The comparison with the communion rail that separated the sanctuary in a church was not unintentional. The chambre du roi marked the centre of the château de Versailles. By the second half of the sixteenth century, it had become a formal event, requiring invitation. [3] In 1563 Catherine de' Medici wrote in advice to her son, the King of France, to do as his father ( Henry II) had done and uphold the practice of lever. Catherine describes that Henry II allowed his subjects, from nobles to household servants, to come in while he dressed. She states this pleased his subjects and improved their opinion of him. [4] Stripping consists of removing low growing vegetation and organic topsoil, with the depth of the process determined by local conditions. It normally varies from between 6 to 12 inches. It is usually limited to the foundation of the levee itself, and not required under the berms. All stripped material that can be used for topsoil should be kept for later use, and unsuitable material should be disposed of by burning or in an environmentally approved manner. Insufficient planning: New Orleans' levee designs were based on an outdated 1965 study. Engineers built the levee system with the goal of creating a system that could stand up to the worst storm possible in 200 years. Unfortunately, the study greatly miscalculated how powerful potential storms could be.

Displacement by end dumping is also a possibility for low levees that are constructed across sloughs and stream channels whose bottoms consist of very soft fine-grained soils. The depths of these deposits may not be large, yet the cost of removing them may not be justified. In this case, fill can be end-dumped from one side of the slough or channel. The weight of the fill will eventually displace the foundation soils to the sides and front so that the levee can be brought to grade. In this process, the fill should be advanced with a V-shaped leading edge so that the center of the fill is most advanced, displacing the soft material to both sides. The displaced material will generally come visible along the sides of the fill, and should not be removed. One disadvantage of this method is that all of the soft material may not be displaced, which could result in slides. In emergencies, temporary levees can be made of sandbags. These soak up the water and usually prevent excess water from seeping past the sand. In parts of Britain, particularly Scotland and Northern England, a dyke may be a field wall, generally made with dry stone. levee". Oxford English Dictionary (Onlineed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) 1718–1720: "Dumont Plan, New Orleans" [map label]. Shown in Justin Winsor, (1895) The Mississippi basin: The struggle in America between England and France 1697–1763. Boston; New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company ISBN 0833747223. 1770: "The town [New Orleans] is secured from the inundations of the river by a raised bank, generally called the Levée." Philip Pittman, The Present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi; with a geographical description of that river. London New textiles: The Dutch also developed tough, synthetic textiles to better anchor earthen levees. These prevent soil movement and water penetration. The New Orleans levee system began using this technology following Hurricane Katrina.River flood prevention [ edit ] Broken levee on the Sacramento River A levee keeps high water on the Mississippi River from flooding Gretna, Louisiana, in March 2005. Speakers of American English use the word levee, from the French word levée (from the feminine past participle of the French verb lever, 'to raise'). It originated in New Orleans a few years after the city's founding in 1718 and was later adopted by English speakers. [8] The name derives from the trait of the levee's ridges being raised higher than both the channel and the surrounding floodplains. This practice was raised to a ceremonial custom at the court of King Louis XIV. [5] In the court etiquette that Louis formalised, the set of extremely elaborate conventions was divided into the grand lever, attended by the full court in the gallery outside the king's bedchamber, and the petit lever that transpired in degrees in the king's chamber, where only a very select group might serve the king as he rose and dressed. [5] In fact, the king had often risen early and put in some hours hunting before returning to bed for the start of the lever. Louis's grandson, King Philip V of Spain, and his queen typically spent all morning in bed, as reported by Saint-Simon, to avoid the pestering by ministers and courtiers that began with the lever. Gonzales, John Moreno. "Sign of Katrina Fatigue? Storm memorial delayed." Associated Press. July 12, 2008. (Aug. 4, 2008)

In Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, the levée of the French queen during the reigns of Louis XV and XVI is represented. Hao Zhang, Hajime Nakagawa, 2008, Scour around Spur Dyke: Recent Advances and Future Researches" (PDF). Dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022 . Retrieved 17 May 2013. The modern word dike or dyke most likely derives from the Dutch word dijk, with the construction of dikes well attested as early as the 11th century. The 126-kilometer-long (78mi) Westfriese Omringdijk, completed by 1250, was formed by connecting existing older dikes. The Roman chronicler Tacitus mentions that the rebellious Batavi pierced dikes to flood their land and to protect their retreat (70 CE). [9] The word dijk originally indicated both the trench and the bank. It closely parallels the English verb to dig. [10] Matt Rosenberg. "Dikes of the Netherlands— Geography". Geography.about.com. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009 . Retrieved 6 December 2014.

lev·ee

Based on the field investigation and the nature of the levee project, the location and spacing of borings should be determined by an engineer. Generally, initial borings are spaced from between 200 to 1,000 feet (60 to 300m) along the alignment. In expected problem areas, the borings should be spaced more closely together. The spacing should not be uniform, but should be based on geologic information. The borings can either be laid out along the levee centerline, or staggered along the alignment to cover more area and provide information on borrow materials. In Phase 2, the locations of borings should be based on Phase 1 results. Undisturbed sample borings should be located where data on soil shear strength is most needed. The most effective method is to group the foundation profiles, which have been developed on the basis of geological studies and exploration in similar conditions, and then locate undisturbed sample borings to define soil properties in critical reaches. Briaud, J., Chen, H., Govindasamy, A., Storesund, R. (2008). Levee erosion by overtopping in New Orleans during the Katrina Hurricane. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. 134 (5): 618–632.