Study on rain-runoff process in the peripheral mountainous area of the Sichuan Basin

Studies on rain-runoff process in the peripheral mountainous area of the Sichuan Basin, which is regarded as a key ecological shelter, will contribute to flood control and environmental protection for the Upper Yang-tze River Basin. In two typical catchments-the Fujiang River Catchment and the Wujiang River Catchment, rainfall simulations have been conducted to study the rain-runoff processes of yellow soil and limestone soil in three types of land use-forestland, farmland and grassland. Results showed that (1) within the same rainfall process, overland flow occurs first on farmland, then on grassland, and finally on forestland; (2) soil surface coverage has a great impact on the occurrence and amount of overland flow. The runoff amount can increase 2-4 times after the coverage is removed;(3) the infiltration before the occurrence of overland flow will decrease because of higher gravel contents of soil, but it takes no effect on infiltration once overland flow becomes stable; (4) the runoff coefficient of the limestone soil forestland is greater than that of the yellow soil forest land, but less than that of the farmland; (5) three empirical infiltration models, including Horton' model, Kostiakov' model, and modified Kostiakov' model, were compared by using the observed results under rainfall simulation. The results showed that the Kostiakov' model performed better than both the Horton' model and modified Kostiakov model. According to the results of this research, the Kostiakov's model can be used to simulate rainfall infiltration when water erosion is modeled in the peripheral mountainous area of the Sichuan Basin.

Seismogenic fault and topography control on the spatial patterns of landslides triggered by the 2017 Jiuzhaigou earthquake

Jiuzhaigou National Park, located in northwest plateau of Sichuan Province, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the most popular scenic areas in China. On August 8, 2017, a Mw 6.5 earthquake occurred 5 km to the west of a major scenic area, causing 25 deaths and injuring 525, and the Park was seriously affected. The objective of this study was to explore the controls of seismogenic fault and topographic factors on the spatial patterns of these landslides. Immediately after the main shock, field survey, remote-sensing investigations, and statistical and spatial analysis were undertaken. At least 2212 earthquake-triggered landslides were identified, covering a total area of 11.8 km^2. Thesewere mainly shallow landslides and rock falls. Results demonstrated that landslides exhibited a close spatial correlation with seismogenic faults. More than 85% of the landslides occurred at 2200 to 3700 m elevations. The largest quantity of landslides was recorded in places with local topographic reliefs ranging from 200 to 500 m. Slopes in the range of ~20°-50° are the most susceptible to failure. Landslides occurred mostly on slopes facing east-northeast(ENE), east(E), east-southeast(ESE), and southeast(SE), which were nearly vertical to the orientation of the seismogenic fault slip. The back-slope direction and thin ridge amplification effects were documented. These results provide insights on the control of the spatial pattern of earthquake-triggered landslides modified by the synergetic effect of seismogenic faults and topography.

Characteristics and interpretation of the seismic signal of a field-scale landslide dam failure experiment

Outburst floods caused by breaches of landslide dams may cause serious damages and loss of lives in downstream areas; for this reason the study of the dynamic of the process is of particular interest for hazard and risk assessment. In this paper we report a field-scale landslide dam failure experiment conducted in Nantou County, in the central of Taiwan.The seismic signal generated during the dam failure was monitored using a broadband seismometer and the signal was used to study the dam failure process.We used the short-time Fourier transform(STFT) to obtain the time–frequency characteristics of the signal and analyzed the correlation between the power spectrum density(PSD) of the signal and the water level. The results indicate that the seismic signal generated during the process consisted of three components: a low-frequency band(0–1.5 Hz), an intermediate-frequency band(1.5–10 Hz) and a highfrequency band(10–45 Hz). We obtained the characteristics of each frequency band and the variations of the signal in various stages of the landslide dam failure process. We determined the cause for the signal changes in each frequency band and its relationship with the dam failure process. The PSD sediment flux estimation model was used to interpret the causes of variations in the signal energy before the dam failure and the clockwise hysteresis during the failure. Our results show that the seismic signal reflects the physical characteristics of the landslide dam failure process. The method and equipment used in this study may be used to monitor landslide dams and providing early warnings for dam failures.

