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An extreme May 2018 debris flood case study in northern Slovenia: analysis, modelling, and mitigation

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Abstract

Debris floods can cause large economic damage and endanger human lives. This paper presents an extreme May 2018 debris flood that occurred in northern Slovenia near the Krvavec ski resort and caused large economic damage. The debris flood was initiated by an extreme rainfall event with a return period of over 50 years. There were large differences in the measured rainfall amounts using different equipment. The estimated volume of the debris material during the event was 4000 m3/km2 for the Brezovški graben. In order to mitigate the risk due to future debris flood and debris flow events, a check is planned to be constructed. The part of the design process is presented in this paper. Additionally, RAMMS model was used to validate the empirical equations that were used in the process of the check dam stability design. The model was calibrated using information about the deposition area. Two adjacent torrents were modelled, and we were not able to find a common RAMMS parameter set that would yield adequate simulation performance in both cases.

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Funding

The results of this study are part of the research projects J7-8273 “Recognition of Potentially Hazardous Torrential Fans Using Geomorphometric Methods and Simulating Fan Formation” and J1-8153 “Studying Landslide Movements from Source Areas to Zone of Deposition using a Deterministic Approach” that are financed by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS). Both projects were approved by the International Programme on Landslides (IPL) as the IPL-225 and IPL-226 Project, respectively (http://iplhq.org/category/iplhq/ipl-ongoing-project/). We would like to thank the Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO) for data provision. The check dam design and design of other mitigation measures were financed by the Slovenian Water Agency. We would like to thank anonymous reviewer and editorial board members for their insightful comments that improved the quality of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Jamova cesta 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Nejc Bezak, Jošt Sodnik & Matjaž Mikoš

  2. Geological Survey of Slovenia, Dimičeva ulica, 14, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Jernej Jež & Mateja Jemec Auflič

  3. Tempos, Environmental Civil Engineering Ltd, Tehnološki park, 21, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Jošt Sodnik

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  1. Nejc Bezak
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  4. Mateja Jemec Auflič
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  5. Matjaž Mikoš
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Correspondence to Nejc Bezak.

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Bezak, N., Jež, J., Sodnik, J. et al. An extreme May 2018 debris flood case study in northern Slovenia: analysis, modelling, and mitigation. Landslides 17, 2373–2383 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01325-1

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