COUTAGNE

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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1882 Lyon/F - 29.11.1970 Saint-Genis-Laval/F

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According to Maurice Pardé (1893-1973), Coutagne was a scientist who should be remembered mainly by geographers because of significant contributions to the continental hydrology and the hydrology of catchments. Aimé Coutagne graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1905 and spent his first twenty years mainly with the French metal industry. In 1927 he settled finally close to his hometown Lyon and started working as a private consultant in hydrology. He was awarded Officer of Légion d'Honneur in 1927 and elected Corresponding Member of Académie des Sciences, Paris, in 1953. Coutagne presided over the hydrological section of the National Committee on Geodesy and Geophysics.

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Coutagne's particular interest was the global water balance for a river catchment. He noted that for the four large French Rivers Seine, Loire, Gironde and Rhone, there resulted a water deficit of some 500 mm per annum. However, the average runoff coefficients of Seine and Rhone Rivers were determined to 0.30 and 0.55; the latter catchment thus discharges almost the double quantity of all the precipitations of the first. This deficit in runoff is a basic hydrologic quantity that allows explaining the fluvial modules and is a design basis for profitableness of a hydropower installation. By detailed field observations, Coutagne predicted several of the hydrologic features, such as evaporation, infiltration or glacial storage phenomena.

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_{Coutagne, A. (1925). Contribution à l'étude de l'hydrologie fluviale. 3 Congrès de la Houille Blanche Grenoble 2: 983-1011.}

_{Coutagne, A. (1949). Etude générale des variations de débit en fonction des facteurs qui les conditionnent. La Houille Blanche 4(3/4): 134-146; 5(1/2): 32-46.}

_{Coutagne, A. (1951). Des covariations interfluviales. La Houille Blanche 6(1): 69-76. Coutagne, A. (1951). Périodicités et prévisions. La Houille Blanche 6(7/8): 464-474. Coutagne, A. (1952). Initiation mathématique à l'hydrologie fluviale. La Houille Blanche 7(4): 245-268.}

_{Coutagne, J. (2003). Aimé Coutagne. Personal communication. P}

_{Legendre, R. (1970). Notice nécrologique sur Aimé Coutagne, Correspondant pour la Section de Géographie et Navigation. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Paris, Vie Académique 271: 119-120.}

_{Pardé, M. (1970). Sur un très grand hydrologue récemment disparu: Aimé Coutagne. Revue de Géographie Alpine 59: 363-369.}