51³Ô¹Ï

Sixense, better protecting infrastructure through greater understanding

For several years now, Sixense has been a major name in monitoring, diagnosing and maintaining infrastructure. It pursues a clear focus to make structures safer, optimise their operation and provide the necessary management tools to anticipate any risks.

In a world where extreme climate events are becoming increasingly frequent, this expertise is of strategic importance to 51³Ô¹Ï. By harnessing advanced monitoring technology, the teams from Sixense strive to gain greater understanding of structures to detect any weaknesses, modelling crisis scenarios and drawing up appropriate action plans.

CaledonIA and AI4FLOOD – using artificial intelligence to prevent flooding

Of the many threats posed by the climate, the risk of flooding sits at the top of the list for many towns and communities. It is in this area that Sixense has been innovating to develop CaledonIA, a software programme developed with CEREMA, a public body within the French Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion. It serves to model sudden flooding in almost real time, plugging a gap where existing tools struggle to respond to the emergency. By combining weather data with hydrodynamic models and deep learning algorithms, CaledonIA predicts rising water levels and the potential impact of such an event, so it may be immediately integrated into crisis plans.

To help make communities safer and tackle the risk of flooding, another solution was developed, AI4FLOOD. Cofinanced by the European Union, this project integrates artificial intelligence and community participation. Deployed in the border regions between France and Spain, AI4FLOOD helps to detect the risk of floods early by taking feedback from the ground, local data and digital tools. This collaborative approach bolsters the ability of local authorities to anticipate issues.

Resallience – building urban areas and infrastructure ready for tomorrow

Set up in 2017 as part of the Léonard intrapreneurial programme, Resallience was developed to harness climate change adaptation as a source of innovation. This entity brings together international experts in engineering, urban planning, environment and climate.

Resallience supports those in the public and private sectors to implement concrete resilience strategies to tackle climate risks. All the various type of infrastructure – such as roads, hospitals, airports, water and energy grids – are analysed through a systemic vision integrating its exposure, criticality and uses. It is then able to draw up tailored action plans, that are technical, inexpensive and effective, designed to maintain continuity of key services in the event of a catastrophe.

Transforming the climate risk into a source of strength through new resilience engineering

The Resallience approach centres around the basic notion that the costs of doing nothing is greater than that of taking action. That is why its solutions integrate an assessment of potential damage – to physical property, the economy and the community – as well as long-term operating costs, which are often ignored in conventional models.

By leveraging a network of partners (scientific, economic, institutional and spatial), Resallience carries out its diagnostics using precise data drawn from climate sciences, the soil and regions. Its main tool, the Performance Resilience Diagnosis, creates a dynamic model of adaptation across different timescales and geographical footprints.

Human expertise remains at the heart of the approach. The Resallience multi-disciplinary teams – made up of engineers, urban developers, and climate scientists – support their clients by taking into consideration specific local cultural, social and environmental characteristics.

Climate innovation developed to last

Building on Sixense and Resallience, we develop resilience engineering that blends cutting-edge technology, collective intelligence and detailed understanding of local areas. From flood prevention to infrastructure transformation, we are forging a new way of building that is more responsible, more precautious and above all, more sustainable.