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Usoi Dam Wave Overtopping and Flood Routing in the Bartang and Panj Rivers, Tajikistan

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Usoi Dam Wave Overtopping and Flood Routing in the Bartang and Panj Rivers, Tajikistan Usoi Dam Wave Overtopping and Flood Routing in the Bartang and Panj Rivers, Tajikistan Prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance Water-Resources Investigations Report 03-4004 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Cover photograph: The Usoi dam was created in the winter of 1911 after an earthquake caused a rock slide that completely blocked the valley of the Bartang River in the Pamir Mountains of southeastern Tajikistan. At present the dam impounds 17 million cubic meters of water in Lake Sarez. A major flood emanating from Lake Sarez could be devastating to millions of people downstream, not only in Tajikistan but also in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. (Photograph courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Johnson Space Center, Image Science and Analysis Laboratory.) Usoi Dam Wave Overtopping and Flood Routing in the Bartang and Panj Rivers, Tajikistan By John Risley, Joseph Walder, and Roger Denlinger Prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance Water-Resources Investigations Report 03-4004 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior Dirk A. Kempthorne, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey P. Patrick Leahy, Acting Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia 2006 For product and ordering information: World Wide Web: http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment: World Wide Web: http://www.usgs.gov Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS Suggested citation: Risley, John, Walder, Joseph , and Denlinger, Roger, 2006, Usoi Dam Wave Overtopping and Flood Routing in the Bartang and Panj Rivers, Tajikistan, U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 03-4004, 28 p. Use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted material contained within this report. ii Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................................1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................................................1 Purpose and Scope.............................................................................................................................................3 Description of the Study Area...........................................................................................................................4 Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................................................................5 Probable Flood Hydrograph Determination .......................................................................................................5 Landslide-Generated Floods .............................................................................................................................6 Wave Generation.............................................................................................................................................6 Wave Runup .....................................................................................................................................................6 Overtopping......................................................................................................................................................6 Dam Breach Flood...............................................................................................................................................9 Flood Routing ...........................................................................................................................................................9 Model Selection ..................................................................................................................................................9 Model Description.............................................................................................................................................10 Channel Configuration......................................................................................................................................10 Roughness Coefficients ...................................................................................................................................11 Simulations.........................................................................................................................................................12 Overtopping Floods .......................................................................................................................................12 Dam-Breach Flood ........................................................................................................................................17 Limitations ..............................................................................................................................................................20 Summary and Conclusions..................................................................................................................................21 References Cited...................................................................................................................................................22 Appendix A: Alternative Investigation...............................................................................................................24 Appendix B: Method of Estimating the Starting Hydrograph for the Overtopping Flood Scenarios.....24 Wave generation and propagation................................................................................................................25 Wave runup........................................................................................................................................................27 Overtopping........................................................................................................................................................27 Appendix C: Method of Estimating the Starting Hydrograph for the Dam-Breach Flood Scenario.......29 iii Figures 1. Study area reach.............................................................................................................................2 2. Lake Sarez and the Usoi Dam .......................................................................................................3 3. Bartang-Panj River reach longitudinal bed-channel profile ..........................................................5 4. Hydrographs showing change in discharge with time for overtopping and dam-breach floods ...8 5. Relationship between water depth and cross-sectional area........................................................11 6. Flow depth profiles of the 87 million cubic meter volume overtopping flood at 5-hour intervals .......................................................................................................................................13 7. Peak flow and corresponding depth and velocity for the 87 million cubic meter volume overtopping flood ........................................................................................................................15 8. Peak flow and corresponding depth and velocity for the 22 million cubic meter volume overtopping flood ........................................................................................................................15 9. Peak flow and corresponding depth and velocity for the 2 million cubic meter volume overtopping flood ........................................................................................................................16 10. Wetting front arrival times of the three overtopping floods........................................................17 11. Peak flow and corresponding depth and velocity for the dam-breach flood ...............................19 12. Wetting front arrival time of the dam-breach flood.....................................................................19 Tables 1. Summary of overtopping flood characteristics............................................................................... 7 2. Summary of dam-breach flood characteristics ............................................................................... 9 3. Input water prism dimensions used for the overtopping flood simulations.................................. 12 iv Conversion Factors Multiply By To obtain millimeter (mm) 0.03937 inch meter 3.281 foot kilometer (km) 0.6214 mile square kilometer (km2) 0.3861 square mile 3 3 cubic meter (m ) 1.308 cubic yard (yd ) 3 3 cubic meter per second(m /s) 35.31 cubic foot per second (ft /s) Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit (°F) is calculated as follows: °F = (1.8°C+32) In this report vertical coordinates are referenced to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD of 1929)—a geodetic datum derived from a general adjustment of the first-order level nets of both the United States and Canada. v This page is intentionally blank. vi Usoi
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