“In 2014, the Biarritz casino (Editor’s note: Pyrénées-Atlantiques) got his feet in the water twice, because of the swell, I had never seen that ”, recalls Romain Chapron. It was then that the owner of Wave Bumper developed a removable dyke made up of “large bags filled with sand, more stable than the sand dunes made until then”.
But the casino episode is not isolated. “With rising sea levels and rising temperatures, storms over the ocean are getting more intense. It is visible all over the world, ”he explains. For him, the stakes are as environmental as they are economic: “The coast generates tourism and 60% of the world population lives on the coasts less than one meter high. “
In its design office, it brings together engineers in dimensioning, structure and coastal hydrodynamics. Together they develop the composite material for the wave reflector shield which they add to the sandbag.
Less polluting than a concrete dam
“The waves hit against it, it acts as a shock absorber. »Innovative and removable tools. “It’s less destructive than a concrete dike which pollutes and accelerates erosion”, underlines the inventor, who now protects the Hôtel du Palais in Biarritz, the Majestic in Cannes but also houses and roads in the Mediterranean. , in the Caribbean or on the Atlantic coast.
He has also just signed a contract with the American army to protect a district of New York: “This time, the dike can be installed entirely by hand, without backhoe loaders, it was sized to withstand a typical hurricane. Irma. As soon as he can, Romain Chapron comes to test his new tools in Biarritz, a pilot city on the way to becoming a life-size laboratory.
“We have 42 km of coast with beaches, dunes and urbanization, various cases to study. And the bottom of the Bay of Biscay is one of the most dynamic waters in the world. »A coastline more and more often on the front line. “This is the 4th time that we have been on submersion alert in Biarritz since September. “
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