Characteristics, causes and mitigation of catastrophic debris flow hazard on 21 July 2011 at the Longda Watershed of Songpan County, China

Debris flow is a common natural hazard in the mountain areas of Western China due to favorable natural conditions, and also exacerbated by mountainous exploitation activities. This paper concentrated on the characteristics, causes and mitigation of a catastrophic mine debris flow hazard at Longda Watershed in Songpan County, Sichuan Province, on 21 July 2011. This debris flow deposited in the front of the No.1 dam, silted the drainage channel for flood and then rushed into tailing sediment reservoir in the main channel and made the No.2 dam breached. The outburst debris flow blocked Fu River, formed dammed lake and generated outburst flood, which delivered heavy metals into the lower reaches of Fu River, polluted the drink water source of the population of over 1 million. The debris flow was characterized with a density of 1.87 similar to 2.15 t/m(3) and a clay content of less than 1.63%. The peak velocity and flux at Longda Gully was over 10.0 similar to 10.9 m/s and 429.0 similar to 446.0 m(3)/s, respectively, and the flux was about 700 m(3)/s in main channel, equaling to the flux of the probability of 1%. About 330,000m(3) solid materials was transported by debris flow and deposited in the drainage tunnel (120,000 similar to 130,000 m(3)), the front of No.1 dam (100,000 m(3)) and the mouth of the watershed (100,000 similar to 110,000 m(3)), respectively. When the peak flux and magnitude of debris flow was more than 462 m(3)/s and 7,423 m(3), respectively, it would block Fu River and produce a hazard chain which was composed of debris flow, dammed lake and outburst flood. Furthermore, the 21 July large-scale debris flow was triggered by rainstorm with an intensity of 21.2 mm/0.5 h and the solid materials of debris flow were provided by landslides, slope deposits, mining wastes and tailing sediments. The property losses were mainly originated from the silting of the drainage tunnel for flash flood but not for debris flow and the irrational location of tailing sediment reservoir. Therefore, the mitigation measures for mine debris flows were presented: (1) The disastrous debris flow watershed should be identified in planning period and prohibited from being taken as the site of mining factories; (2) The mining facilities are constructed at the safe areas or watersheds; (3) Scoria plots, concentrator factory and tailing sediment reservoir are constructed in safe areas where the protection measures be easily made against debris flows; (4) The appropriate system and plan of debris flow mitigation including monitoring, remote monitoring and early-warning and emergency plan is established; (5) The stability of waste dump and tailing sediment reservoir are monitored continuously to prevent mining debris flows.