Flood and Lahar Control

ALAS, NORVIE P.
QUIJANO, JAMES GOODWILL
TEJADA, ALLAN CEDRIC P.
TOREJA, ROMARK

CE-4202
Flood Control
Flood Control
Flood - an overflowing of a large amount of water
beyond its normal confines, especially over what is
normally dry land.
Flood Control - refers to all methods used to
reduce or prevent the detrimental effects
of flood waters.
Types of flooding
Areal when floods happen on flat or low-lying areas and when
water is supplied by rainfall or snowmelt more rapidly than it can
either infiltrate or run off.
Riverine - occurs when rivers burst their banks as a result of
sustained or intense rainfall. Flooding can be worsened by melting
snow.
Estuarine and Coastal - is commonly caused by a combination of
sea tidal surges caused by winds and low barometric pressure, and
they may be exacerbated by high upstream river flow.
Types of flooding
Urban Flooding - is the inundation of land or property in a built
environment, particularly in more densely populated areas, caused
by rainfall overwhelming the capacity of drainage systems, such
as storm sewers.
Catastrophic - is usually associated with major infrastructure
failures such as the collapse of a dam, but they may also be caused by
drainage channel modification from
a landslide, earthquake or volcanic eruption.
AREAL FLOODING ESTUARINE/COASTAL FLOODING
RIVERINE FLOODING URBAN FLOODING
CATASTROPHIC FLOODING
Lahar Control
Introduction
Definitions
Volcanic Debris Flow (Lahar)
A type of mudflow or debris flow composed of slurry of
pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material
flows down from a volcano, typically along the river valley.
Lahars are extremely destructive: they can flow tens of
meters per second, be 140 meters (460ft) deep, and
destroy and structures in their path.
Volcanic Debris Flow (Lahar)
Definitions
Volcanic Debris Flow (Lahar)
Any mass movement involving volcanically derived,
sand-size material or finer.
This may be total mass moved.
More commonly this serves as a matrix for the
movement of larger volcanic clasts.
Water rich
Definitions
Volcanic Debris Flow (Lahar)
Thus range from slumped deposits of ash and
hyaloclastites to megabreccias.
Deposits may be relatively local (few 100 ms in
length and few meters thick)
To regional (10s of kms long and > 100 m in
thickness)
Formation
During eruptions
Reworking of volcanic debris during times of quiescence or after
volcano has become extinct
Ways of formation:
Heavy rains
Melting snow or ice (Jokulhaups)
Walls of crater lake collapse
Hydrothermal alteration- clay-rich rocks
Caldera collapse and mass wasting of walls
Earthquakes
Pyroclastic flows mix with water
Mass Movement
Once under way controlling factors for flow length and
speed are:
Grain size
Grain size distribution-electrochemical forces-clay
and silt-size
Solid to water ratio- laminar flow
Thicker near source
Follows valleys and depressions, fans out away from
valleys
Can cause erosion by undercutting banks of streams or
those of steep slopes- adds to sediment load (bulking up)
Since mid-June 1991, when violent eruptions triggered
Mount Pinatubo's first lahars in 500 years, a system to
monitor and warn of lahars has been in operation. Radio-
telemetered rain gauges provide data on rainfall in lahar
source regions, acoustic flow monitors on stream banks
detect ground vibration as lahars pass, and manned
watchpoints further confirm that lahars are rushing down
Pinatubo's slopes. This system has enabled warnings to
be sounded for most but not all major lahars at Pinatubo,
saving hundreds of lives. Physical preventative measures
by the Philippine government were not adequate to stop
over 20 feet (6.1 m) of mud from flooding many villages
around Mount Pinatubo from 1992 through 1998.
TITAN2D is a free software application developed by
the Geophysical Mass Flow Group at the State
University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. TITAN2D
was developed for the purpose of simulating granular
flows (primarily geological mass flows such as debris
avalanches and landslides) over digital elevation
models (DEM)s of natural terrain. The code is
designed to help scientists and civil protection
authorities assess the risk of, and mitigate, hazards due
to dry debris flows and avalanches. TITAN2D
combines numerical simulations of a flow with digital
elevation data of natural terrain supported through a
Geographical Information System (GIS) interface such
as GRASS.
Types of Lahar & Flood
Control Structures
Types of Lahar & Flood Control Structures
Check Dams
Retaining Walls
Bunding
Sausage Groynes
Gabion/Mattress Groynes
Paved Drains
Reservoirs
Types of Lahar & Flood Control Structures
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or
underground streams. Dams generally serve the
primary purpose of retaining water, while other
structures such as floodgates or levees (also known as
dikes) are used to manage or prevent water flow into
specific land regions.
Types of Lahar & Flood Control Structures
Check Dams
These are small gravity dams, usually constructed with
rocks and mortar or concrete, of variable height and
width.
This type of structures are located in small or medium
sized gullies to stabilize riverbed slopes and prevent soil
erosion.
Check dams, protect gullies from being eroded by rainfall
and runoff impact.
CHECK DAMS
Types of Lahar & Flood Control Structures

Retaining Walls
These are rock/concrete block structures built on steep
slopes anywhere in the watershed, where the erosion of
the base foundation threatens lands and/or homes.
RETAINING WALLS
Types of Lahar & Flood Control Structures
Bunding
Bunding is the general name used in Jamaica for flexible
structures of variable thickness and length, composed of
galvanized wire mesh, stone, wild-cane and riverbed
materials.
Bunding is used to prevent bank erosion and landslips
and to protect agricultural lands from being flooded.
Types of Lahar & Flood Control Structures
Sausage Groynes
These are long, cylindrical, slightly flexible structures of
variable thickness, composed of wire and rocks.
Groynes are placed at the foot of banks along small,
slow-moving streams, where there are signs of
undermining and threats to permanent structures.
Sausage groynes are designed to stop such action by
allowing the bank to collapse to an angle of repose in
such a manner as to form a moderate slope, which
encourages the growth of vegetation.
Types of Lahar & Flood Control Structures
Gabion/Mattress Groynes
These are long, flexible structures of variable thickness,
composed of wire and rocks.
They are placed on the shaped banks of large, fastmoving
streams where severe erosion is occurring and many pose
a danger to permanent structures.
Mattress groynes are designed to prevent the further
erosion of the riverbank. They trap soil particles to allow
a build-up of soil; thereby encouraging the growth of
vegetation.
GABION WALLS
Types of Lahar & Flood Control Structures
Paved Drains
1. Levees - are made of clay or earth fill material are
being used with some structural modifications and have
proven quite effective. The slopes of an earth fill levee
should be no more than 2:1.
2. Flood Walls of reinforced concrete - require very
little space and are often used to protect cities and
developed areas. They are costly to construct, but
involve minimal maintenance costs.
Types of Lahar & Flood Control Structures
Paved Drains
3. Channel Alterations - reduce floods by deepening
and widening the channel by cutting meanders. Sometimes
these works can have undesirable effects, by aiding the
sediment transport process. Care must be taken when
channel alternatives are considered.
4. Detention Ponds - ponds placed on and off-side, can
minimize the damage to downstream structures by
reducing peak flows. They should be considered in the
design of downstream protective structures.
PAVED DRAINS
Types of Lahar & Flood Control Structures
Reservoirs
Reservoirs are one of the most direct methods of flood
control through storing surface runoff; thus, attenuating
flood waves and storing flood water to be redistributed
without exceeding downstream flood conditions.
For flood control, it is ideal to maintain the reservoir at
the lowest level possible for storage.
On the other hand, keeping the reservoir at a high level
provides the ability to maintain low flows and
hydropower production in droughts.
RESERVOIR