People involved

The MUFFINS project is coordinated by Pierre-André Garambois (INRAE) (WP0). It is organized in one management plus three scientific WPs divided in tasks. Each WP is under the responsibility of a well-identified binomial of coordinators namely the project coordinator for WP0, Hélène Roux (IMFT) and Pascal Finaud-Guyot (INRIA Lemon) for WP1, Jérôme Monnier (IMT) and Pierre-André Garambois (INRAE) for WP2, Olivier Payrastre (Univ. Eiffel) and Christophe Laroche (Meteo Fr./SPCME) for WP3.
The consortium of the MUFFINS project team gathers scientists from leading French research institutes and operational services in the field of floods modeling and forecasting, damages and insurance. The originality and strength of this consortium, with existing strong collaborations and demonstrated experience, lie in his multidisciplinarity: Flood Forecasting, Hydrology-Hydraulics, Numerical Modeling, Applied Mathematics, Computational Methods, Statistics.

Scientific leaders

Pierre-André Garambois (INRAE, coordinator, co-leader of WP2) is researcher in hydrology-hydraulics at INRAE, RECOVER hydrological risks team, with Aix-Marseille University since 2019; he was formerly Associate Professor (Maître de Conférences) at INSA-Icube with Strasbourg University. He has a PhD in flash flood regional modeling focused on French Mediterranean catchments. He has developed his research activity in hydrological-hydraulic modeling using and adapting data assimilation techniques in the field of catchment-floods hydrology with multi-sourced data including satellite altimetry and imagery. He is a scientific contributor and co-developer of SMASH and DassFlow computational platforms.  Beside the coordination of WP 0, he will co-lead WP 2 and will be involved in all tasks of the project. He will be the main supervisor of the PhD2 and PhD3 on Task 1.3 and 2.2, the co-supervisor of the PhD4 on Task 2.3.

Hélène Roux (IMFT, co-leader of WP 1). She is Professor at Toulouse INP-IMFT. She has developed her research in numerical hydrology-hydraulics and has strong experience in physical processes related to flash floods. She participates in the development of the hydrological model MARINE, built at IMFT since 2000. She will be involved in all tasks of WP 1. She will co-supervise PhD2 and PhD3.

Pascal Finaud-Guyot (INRIA Lemon, co-leader of WP 1). He is Associate Professor in hydraulics at Montpellier University and member of the INRIA Lemon project-team. He has developed his research in numerical hydraulic modeling in the field of urban floods, has strong experience in effective and macroscopic hydraulic modeling approaches. He will co-lead and work on several tasks of WP 1. He will co-supervise PhD3.

Jérôme Monnier (IMT, is the co-leader of WP 2). He is Professor in Applied Mathematics at INSA Toulouse - IMT; likely in sabbatical at least 6 months (100% time research) in 2022. He has developed his research in mathematical and numerical modeling of geophysical flows, with a particular focus on (variational) data assimilation approaches. More recently, he has successfully developed original hybrid approaches mixing data assimilation algorithms and Artificial Neural Networks - ML. He is the main designer of the different versions of DassFlow software.He will be the main supervisor of the PhD4 on Task 2.3, a co-supervisor of the PhD3. He will bring his expertise on all WP if helpful.

Olivier Payrastre (Univ. Eiffel, co-leader of WP 3). He is researcher at Univ. Eiffel and has developed his activity in the fields of flash floods observation, understanding, frequency estimation, modelling and forecasting. He has an excellent knowledge of operational flood forecasting (OP was formerly deputy-head of SPC grand Delta, south of France). He will work on all tasks of WP 3 and will be involved tasks 1.1 and 1.3 of WP 1. He will be the main supervisor of PhD5 attached to Tasks 3.2 and 3.3, he will co-supervise PhD1 attached to Tasks 1.1 and 2.1.

Frédéric Pons (Cerema) is engineer at Cerema, he has a strong expertise in automatic inundation mapping and hydraulic modeling. He will be involved in Tasks 1.2, 1.3 and 3.3.

