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Numerical assessment of the impeding effect of check dams in the Hongchun debris flow gully, Sichuan Province, China

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Abstract

To mitigate potential damage from debris flows, numerous check dams have been constructed in thousands of debris flow gullies all over the world. However, the efficiencies of these check dams are largely unknown because they are normally designed based on empirical methods. This paper presents an assessment of the impeding effect of check dams constructed in the Hongchun debris flow gully in Sichuan Province, China by using an improved finite difference model. Compared with other models, the improved model can consider both the impeding effect of check dams and bed entrainment. We analyzed the impeding effect of these check dams on different initial scales of debris flows. The results show that these check dams perform quite well in constraining bed entrainment downstream of the gully. The average velocity, peak discharge, and final scale of a debris flow in the gully can be substantially reduced by constructed check dams. The impeding effect is sufficient when the initial volume of the debris flow is less than 1.5 times that of the catastrophic debris flow event that occurred in this gully on 14 August 2010. This study improves our understanding of the influence of check dams on the dynamic and bed entrainment processes of debris flows. The model adopted in this study can be a robust tool to quantify the efficiencies of existing check dams and provide reasonable guidance in the design of check dams in debris flow gullies.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the anonymous referees for carefully reading the manuscript and providing constructive comments to help us improve the quality of this paper.

Funding

This research is funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41877266, 41790433), the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFC1501000, 2017YFC1501302), and the China Scholarship Council (CSC) – University of Bologna Joint Scholarship (File No. 201806560011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, Sichuan, China

    Wei Shen & Dongpo Wang

  2. Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy

    Wei Shen

  3. Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Surface Process, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Siming He

  4. Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Siming He

  5. Department of Geological Engineering, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710064, China

    Tonglu Li

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  1. Wei Shen
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Correspondence to Dongpo Wang.

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Shen, W., Wang, D., He, S. et al. Numerical assessment of the impeding effect of check dams in the Hongchun debris flow gully, Sichuan Province, China. Bull Eng Geol Environ 79, 2833–2845 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-020-01755-5

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