The runoff characteristics under simulated rainfall on purple soil sloping cropland

Rainfall runoff is a critical hydrological process related to soil erosion and agricultural non-point pollu-tion. In this study, 25 simulation experiments on rainfall were carried out in five runoff plots. Rape (Brassica campestris) was planted on the downslope of the plots. Experiments were conducted when the vegetation coverage reached 80%. Each plot was subjected to five rainfall events differing in intensity. The results showed: (1) the runoff coefficients of overland flow and subsurface flow were less than 0.6 and 0.005, respectively; (2) the discharge of overland flow was the quadratic function of time; (3) runoff coefficient was the function of slope gradient and rain-fall intensity. When the slope gradient increased from 8.7% to 46.6%, the runoff coefficient of overland flow first increased and then decreased. The runoff coefficient reached the maximum when the slope gradient was within the range of 17.6%-36.4%; and (4) the process of subsurface flow generation included the increasing phase and reces-sion phase. Discharge was a logarithm function of time in the increasing phase, and an exponential function in the recession phase. Runoff coefficient of subsurface flow decreased first and then increased when the slope gradient varied from 8.7% to 46.6% and was not correlated with rainfall intensity.

Long runout mechanism of the Shenzhen 2015 landslide:insights from a two-phase flow viewpoint

A catastrophic landslide occurred at Hongao dumpsite in Guangming New District of Shenzhen, South China, on December 20, 2015. An estimated total volume of 2.73×106 m3 of construction spoils was mobilized during this event. The landslide traveled a long distance on a low-relief terrain. The affected area was approximately 1100 m in length and 630 m in width. This landslide made 33 buildings destroyed, 73 people died and 4 people lost. Due to the special dumping history and other factors, soil in this landfill is of high initial water content. To identify the major factors that attribute to the long runout character, a two-phase flow model of Iverson and George was used to simulate the dynamics of this landslide. The influence of initial hydraulic permeability, initial dilatancy, and earth pressure coefficient was examined through numerical simulations. We found that pore pressure has the most significant effect on the dynamic characteristics of Shenzhen landslides. Average pore pressure ratio ofthe whole basal surface was used to evaluate the degree of liquefaction for the sliding material. The evolution and influence factors of this ratio were analyzed based on the computational results. An exponential function was proposed to fit the evolution curve of the average pore pressure ratio, which can be used as a reasonable and simplified evaluation of the pore pressure. This fitting function can be utilized to improve the single-phase flow model.

Identification of Potential Sites of Debris Flows in the Upper Min River Drainage,Following Environmental Changes Caused by the Wenchuan Earthquake

The Wenchuan earthquake caused numerous landslides and collapses that provide abundant unconsolidated material for future mobilization as debris flows.Debris flows will be very active and cause considerable damage for some time in the affected area.Because of environmental changes related to the earthquake,many potentially dangerous debris flow gullies have yet to be identified.This paper selects the upper Min River from Yinxiu to Wenchuan as the study area,interprets the unconsolidated deposits,and discusses their relationship to distance from the fault.Then,applying that information and the values of other factors relating to debris flow occurrence,the locations of potential debris flows are analyzed by multi-factor comprehensive identification and rapid identification.The multi-factor comprehensive identification employs fuzzy matter-element extension theory.The volume of unconsolidated material in the study area is about 3.28 × 108 m3.According to the analysis by multi-factor comprehensive identification,47 gullies have a high probability for potential debris flow,8 gullies have a moderate probability,and 1 gully has a low probability.

Evaluation of a traditional method for peak flow discharge estimation for floods in the Wenchuan Earthquake area,Sichuan Province,China

Peak discharge of flood in small mountainous watershed is usually calculated using the "Rainstorm–runoff calculation method in small watersheds in Sichuan Province"(RRM). This study evaluated the RRM calculation using real-time monitored rainfall and hydrologic data from a small watershed in the Wenchuan Earthquake area of Sichuan Province, China. The results indicated that the discharge values given by the RRM are commonly overestimating the measured discharge. The overestimation rate was discussed and empirical equations were proposed for improving RRM estimations, based on the relationship between calculated and measured discharge values at different watershed scales(2, 30, and 40 km2), under different rainfall probabilities(0.97–0.5, 0.5–0.2, and 0.2–0.002), and for different rainfall durations(0–6, 6–24, and >24 h). The results of this study help contribute to the understanding of water floods formation and help provide more accurate estimations of peak flow discharge in small watersheds in the Wenchuan Earthquake area.