Bruno Janet (SCHAPI) is deputy-head of the modeling division of the French national flood forecast center (SCHAPI), he is specialized in applied hydrological-hydraulic modeling and flood forecasting. He will participate to all WP.

Christophe Laroche (SPC MedEst / Météo France, co-leader of WP3). He is engineer in hydraulics and flood forecasting , he is deputy-head of SPC MedEst, He will work on all tasks of WP 3 and participate to T1.3.

David Moncoulon (CCR) is head of Department "R&D Modelling - Cat. and Agriculture" of CCR. He has strong expertise in flood damages modeling and insurance issues. He will be involved in WP3.

Other project members:

Permanent staff

Patrick Arnaud is research engineer at INRAE and head of the RHAX team, he has strong expertise in rainfall statistical modeling and hydrological modeling of flash floods. He will provide his knowledge and analysis to all WP.

Ludovic Cassan is associate professor at Toulouse INP-IMFT. He has strong expertise in river hydraulics, friction modeling on macrorugosity, measurement techniques including LSPIV. He will be involved in WP1 and WP2.

Catherine Fouchier is research engineer at INRAE with strong expertise in operational flash flood forecasting and damages. He will be involved in all WP.

Eric Gaume is Research Professor at Univ. Eiffel and has strong expertise in flash floods, statistical and deterministic modeling methods. He will provide his knowledge to all WP.

Karine Gonet is engineer in flood forecasting at SPC MedEst, she will participate to WP 3.

Pierre Javelle is research engineer at INRAE with strong expertise in rainfall nowcasting and hydrological modeling and forecasting of flash floods and damages. He will be involved in all WP.

Jean Pansu is engineer in meteorology, he has strong experience in operational hydro-meteorological forecasts, especially in the Mediterranean region and on the project study cases (formerly deputy-head of SPC MedEst). He will participate to 3 and T2.1. He will be the main supervisor of PhD1 attached to Tasks 1.1 and 2.1.

Jean-Philippe Naulin is Cat Modeler at CCR with strong expertise in flood damages modeling and insurance issues. He will be involved in WP3.

Pierre Nicole is research engineer at Univ. Eiffel and has strong expertise in hydrology-hydraulics modeling. He will be involved in all WP.

Antoine Rousseau is researcher at INRIA Lemon, he has strong expertise mathematical and numerical modeling of geophysical flows, modelis coupling. He will be involved in WP1.

Gwladys Toulemonde is associate professor at Montpellier University and member of the INRIA Lemon project-team, she has strong expertise in mathematical and statistical modeling, epecially of rainfall fields and extreme events in the mediterranean region. She will be involved in WP2.

Laurent Bonnifait (Cerema) is engineer with strong expertise in floods hydrology, hydraulics and hydrometry. He will be involved in Tasks 1.2, 1.3 and 3.3.

Mathieu Alquier (Cerema) is engineer with strong expertise in automatic inundation mapping and hydraulic modeling. He will be involved in Tasks 1.2, 1.3 and 3.3.

PhD students, Postdocs, short track engineers

Mustapha Alabou - PhD student at IMT since 2022, co supervised with INRAE, on 2D shallow water model reduction for real time inundation forecasting (WP2)

Hugo Boulenc - PhD student at IMT since 2022, co-supervised with INRAE, on inverse problems resolution with hybrid approaches - machine learning and ODE-PDE flood models (WP2)

Juliette Godet - PhD student at UGE since 2022, co-supervised with INRAE, on full hydrometeo-hydrau chain (Tasks 3.2 and 3.3)

Nabil Hocini - research engineer at CEREMA since 2021, on automatic hydraulic modeling tools

Truyen Huynh - PhD student at INRAE since 2022, co-supervised with IMFT, on hydrological models regionalization and DA (Task 1.2 and 2.2)

Lilian Villenave - research engineer at INRAE (2021-2022), on Python-Fortran interfacing of DassFLow 2D and hydrological-hydraulic coupling algorithms