The relevance of rock shape over mass—implications for rockfall hazard assessments

The mitigation of rapid mass movements involves a subtle interplay between field surveys, numerical modelling, and experience. Hazard engineers rely on a combination of best practices and, if available, historical facts as a vital prerequisite in establishing reproducible and accurate hazard zoning. Full-scale field tests have been performed to reinforce the physical understanding of debris flows and snow avalanches. Rockfall dynamics are - especially the quantification of energy dissipation during the complex rock-ground interaction - largely unknown. The awareness of rock shape dependence is growing, but presently, there exists little experimental basis on how rockfall hazard scales with rock mass, size, and shape. Here, we present a unique data set of induced single-block rockfall events comprising data from equant and wheel-shaped blocks with masses up to 2670 kg, quantifying the influence of rock shape and mass on lateral spreading and longitudinal runout and hence challenging common practices in rockfall hazard assessment.

Impact of Flood on the Socio-Economic Conditions in the Southern Part of Kamrup District, Assam

Flood causes extreme loss of infrastructure and human life; besides it also propagates the condition of poverty and unceasing marginalisation of the affected region from development. This study elucidates how flood contributes to the socio-economic conditions of the rural people living in the Southern part of the Kamrup district of Assam. It focusses on flood hazard zoning and flood vulnerability analyses that are delineated based on the data collected from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Near Real-Time (NRT) Global Flood Mapping Product Portal. Flood hazard zoning of the study area is done using Multi-Criteria evaluation method based on rainfall distribution, slope, drainage density, population density, soil type, elevation, flow accumulation, roads, and embankment utilising Cartosat DEM and IRS P6 LISS III data. The zones are identified as actively flooded, chronically flooded, and occasionally flooded zones, which affects 39.4 per cent, 12.9 per cent and 26.1 per cent population respectively covering 1189.2 sq. km, that is, 56.5 per cent area of the study region. The flood vulnerability assessment of the study area is done at village and ward level adapting geospatial assessment in a GIS environment. The findings of the research are generated through observations, key informant interviews with the rural population surveying 1420 number of households. It reveals that 200 villages are affected by floods every year that constitutes 76.6 per cent households and 78.4 per cent of the population of the study area.

Tree-ring reconstruction of snow avalanches in Şureanu Mountains (Southern Carpathians, Romania)

<p>Snow avalanches (SAs) are a widespread natural hazard in the Carpathians, damaging forests and threatening properties, tourism infrastructures and people. In Şureanu Mountains (Southern Carpathians), SA activity is not documented in the historical archives and consequently information regarding the SA frequency and their spatial extent is lacking. Along the forested avalanche paths, disturbed trees record selectively in their annual rings evidence of past events. Tree rings represent therefore a natural archive which can provide valuable information about the past SA activity. The aim of the present study is to reconstruct the occurrence and spatial extent of past SA activity with tree rings in Şureanu Mts. For this purpose, two avalanche paths adjacent to a ski area located in the central part of Şureanu Mts., have been investigated. Samples (cores and discs) collected from 121 and 141 Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) trees damaged by SAs along both paths have been analyzed. Tree-growth anomalies (e.g. scars, callus tissues, onset sequences of tangential rows of traumatic resin ducts, compression wood and growth suppression sequences) associated with the mechanical impact produced by SAs on trees were identified and used to reconstruct the SA history. Within the investigated paths, the reconstructed SA chronology spans the period of the last century. The minimum SA frequency and maximum extent reconstructed served to define the return periods within the two paths investigated. Tree-ring derived records provided the most consistent SA chronology in the study area, and can further be integrated in the avalanche hazard zoning assessment.</p>

Flood hazard zoning in Ngan Sau, Ngan Pho river basin, Ha Tinh province using GIS and analytical hierarchical process

This paper introduces the AHP method integrated with GIS technology to provide information for flood hazard analysis in the Ngan Sau and Ngan Pho river basins. The factors ìnluencing the occurrence of floods in a study area include slope, rainfall, drainage density, soil, relative slope length, and land cover. These data are used for establishing a flood hazard zone map in a GIS environment. The obtained results indicate that the two main causes of flooding are rainfall and slope with weights of 45% and 25.5%, respectively. The resultant map has shown about 82.78% of the total catchment area is having a high and very high probability of flood and areas under high flood hazard only covers 17.22% of the study area. The validation of the flood hazard zone map was conducted based on flood evens in the field. The results showed that the AHP technique and GIS are reliable methods for the assessment of the flood hazard potential, specifically in spare-data regions.

Evaluation and validation of flood hazard zoning using Analytical Hierarchy Process and GIS: A case study of Lam River basin (Vietnam)

In recent years, the Lam river basin had suffered various forms of natural disasters such as floods, inundations, windstorms, tornadoes, etc. Among all these, the flood has proved to be the greatest threat to the people and the socio-economic development in the basin. Moreover, it is very frequent as compared to other natural disasters. In view of the fact that such disastrous floods are still occurring in the basin, it becomes a necessity to determine the causes and analyze the components affecting flood. This is important in order to develop an early flood warning system and thus minimize the negative impact of flood in the Lam river basin on the people and the facilities. In this paper, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis method integrated with GIS technology is used to map flood risk zones in the Lam river basin. The parameters used for the analysis are the main causes affecting the floods. In addition to the 5 most commonly used factors such as slope, rainfall, land cover, soil, and drainage density, this study also includes a new factor - relative slope length to compute a more rigorous and reliable model. The results were compared with the two more methods of flood hazard zoning in the same study area: the method of the main flood caused factor analysis and the method of inheriting, data analyzing, and processing. The results were also validated by the historical flood data of three years 2010, 2013, and 2016.

New Cadanav Methodology for Rock Fall Hazard Zoning Based on 3D Trajectory Modelling

Most rock fall hazard zoning methodologies are currently based on trajectory modelling, usually performed along 2D slope profiles. For many topographic configurations, this approach cannot provide a realistic description of the way rock fall trajectories and, ultimately, hazard are spatially distributed all over a slope. This paper presents a new methodology for rock fall hazard zoning, directly applicable to 3D topographies, starting from 3D trajectory simulation results. The procedure is an extension of the Cadanav methodology introduced for hazard zoning along 2D slope profiles. As such, it is fully quantitative and attempts at reducing as much as possible uncertainties and subjective elements affecting current methods for rock fall hazard analysis and zoning. It is also among the first to introduce a “fully-coupled” rock fall intensity-frequency approach. Hazard is estimated by means of “hazard curves”, described at each point of the slope by rock fall intensity-return period couples. These curves may be superimposed on any intensity-return period diagram prescribed in national or regional land use planning regulations, in order to determine which hazardous condition prevails at each point of the slope. The application of the new Cadanav methodology is illustrated for both a theoretical case of simple topography underlying a linear cliff and a real configuration involving a complex topography, characterised by strong three-dimensional features affecting the paths of the blocks. For all topographic models, results obtained for several scenarios involving either localised or diffuse source areas proved that the methodology performs extremely well, providing objective and reproducible results based on a rigorous combination of rock fall energy and return period. Additional tests and real case studies are currently under investigation, for strengthening even further the validation of the approach and extend its applicability to even more complex rock fall scenarios.