The Variation in Boulder Bars Triggered by the 2018 Sedongpu Natural Dam Failure in the Yarlung Tsangpo River

Xiangang Jiang (), Xinlin Xie, Zhehao Guo, Anders Wörman, Xingrong Liu, Weiming Liu and Yiqin Xie
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Xiangang Jiang: College of Civil Engineering, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611830, China
Xinlin Xie: College of Civil Engineering, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611830, China
Zhehao Guo: College of Civil Engineering, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611830, China
Anders Wörman: Division of River Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Xingrong Liu: Geological Hazards Prevention Institute, Gansu Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Weiming Liu: CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Surface Process, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Chengdu 610041, China
Yiqin Xie: Key Laboratory of Sediment Science and Northern River Training, The Ministry of Water Resources, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100080, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: Natural dams are formed most often in narrow, steep valleys in high mountains. The outburst floods triggered by natural dam failures result in the topography and landforms successively being altered. Boulder bars are common natural structures that are selected here to quantitatively evaluate the impact of outburst floods on the topographical and landform variations in downstream channels. In this study, we selected the Sedongpu natural dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River formed as a result of a landslide in 2018 as an example, and studied the geomorphological changes in a river reach located 173 km downstream of the Sedongpu natural dam. The sizes and shapes of the boulder bars in this area were statistically analyzed. The results show that there are three shape types of boulder bars in this area, i.e., sickle, bamboo leaf and oval. Furthermore, it found that the relationship between the lengths and widths of boulder bars is similar before and after outburst floods, as is the relationship between perimeters and lengths of boulder bars, which means these relationships are not affected by outburst floods. And the perimeters of boulder bars are almost twice their lengths. In addition, the relationship between the areas and lengths of boulder bars follows a power function. The most important finding is that the riverine morphological features conserved self-similarity due the influence of the outburst flood erosion triggered by a natural dam failure. This finding adds to the previous observations since dam failures introduce sudden and dominating impacts on river systems.

Keywords: natural dam; boulder bar; evolution mode; outburst flood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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