Hydraulic modeling of glacial dam‐break floods on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania

The novelty of the research project reported in this paper is the coupling of hydrological and hydraulic modeling which are based on the first principal of fluid mechanics for the simulation of flash floods at Wadi Elarish watershed to optimize the a new location of another dam rather than Elrawfa dam which already exist. Results show that, the optimum scenario is obtained by the construction of the west dam. As a direct result of this dam, the downstream inundated area can be reduced up to 15.7 % as function of reservoir available storage behind the dam. Furthermore, calculations showed that the reduction rate of inundated area for 50-year floods is largely more than 100-year floods, implies the high ability of west dam on flood control especially for floods with shorter return period.

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Morphologic Investigation of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River in North-central Pennsylvania

World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2013 ◽

10.1061/9780784412947.222 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J. Newlin ◽

B. Hayes ◽

K. Yee

Keyword(s):

The West ◽

North Central ◽

Susquehanna River ◽

Central Pennsylvania

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Dam Break Modeling in a Cascade of Small Earthen Dams: Case Study of the Čižina River in the Czech Republic

Water ◽

10.3390/w12082309 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (8) ◽

pp. 2309

Author(s):

Jaromír Říha ◽

Stanislav Kotaška ◽

Lubomír Petrula

Keyword(s):

Hydraulic Modeling ◽

Dam Break ◽

Peak Discharge ◽

Flood Routing ◽

Small Reservoirs ◽

Small Dams ◽

Flood Volume ◽

Exponential Trend ◽

Earthen Dams

Failures of small dams can pose a serious threat to people and property even if the size of the schemes is relatively low. In many cases, small dams are situated in a cascade along streams, meaning that the failure of the uppermost dam may cause the dams downstream to fail. In this paper, a cascade of three small reservoirs, Lichnov II (14.6 m high), Lichnov III (10 m high), and Pocheň (8.5 m high), is the subject of the dam break analyses carried out via various methods such as empirical formulae, analogy, and hydraulic modeling. The dam-break flood routing was simulated using a shallow water flow hydraulic model. The simulations confirm that the attenuation effect of the peak discharge is governed by the flood volume, slope, and morphology of the floodplain and increases with the distance from the breached dam following an approximately exponential trend. When estimating peak discharge, empirical formulae derived for a single dam break should be applied carefully as they may underestimate the peak outflow by up to 10% in the case of a dam cascade. The attenuation volume of small reservoirs is small when compared to the flood volume, meaning that the attenuation of the peak discharge usually varies between 5–10%.

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Using 2D HEC-RAS Modeling and Embankment Dam Break Scenario for Assessing the Flood Control Capacity of a Multi-Reservoir System (NE Romania)

Water ◽

10.3390/w13010057 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 57

Author(s):

Andrei Urzică ◽

Alin Mihu-Pintilie ◽

Cristian Constantin Stoleriu ◽

Cătălin Ioan Cîmpianu ◽

Elena Huţanu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Flood Control ◽

Flood Hazard ◽

Hydraulic Modeling ◽

Dam Break ◽

Recurrence Interval ◽

Flood Mitigation ◽

Dam Failure ◽

Inflow Rate ◽

Embankment Dam ◽

Reservoir System

Using hydraulic modeling techniques (e.g., one-dimensional/two-dimensional (1D/2D) hydraulic modeling, dam break scenarios) for extracting the flood settings is an important aspect of any action plan for dam failure (APDF) and flood mitigation strategy. For example, the flood hydraulic models and dam break scenario generated based on light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) and processed in the dedicated geographic information systems (GIS) and hydraulic modeling software (e.g., HEC-RAS—Hydrologic Engineering Center River Analysis System, developed by USACE HEC, Davis, CA, USA) can improve the flood hazard maps in case of potentially embankment dam failure. In this study, we develop a small-scale conceptual approach using 2D HEC-RAS software according to the three embankment dam break scenarios, LiDAR data (0.5 m spatial resolution), and 2D hydraulic modeling for the Başeu multi-reservoir system which belongs to the Başeu River (NE Romania) including R1—Cal Alb reservoir, R2—Movileni reservoirs, R3—Tătărăşeni reservoirs, R4—Negreni reservoirs, and R5—Hăneşti reservoirs. In order to test the flood control capacity of the Bașeu multi-reservoir system, the Cal Alb (R1) dam break scenario (piping failure) was taken into account. Three 2D stream flow modeling configurations based on R1 inflow rate with a 1% (100 year), 0.5% (500 year), and 0.1% (1000 year) recurrence interval and the water volume which can be accumulated with that specific inflow rate (1% = 10.19 × 106 m3; 0.5% = 12.39 × 106 m3; 0.1% = 17.35 × 106 m3) were computed. The potential flood wave impact was achieved on the basis of different flood severity maps (e.g., flood extent, flood depth, flood velocity, flood hazard) generated for each recurrence interval scenario and highlighted within the built-up area of 27 settlements (S1–S27) located downstream of R1. The results showed that the multi-reservoir system of Bașeu River has an important role in flood mitigation and contributes to the APDF in the context of climate change and the intensification of hydrological hazard manifestation in northeastern Romania.

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