Gray-Box Model of Inland Navigation Channel: Application to the Cuinchy-Fontinettes Reach

In a context of global change, the inland navigation transport has gained interest with economic and 1 environmental benefits. The development of this means of conveyance requires the improvement of its 2 management rules to deal with the increase of navigation (schedules and frequency) and the potential 3 impact of global change. To achieve this aim, it is firstly necessary to have a better knowledge about 4 the dynamics of inland navigation networks and their interaction with the environment. Secondly, 5 the potential effects of global change have to be anticipated. This paper focuses on the modeling of 6 inland navigation reaches. An inland navigation network is a large scale distributed system composed 7 of several interconnected reaches. These reaches are characterized by non-linearities, time-delays and 8 generally no significant slope. To deal with these particularities, a gray-box model is proposed. It 9 consists in determining the delays according to physical characteristics of the systems. The parameters 10 of the model are identified with measured data. The gray-box model is used to reproduce the dynamics 11 of the Cuinchy-Fontinettes reach located in the north of France. 12