Hillslope-channel coupling in the Nepal Himalayas and threat to man-made structures: The middle Kali Gandaki valley

Abstract

In mountain areas, the confinement of valleys favours landslide interaction with rivers, causing channel changes or short-lived dams and lakes that may threaten trails, roads and human settlements. Their impacts may occur successively in space and time, and they affect randomly the functioning of the sediment fluxes. The present study focuses on the interaction patterns between unstable mountain slopes and the Kali Gandaki River, in the Nepal Himalayas. In this valley, the deepest on earth, a road linking the Myagdi and Mustang districts has been under construction for the past 5 years, either cutting into the bedrock or crossing areas affected episodically by debris slides, earth flows, debris flows and rock slides. On the basis of the geomorphic evolution observed over the last three decades, we assess the potential threats that now arise following completion of the road. We mapped three areas of recurrent mass wasting features characteristic of the most frequent situations encountered in this valley. We analyzed the combination of the hydro-geomorphic processes involved. With the use of a DEM, we assessed the volume and spatial impact of temporary river dams on infrastructure located along the valley floor. We estimated hydraulic parameters to document the geomorphic efficiency of river flooding after dam breaching. We reconstructed the spatial extent of (1) areas threatened by backwater flooding upstream of the dams and (2) areas threatened by the collapse of the dams. We describe the current geomorphic and sedimentary adjustments still at work along the valley sides. Our findings confirm that in the High Himalaya, medium scale landslides (10 5–6 m 3) play a major role in the overall process of denudation and sediment transfer. They highly influence the transient nature of bedload transport in the channel. In reducing the residence time of sediments in temporary, spatially limited traps of the valley bottom, they enhance the vulnerability of land and people attracted by a roadside location.