Les ports maritimes : des clients traditionnels de l'hydrotechnique

Seaports : traditional customers of hydraulic engineering

Ingénieur Général Honoraire des Ponts et Chaussées Ancien Directeur des Ports Maritimes et des Voies Navigables au ministère de l'Equipement.

Abstract

As seaports have naturally "their feet in water", they always used and will be using hydraulic engineering. Their mission - which consists in giving to ships an area protected from open sea agitation - is not changing during centuries, but their size has been considerably growing up. Also the nature of associated hydrotechnical problems does not change but their importance has been increasing, as well as morphological and ecological effects on surrounding coastal area. Due to progress made in mathematical and physical modelisation (with fixed or moving bed, and possibly irregular waves), many problems are solved with a good accuracy. But considering random feature of sea medium, and because of discontinuous and long-term harbour facilities investments, the contracting authority has to take carefully the technical and economical decisions according to the results of models.