High-efficiency calculation method for watershed rainfallrunoff routing using one-dimensional dynamic wave equations

Efficiency in solving the Saint-Venant equations for watershed rainfall-runoff routing is important in flood hydrology. This paper presents a high-efficiency numerical solution of one-dimensional dynamic wave equations(HEDWE) for watershed rainfall-runoff routing, in which the full momentum equation is written as a quadratic equation with only one unknown variable Q, water depth is derived from the continuity equation using the two-step predictorcorrector method, and the discrete scheme is the explicit upwind scheme. The results of numerical tests showed the HEDWE approach has several major advantages. 1) It is a stable numerical method, even for an initially dry area. 2) Its computational efficiency is higher than 4.76E+05 times/s. 3) It can be used for overland flow, river flow, and combinations thereof. The primary disadvantages of the HEDWE approach are its unsuitability for rapidly varying flow, such as dam-break floods.

Trace Projection Transformation： a new method for measurement of debris flow surface velocity fields

Spatiotemporal variation of velocity is impor- tant for debris flow dynamics. This paper presents a new method, the trace projection transformation, for accurate, non-contact measurement of a debris-flow surface velocity field based on a combination of dense optical flow and perspective projection transformation. The algorithm for interpreting and processing is implemented in C ＋＋ and realized in Visual Studio 2012. The method allows quantitative analysis of flow motion through videos from various angles （camera positioned at the opposite direction of fluid motion）. It yields the spatiotemporal distribution of surface velocity field at pixel level and thus provides a quantitative description of the surface processes. The trace projection transformation is superior to conventional measurement methods in that it obtains the full surface velocity field by computing the optical flow of all pixels. The result achieves a 90% accuracy of when comparing with the observed values. As a case study, the method is applied to the quantitative analysis of surface velocity field of a specific debris flow.

Hazard Mitigation Planning for Debris flow Based on Numerical Simulation Using Kanako Simulator

Debris flow often causes enormous loss to life and property,especially on alluvial fans.Engineering structures such as retention check dams are essential to reduce the damage.In hazard mitigation evaluation and planning it is of significance to determine the location,size and type of dam and the effects of damage mitigation.We present a numerical simulation method using Kanako simulator for hazard mitigation planning of debris flow disaster in Tanjutani Gully,Kyoto City,Japan.The simulations were carried out for three situations:1) the simulations of erosion,deposition,hydrograph changing and inundation when there were no mitigation measures;2) the simulations of check dams in four locations(470 m,810 m,1,210 m and 1,610 m from the upstream end) to identify the best location;3) the simulations of check dams of three types(closed,slit and grid) to analyze their effects on sediment trapping and discharge reduction.Based on the simulations,it was concluded that two closed check dams(located at 470 m and 1,610 m from the upstream end) in the channel and a drainage channel on the alluvial fan can reduce the risk on the alluvial fan to an acceptable level.

A multiobjective evolutionary optimization method based critical rainfall thresholds for debris flows initiation

At present,most researches on the critical rainfall threshold of debris flow initiation use a linear model obtained through regression.With relatively weak fault tolerance,this method not only ignores nonlinear effects but also is susceptible to singular noise samples,which makes it difficult to characterize the true quantization relationship of the rainfall threshold.Besides,the early warning threshold determined by statistical parameters is susceptible to negative samples(samples where no debris flow has occurred),which leads to uncertainty in the reliability of the early warning results by the regression curve.To overcome the above limitations,this study develops a data-driven multiobjective evolutionary optimization method that combines an artificial neural network(ANN)and a multiobjective evolutionary optimization implemented by particle swarm optimization(PSO).Firstly,the Pareto optimality method is used to represent the nonlinear and conflicting critical thresholds for the rainfall intensity I and the rainfall duration D.An ANN is used to construct a dual-target(dual-task)predictive surrogate model,and then a PSO-based multiobjective evolutionary optimization algorithm is applied to train the ANN and stochastically search the trained ANN for obtaining the Pareto front of the I-D surrogate prediction model,which is intended to overcome the limitations of the existing linear regression-based threshold methods.Finally,a double early warning curve model that can effectively control the false alarm rate and negative alarm rate of hazard warnings are proposed based on the decision space and target space maps.This study provides theoretical guidance for the early warning and forecasting of debris flows and has strong applicability.

An Analytical Model for Multifractal Systems

Previous multifractal spectrum theories can only reflect that an object is multifractal and few explicit expressions of f(α) can be obtained for the practical application of nonlinearity measure. In this paper, an analytical model for multifractal systems is developed by combining and improving the Jake model, Tyler fractal model and Gompertz curve, which allows one to obtain explicit expressions of a multifractal spectrum. The results show that the model can deal with many classical multifractal examples well, such as soil particle-size distributions, non-standard Sierpinski carpet and three-piece-fractal market price oscillations. Applied to the soil physics, the model can effectively predict the cumulative mass of particles across the entire range of soil textural classes.