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Back analysis of breaching process of Baige landslide dam

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Abstract

On October 10 and November 3, 2018, two successive landslides occurred at Baige village, the border between Sichuan Province and Tibet Autonomous Region, in China, which totally dammed the Jinsha River on both occasions. Due to the rapid rise in water level in the “10·10” dammed lake, on October 12, the landslide dam breached naturally with the peak breach flow of about 10,000 m3/s. The residual landslide dam was stacked by the subsequent landslide on November 3, resulting in an even larger dammed lake. Fortunately, the height from the water level in the lake to the dam crest made it possible to construct a spillway to drain the water in the dammed lake to a relatively low level. On November 12, the drainage process began with the peak breach flow of 31,000 m3/s. In this study, based on the detailed records of the breach process of the “11·03” Baige landslide dam and using the developed physically based numerical method, a back analysis was conducted. The numerical method was developed based on the overtopping-induced breach mechanism of landslide dams. An iterative time step algorithm was used to simulate the breach evolution and the hydrograph coupling. The major highlights of the numerical method are the consideration of the breach mechanism of landslide dam, such as the breach morphology evolution process along the streamwise and transverse directions, as well as the variation of soil erodibility with depth and the influence of the presence and absence of a spillway. Comparison of the measured and the calculated results indicated that the numerical method developed in this study can reproduce reasonable breach hydrograph and breach evolution process. The sensitivity analysis showed that the soil erodibility coefficient and the residual dam height significantly influenced the landslide dam breaching process. In addition, it was determined that constructing a spillway before landslide dam breaching is an effective flood hazard mitigation measure for large dammed lakes. However, the availability of the construction conditions and the shape of the spillway should be judged comprehensively according to the rising rate of water level and construction capacity.

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Data availability statement

All data used in the study are available from the corresponding author by request.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFC1508604), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51779153 and 51539006), and the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Public Research Institutes (Grant No. Y319003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Failure Mechanism and Safety Control Techniques of Earth-rock Dam of the Ministry of Water Resources, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing, China

    Qiming Zhong & Shengshui Chen

  2. State Key Laboratory of Eco-hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, China

    Lin Wang

  3. Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing, China

    Yibo Shan

Authors
  1. Qiming Zhong
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  2. Shengshui Chen
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  3. Lin Wang
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  4. Yibo Shan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qiming Zhong.

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Zhong, Q., Chen, S., Wang, L. et al. Back analysis of breaching process of Baige landslide dam. Landslides 17, 1681–1692 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-020-01398-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-020-01398-3

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