The Catastrophe of the Niedów Dam—The Causes of the Dam’s Breach, Its Development, and Consequences
Due to extreme rainfall in 2010 in the Lusatian Neisse River catchment area (in Poland), a flood event with a return period of over 100 years occurred, leading to the failure of the Niedów dam. The earth-type dam constructed for cooling the Turów power plant was washed away, resulting in the rapid r...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-11-01
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| Series: | Water |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/22/3254 |
| _version_ | 1797508181156429824 |
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| author | Stanisław Kostecki Robert Banasiak |
| author_facet | Stanisław Kostecki Robert Banasiak |
| author_sort | Stanisław Kostecki |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Due to extreme rainfall in 2010 in the Lusatian Neisse River catchment area (in Poland), a flood event with a return period of over 100 years occurred, leading to the failure of the Niedów dam. The earth-type dam constructed for cooling the Turów power plant was washed away, resulting in the rapid release of nearly 8.5 million m<sup>3</sup> of water and the flooding of the downstream area with substantial material losses. Here we analyze the conditions and causes of the dam’s failure, with special attention given to the mechanism and dynamics of the compound breaching process, in which the dam’s upstream slope reinforcement played a specific and remarkable role. The paper also describes a numerical approach for simulating a combined flood event downstream from the dam with the use of a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model (MIKE21). Considering the specific local conditions, i.e., wide floodplain, meandering character of the main channel, embankment overtopping, and available data set, an iterative solution of the unsteady state problem is proposed. This approach enables realistic flood propagation estimates to be delivered, the dam breach outflow to be reconstructed, and several important answers concerning the consequences of the dam’s failure to be provided. Finally, the paper presents the reconstruction of the dam that is more resilient to extreme hydrological conditions under changing climate. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:58:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e50a174a9c4f440a8b3508d0dda5457b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4441 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:58:40Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-e50a174a9c4f440a8b3508d0dda5457b2023-11-23T02:00:58ZengMDPI AGWater2073-44412021-11-011322325410.3390/w13223254The Catastrophe of the Niedów Dam—The Causes of the Dam’s Breach, Its Development, and ConsequencesStanisław Kostecki0Robert Banasiak1Faculty of Civil Engineering, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wrocław, PolandInstitute of Meteorology and Water Management—National Research Institute, 01-673 Warszawa, PolandDue to extreme rainfall in 2010 in the Lusatian Neisse River catchment area (in Poland), a flood event with a return period of over 100 years occurred, leading to the failure of the Niedów dam. The earth-type dam constructed for cooling the Turów power plant was washed away, resulting in the rapid release of nearly 8.5 million m<sup>3</sup> of water and the flooding of the downstream area with substantial material losses. Here we analyze the conditions and causes of the dam’s failure, with special attention given to the mechanism and dynamics of the compound breaching process, in which the dam’s upstream slope reinforcement played a specific and remarkable role. The paper also describes a numerical approach for simulating a combined flood event downstream from the dam with the use of a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model (MIKE21). Considering the specific local conditions, i.e., wide floodplain, meandering character of the main channel, embankment overtopping, and available data set, an iterative solution of the unsteady state problem is proposed. This approach enables realistic flood propagation estimates to be delivered, the dam breach outflow to be reconstructed, and several important answers concerning the consequences of the dam’s failure to be provided. Finally, the paper presents the reconstruction of the dam that is more resilient to extreme hydrological conditions under changing climate.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/22/3254the Lusatian Neisse Riverthe Niedów damflooddam breach2D flood routing |
| spellingShingle | Stanisław Kostecki Robert Banasiak The Catastrophe of the Niedów Dam—The Causes of the Dam’s Breach, Its Development, and Consequences Water the Lusatian Neisse River the Niedów dam flood dam breach 2D flood routing |
| title | The Catastrophe of the Niedów Dam—The Causes of the Dam’s Breach, Its Development, and Consequences |
| title_full | The Catastrophe of the Niedów Dam—The Causes of the Dam’s Breach, Its Development, and Consequences |
| title_fullStr | The Catastrophe of the Niedów Dam—The Causes of the Dam’s Breach, Its Development, and Consequences |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Catastrophe of the Niedów Dam—The Causes of the Dam’s Breach, Its Development, and Consequences |
| title_short | The Catastrophe of the Niedów Dam—The Causes of the Dam’s Breach, Its Development, and Consequences |
| title_sort | catastrophe of the niedow dam the causes of the dam s breach its development and consequences |
| topic | the Lusatian Neisse River the Niedów dam flood dam breach 2D flood routing |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/13/22/3254 |
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