on its simulation,… and failed to reproduce the observed flood volume. This paper will try to explain, and correct, such disappointing results. Many hypotheses have been tested and based on their results, it has been decided to develop a frost module in order to assess the influence of this phenomenon – that is not taken into account by the lumped hydrological model that is used – on the flood formation. A soil temperature model using air temperature as input data was also designed because soil temperature data were not available in 1910. The addition of the frost module did not, however, bring many improvements to the 1910 flood simulation because frost is a too rare phenomenon on the Seine basin for the module to be correctly calibrated. However, new perspectives are presented to continue the research on this phenomenon.