Assessment of the Potential Amount of Floating Debris in Lule River
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2008:072 PB MASTER’S THESIS Assessment of the potential amount of floating debris in Lule river Assessment of the potential amount of floating debris in Lule river René Minarski Master of science program Luleå University of technology Department civil, miningRené and Minarski environmental engineering Division of mining and geotechnical engineering M.Sc. in Mining and Geotechnical Engineering CONTINUATION COURSES Luleå University of Technology Department of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering Division of Mining and Geotechnical Engineering 2008:072 PB • ISSN: 1653 - 0187 • ISRN: LTU - PB - EX - - 08/072 - - SE Assessment of the potential amount of floating debris in Lule river René Minarski Master of science program Luleå University of technology Department civil, mining and environmental engineering Division of mining and geotechnical engineering Räddningsverket har äganderätten till den översiktliga stabilitetskarteringen som använts som bakgrundsmaterial till detta examensarbete. Att mångfaldiga innehållet i denna dokumentation, helt eller delvis, utan medgivande av Räddningsverket är förbjudet enligt lagen (1960:729) om upphovsrätt till litterära och konstnärliga verk. Förbudet gäller varje mångfaldigande genom tryckning, kopiering, digital bearbetning etc. Räddningsverket har nyttjanderätt till resultatet av examensarbetet. - I - PREFACE PREFACE Already while I was studying for my Bachelors degree at the University of Göttingen in Germany I had made up my mind that I want to continue studying in an international M.Sc. program, even though I was the only student in a grade of approximately 35 students that decided to go into that direction. By gaining a Masters degree in a program taught in English and outside of my home country I wanted to increase my chances on the international job market. Since studying is very expensive in many English-speaking countries, I am grateful to the Swedish state for allowing me to pursue my education in this country without the burden of school fees. Luleå University of Technology was one of the first universities in Europe to adjust their study programs to the Bologna process, which is a large organisational and financial task. For accepting that challenge in order to allow students like me to graduate as a M.Sc. I would like to thank Luleå Univesity of Technology. Furthermore I would like to thank my family for both financial and moral support during my Bachelor studies and especially the past two years in Sweden. I would also like to thank Sven Knutsson from LTU and Peter Viklander from Vattenfall for the organisation of this thesis project, Hans Mattson from LTU and Nils Johannsson from Vattenfall for their guidance during the project, as well as Vasileios Demenegas for the support during the field work. Special thanks I would like to address to the Swedish rescue service (Räddningsverket) for allowing me to use the findings that were achieved in an earlier study by Scandia consult (SCC) as a base for this project. As can be seen in several references throughout the text Räddningsverket is holding the copyrights for the information included in these earlier investigations. I signed a contract with Räddningsverket allowing me to use the information for my thesis only and always equipped with the mark “copyright Räddningsverket” wherever information from these reports is used. Luleå, august 2008 René Minarski I ABSTRACT -II- II - III - ABSTRACT ABSTRACT This project deals with the possible amount of floating debris as a result of landslide activity along the Lule river. Some kinds of debris can be considered harmless while others may be harmful to the dam by clogging the spillways, depending on their size and density. In any case different forms of floating debris have different impacts, which is why both, amount and distribution of characteristics, are to be determined in this study. Using all the input data described in chapter 2 a basic impression about the slope stability situation in the working area was gained. Those locations, well known already at that point, gave a comparatively good estimation of the slope stability in these limited areas, but in order to get a slope stability assessment over the entire working area it was necessary to find correlations between slopes and apply characteristics known for some locations onto slopes with similar features in terms of geometry, material or vegetation. The field investigations performed during that stage offered opportunities to collect data not only for these tasks, but also about the vegetation characteristics of the working area. Four vegetation classes were defined during the field work. Already during that stage the number of dams that might become confronted with significant amounts of floating debris was narrowed down to only three, namely Vittjärv, Laxede and Porsi. With the help of the data collected during the fieldwork all potentially hazardous locations were classified in terms of extensions, geometrical characteristics and vegetation. Based on the findings during the field investigations the total potentially unstable surface area was calculated to a value of 326605m². A value which was slightly corrected later on to 324585 m², after the SlopeW calculations indicated that not always the entire slope has to be considered unstable and that the land surface right behind the crest of a slope might have to be considered unstable terrain as well. Calculations using the SlopeW software were performed mainly in order to find conditions under which slopes can be considered stable or unstable considering water levels in a 10.000 year flood event. Out of the 28 locations identified during the fieldwork as much as 25 were considered potentially unstable. III ABSTRACT -IV- Finally the information concerning extent and vegetation class of these 25 locations was combined in order to compute values for the total amount of trees over the entire unstable surface area, which resembles the amount of floating debris. The total amount of trees, as it can be observed in appendix III, was highest for the Porsi dam (46699 logs) followed by Vittjärv (23257) and finally Laxede (14021). On the first impression the results might suggest that Porsi should require most attention in terms of precautions to spillway clogging. In fact, however, other factors like the water level variation or the size distribution of the floating debris have to be considered before measures can be taken. Nevertheless the results deliver a base for dam safety engineers to assess the threat to the dams along Lule river. IV - V - TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. - 1 - 1.1 Aim of the project ........................................................................................................... - 1 - 1.2 Description of the methodology...................................................................................... - 1 - 1.3 Impact of dams on natural environments ....................................................................... - 3 - 1.4 Description of the working area..................................................................................... - 3 - 1.5 Principle of debris creation and transport ..................................................................... - 6 - 1.6 Slope stability assessments in theory.............................................................................. - 8 - 1.6.1 Historical background................................................................................................ - 8 - 1.6.2 Material properties..................................................................................................... - 9 - 1.6.3 Statistical approaches................................................................................................. - 9 - 1.6.4 External erosion ....................................................................................................... - 10 - 1.6.5 Pore water pressure.................................................................................................. - 11 - 1.6.6 Rapid drawdown...................................................................................................... - 13 - 2 DATA ACQUISITION ........................................................................................................ - 15 - 2.1 Geographical maps and internet resources concerning geography............................. - 15 - 2.2 Terrain model ............................................................................................................... - 15 - 2.3 Geological maps........................................................................................................... - 17 - 2.4 Results from previous slope stability investigations ..................................................... - 17 - 3 PROCESSING OF THE INPUT DATA ............................................................................ - 19 - 3.1 Combination of all sources........................................................................................... - 19 - 3.2 Prerequisites for landslide activity............................................................................... - 21 - 3.3 Reliability of the theoretical results.............................................................................. - 23 - 3.4 Implications for the next steps ...................................................................................... - 24 - 4 FIELD INVESTIGATIONS...............................................................................................