Duband, Daniel
Contents
Photograph[edit]
Dates[edit]
Daniel Duband 1934 (Grasse – France) - 2011 (Saint Egrève – France)
Biography[edit]
Daniel Duband was born in Grasse, on the French Riviera in April 1934 but he spent his youth in Africa (Congo, Cameroun and in South Africa) and a few years in India (Comptoirs français). He went back to France to go to college in Paris. After a licence in mathematics, he joined the Institut de Statistiques de l’Université de Paris (ISUP) where he graduated in 1959. He was then called up for military service, where he was partly stationed in Algéria,
From 1962 he worked for Electricité de France (EDF) first as an operational engineer in charge of forecasting seasonal and weekly yields for existing reservoirs, and to elaborate design floods for new sites and installations. He then worked as a research engineer in hydrometeorology, particularly on the statistico-dynamic forecasts of daily precipitation in order to gain longer lead time in the management of hydropower and other structures. In 1970, he submitted a doctorate thesis at the Université de Paris on this topic. This lead on to his interest in forecasting river discharges and floods, particularly for reservoir inflows and downstream flood wave propagation. From 1977-1981 he was leading the Group on hydrometeorological data processing of the Forecasting Service of EDF, and from 1982-1985: Head of the “Centre Hydrométéorologique Alpes” of EDF. In charge of hydrological and meteorological studies and developments, and in charge of the emergency centre for flood forecasting of EDF in the Alpine region.
From 1986-1994 he was Head of the Water Resources Service at the General Technical Division (DTG) of Electricité de France (EDF). The DTG was at that time the RTD center of EDF, the Water Resources Service directed by Dr. Daniel Duband had 25 Engineers and 65 Technicians, surveying more than 1200 hydrometeorological measuring points in France and three real-time operational centers (Toulouse, Grenoble and Brive) under his Direction. During this time, he also acted as a part-time Expert for d’Hydro-Québec-CANADA (1993-1994) for the design of the new policies of hydraulic works to face natural hazards and vulnerability. From 1994-1996 he was Project leader on Water Management in the Production and Transport Direction of Electricite de France (EDF), in charge of the hydropower generation studies. He also acted as Coordinator of RTD projects with the French regional Water Agencies, with the Ministry of Environment and other French research institutions (CEMAGREF, MétéoFrance, ORSTOM, lENSHMG, CNRS and a number of French Universities). During this time he also held a position as Professor at “l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Hydraulique et de Mécanique de Grenoble” (INPG) (1969-1999).
On retiring from EDF in 1996 he continued work as an Expert Advisor in Hydrologie-Climatologie-Hydrométéorologie including steering groups for a number of international projects. He was also deeply involved in the functioning of the Société Hydrotechnique de France and was a charismatic facilitator of its Water and Environment Division.
Hydrological Achievements[edit]
Daniel Duband made a significant contribution with P. Guillot (1967) to the GRADEX method of flood frequency estimation from rainfall statistics, that is still widely used in France and elsewhere (see for exemple Duband et al. 1988).
In collaboration with Charles Obled and a succession of doctoral students at Grenoble, he made some interesting contributions to the use of transfer function techniques in flood-forecasting, in particular developing the DPFT (DIFFÉRENCE PREMIÈRE DE LA FONCTION DE TRANSFERT) method, a robust statistic-empirical method to identify unit hydrographs. As a follow-up of his thesis work, and given the development of meteorological products (either forecasts or reanalyses) he encouraged the use of ensembles of historical analogue storms for extending forecasts beyond the natural lag time of a catchment.
More detail can be found in the papers by Tourasse and Obled published in La Houille Blanche in 2014.
