Water Stewardship Information Sources
| Citation | McKillop, RJ and Clague, JJ. 2007. A procedure for making objective preliminary assessments of outburst flood hazard from moraine-dammed lakes in southwestern British Columbia. Natural Hazards. 41:131-157. |
|---|---|
| Organization | SFU |
| URL | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-006-9028-7 |
| Abstract/Description or Keywords | Existing methods of evaluating the hazard posed by moraine-dammed lakes are unsystematic, subjective, and depend on the expertise and biases of the geoscientist. In this paper, we provide a framework for making objective preliminary assessments of outburst flood hazard in southwestern British Columbia. Our procedure relies on remote sensing methods and requires only limited knowledge of glacial processes so that evaluations of outburst flood hazard can be incorporated into routine hazard assessments of glaciated regions. We describe objective approaches, which incorporate existing empirical relations applicable to the study region, for estimating outburst peak discharge, maximum volume, maximum travel distance, maximum area of inundation, and probability. Outburst flood hazard is greatest for moderately large lakes that are impounded by large, narrow, ice-free moraine dams composed of sedimentary rock debris and drain into steep, sediment-filled gullies above major river valleys. We demonstrate the application of the procedure using three case studies and show that flood hazard varies, especially with major changes in lake level. Our assessment scheme yields reproducible results and enables engineers and geoscientists to prioritize potentially hazardous lakes for more detailed field investigation. Keywords Outburst flood Moraine-dammed lake Debris flow Hazard assessment British Columbia |
| Information Type | article |
| Regional Watershed | Coast Region |
| Sub-watershed if known | |
| Aquifer # | |
| Comments | |
| Project status | complete |
| Contact Name | John Clague |
| Contact Email | [email protected] |