Characteristics of spatial distribution of debris flow and the effect of their sediment yield in main downstream of Jinsha River, China

Abstract

Debris flow hazard posts a big threat to the main downstream of Jinsha River where a number of huge power stations are under construction. The characteristics of spatial distribution of debris flows and the effect of their sediment yield on the reservoir areas have been studied. An automatic recognition module was developed to extract the geometry of debris flow channels from remote sensing data. Spatial distribution pattern of debris flows is obtained through combining the inventory database and multi-source remote sensing investigation. The distribution of debris flows has high dependency on the various factors including geology, geomorphology, climate, hydrology and human economic activities. The debris flows distributed in the study area are characterized by group and pair distribution, uncompleted deposition fans, highly controlled by faults and tectonic activities, spatial variation between left bank and right bank, and different subdivisions. The sediment yield caused by debris flow activates is evaluated using multi-year observation data from numerous observation stations. Quantitative studies have been performed on the relationship between the sediment yield and the debris flow area. A relatively fix ratio of 2.6 (×104 t/km2) has been found in different subdivisions of main downstream area which shows that the source of sediment discharged into Jinsha River primarily come from debris flow activities. Another ratio is evaluated to represent the transforming possibility of debris flow materials to bed-sediment load and suspended-sediment load in the river. Based on these findings, the potential effect of sediment yield caused by debris flows on reservoir areas is discussed. The zonation map shows the different effect of debris flow sediment on different dam site area which shows a good agreement with variation of debris flow spatial distribution.