Real time instability of flow close to a scour affected abutment

For centuries, the interaction between the transport and hydrographic networks represents a signifcant issue in a country such as France. For example, the French railway network includes 1700 river-crossing structures and an important length of embankments either forming river banks or adjacent to watercourses exposed to scouring processes. Recently, various cases highlight the importance and vulnerability of civil transport works in relation to their environmental hazards, e.g. foods, and therefore the need to develop integrated observation tools and warning systems in the aim both of optimizing the management system and of increasing the knowledge on real scour processes. This paper relies to a French research project named SSHEAR which objective is to improve understanding of the scouring process through the use of innovative observation tools and physical and numerical hydraulic modelling. This part of the project aims at improving continuous monitoring in order to follow the evolution of the scour processes of a given bridge or abutment. After a presentation of the experimental site, the instrumentation is described as well as its in situ implementation. The data analysis process is given and results are commented before the presentation of some perspectives part.