River flood management: hydraulic assessment of Fusegated retention basins

Lateral river retention basins are fairly commonly occurring structures for managing river floods. In this paper, the hydraulic behaviour of an enhancement is discussed which utilizes the concept of a Fusegated spillway. The hydraulic analysis is undertaken using a finite difference model called ERCOLINO. This mathematical model allows the hydraulic and attenuation efficiency of standard basin spillway alternatives to be compared with the Fusegated spillway. The accuracy and reliability of the mathematical model has been validated against physical model tests for various configurations. The proposed model has been created to assist the designer in finding a suitable spillway configuration for river retention basins.