Whitewater stadiums by HYDROSTADIUM

A whitewater stadium is a facility that enables whitewater sports (canoeing, kayaking, whitewater swimming, rafting, tubing, hot-dogging…) to be practised in an organised and safe environment. This type of development supports the growth of outdoor sports in urban areas. As a genuine attraction, it brings the freshness of whitewater to the heart of cities.

There are different ways of creating a whitewater stadium depending on the resources available at the site. The location chosen for the construction of Athens’ Olympic whitewater stadium provides an extreme example of this. Indeed, located in the heart of Athens, on the site of the former Hellinikon International Airport, this whitewater stadium is supplied with seawater pumped from 3 kilometres upstream. Each site therefore has its own solution. However, projects on this scale are exceptional.

To build a whitewater stadium, three parameters must be taken into account:

To build a whitewater stadium, three parameters must be taken into account:

  • Firstly, the land area, which ranges from 6,000 m² (Tournon Saint Martin whitewater stadium) to 70,000 m² (Athens whitewater stadium) depending on the project’s objectives.
  • Secondly, the water supply, which may be natural by gravity, provided by tidal storage, ensured by a pumping station that transfers water from the downstream end to the upstream start, or a combination of these methods.
  • Thirdly, the slope, which must be between 0.5% and 2.5%. For a 300-metre whitewater stadium, the proposed elevation difference will be approximately 5 metres.
Creating a whitewater stadium according to the site's resources

Creating a whitewater stadium according to the site's resources

Each of these parameters may occur naturally at a given site or, conversely, may be created artificially:

  • If you have water and a gradient: develop the existing river by modifying the bed profile through rock excavation or rock placement.
  • If you do not have water but do have a gradient: create a downstream basin and pump the water back up.
  • If you have water and a drop: use the difference in elevation created by a dam and build a bypass river that will spread the drop over its length.
  • If you have neither water nor a gradient: level a small hill, create a downstream basin and pump the water back up.
  • If you have water but no gradient: install a pumping station that will pump the water back up to the top of your whitewater stadium.
  • If you are by the sea: build a small dam in an estuary and store high-tide water.

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