Reference Material[edit]
Obled Ch. (2014) — Daniel Duband : 50 ans de contributions scientifiques à l’hydrologie statistique (1962‐2011). La Houille Blanche. No. 2, 2014: 55-68. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/lhb/2014017
Tourasse, P, 2014, Contribution de Daniel Duband à l’hydrométéorologie opérationnelle d’aujourd’hui, La Houille Blanche, n° 2, 2014, p. 69-80 DOI 10.1051/lhb/2014018
Major Publications[edit]
Duband D., Bois Ph. (2005) — Rapport sur la crue du Rhône et ses affluents du 1er au 5 décembre 2003 ‐ Conférence du consensus du 26 au 28 juillet 2005. 40 p
Duband D., Schoeneich Ph., Stanescu V.A. (2004) — Exemple de l’étiage 1921 en Europe (Italie, France, Roumanie, Suisse, ...) : climatologie et hydrologie. La Houille Blanche. 5 18‐29
D. Duband. 2002 Extreme Rainfall and Flood Events in autumn during 19th and 20th centuries in southern Europe basins influenced by Mediterranean meteorological conditions. 2002. 16:19-10-2002, Barcelone Spain.
D. Duband. 2000. Les aléas extrêmes de crues et inondations – Colloque Risques et Génie Civil – Paris 8/9 novembre 2000 .
D. Duband. 2000. Les risques et contraintes climatiques extension spatiale et temporelle d’extremes AIC , 6-9 septembre 2000 Nice,France.
D. Duband. 1999. Réflexion actuelle sur la prévision hydrométéorologique – Colloque SHF – La gestion des risques liés aux inondations – 29/30 septembre 1999 Paris (France).
D. Duband. 1997. La prévision hydrométéorologique opérationnelle (exemple de mise en œuvre à Electricité de France). Séminaire internationnal sur les risques d’eau au VIETNAM - Hanoï – novembre 1997.
D. Duband. 1995. L’utilisation de l’information météorologique en Hydrologie – Conférence invitée – ECAM 95. 2ème Conférence Européenne sur les Applications de la Météorologie, Toulouse, 25-29 septembre 95.
D. Duband, C. Obled and J.Y. Rodriguez. 1993. Unit hydrograph revisited – an alternate iterative approach to UH and effective precipitation identification, Journal of Hydrology 150, pp. 115–149.
Duband D. (1992) — Peut‐on discerner actuellement dans l’ana‐ lyse des chroniques historiques de mesures climatologiques une perspective de changement climatique. XXIIèmes journées de l’Hydraulique ‐ L’avenir de l’eau, Paris, 15‐17 septembre 1992. 12 p
Duband, D and Lallemant, C., 1992, 40 years snow cover measurements in France: network evaluation, forecast interest (application of historical and real-time data to the multipurpose of water management, paper presented at the Western Snow Conference, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Duband, D., Nalbantis, I., Obled, C., Tourasse, P. and Rodriguez, J.Y., 1990. Unit hydrograph revisited: the first differenced transfer function (FDTF) approach. In Hydrology of Mountainous Areas, Proc. Štrbské Pleso Workshop (pp. 377-389). IAHS Oxford.
Duband D., Tourasse P., Pinte J. (1989) — Le déficit des pré‐ cipitations dans le sud de la France (pluie‐neige) pendant l’hiver 1988‐1989 : conséquences sur l’hydrologie de haute et moyenne montagne. La Houille Blanche. 7‐8 534‐543
D. Duband. 1988. Theorical and practical models for the implementation of monitoring and forecast systems for rivers discharges – IFAC – Rabat –Morocco 10/1988.
Duband D., MicheL C., Garros, H. et Astier J. (1988) — Evaluation des Crues Extrêmes et de la Crue de Projet par la Méthode du Gradex. Estimating Extreme value Floods and the Design Flood by the Gradex Method. Commission Internationale des Grands Barrages, XVI ème Congrès des grands Barrages, San Francisco, Q 63‐R60. IV 1009‐1047
D. Duband. 1998. Mise en œuvre opérationnelle d’une prévision des crues – La Houille Blanche n°5/6.
D. Duband. 1981. Prévision spatiale des hauteurs de précipitations journalières – La Houille Blanche n° 7/8.
P. GUILLOT, D. DUBAND - La méthode du GRADEX pour le calcul de la probabilité des crues à partir des pluies - IASH, publication N° 84, 1967.
