The Variation in Boulder Bars Triggered by the 2018 Sedongpu Natural Dam Failure in the Yarlung Tsangpo RiverShow others and affiliations
2024 (English)In: Land, E-ISSN 2073-445X, Vol. 13, no 9, article id 1517
Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
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.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) , 2024. Vol. 13, no 9, article id 1517
Keywords [en]
boulder bar, evolution mode, natural dam, outburst flood
National Category
Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-354639DOI: 10.3390/land13091517ISI: 001323523000001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85205291410OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-354639DiVA, id: diva2:1904535
Note
QC 20241010
2024-10-092024-10-092024-10-14Bibliographically approved