Speakers:
Dr Matthew Free
Director, Arup
and
Ljiljana Spasic-Gril
Dam Specialist, Arup
Date:
Wednesday 2nd March
2016
Details:
Tea / coffee:
17:30
Meeting Commences:
18:00
Location:
Burlington House
Free to attend.
Registration not required.
For further information and
registration, please contact:
Event Convenor: Jim Gelder
email: [email protected]
A Landslide Disaster Risk Management
Mission to the Pamir Mountains in
Tajikistan
A Joint evening meeting between the Engineering Group of the
Geological Society (EGGS) and the British Dam Society (BDS)
In late July 2015, accelerated snow and glacier melting, caused by unusually high
temperatures, triggered severe mudflows and flooding in Pamir Mountains in the central
Tajikistan. As a result of the mudflows, a large debris fan was deposited and extended out
into, and blocked, the Gunt River, some 20km upstream of the town of Khorog. The natural
“mudflow” dam was about 1,000,000m3 in volume and the lake that formed behind
extended 2.4km upstream and flooded the town of Basem. The Government of Tajikistan
expressed particular concern about the potential risk to life associated with the sudden
breach of the mudflow dam, which could trigger significant flash floods downstream, and
affect up to half a million people living in these areas, as well as the Khorog power plant
and major transport infrastructure. In this context, the Government declared a State of
Emergency. The World Bank commissioned Ljiljana Spasic-Gril and Matthew Free from
Arup to undertake the risk assessment and recommend immediate and long-term risk
management measures. The talk will describe the work undertaken and the experience of a
disaster risk management mission to the remote Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan.
Ljiljana Spasic- Gril is a Lead Dam Specialist at Arup. She has 35 years’ experience in
the dam safety and dam engineering on projects in Europe, Africa, the Middle East,
Central, South and East Asia, and North America. She has worked on 250 dam projects in
44 countries. She is currently appointed as the Chair of several International Dam Safety
Panels (Kenya, East Africa and Armenia). She is also a member of the Technical Panel of
Experts for the Rogun Hydropower Dam in Tajikistan. When completed, the Rogun Dam
will be the world’s tallest dam (at 335m tall).
Matthew Free is a Director at Arup, where he leads the geohazard and risk management
team. Matthew is an engineering geologist with over 25 years of experience in geohazard
risk management worldwide and has particular expertise in the application of quantitative
methods for hazard and risk management. He is originally from New Zealand but has spent
a large proportion of his career working on projects in Southeast Asia and Central Asia.
The Debris Flow(s)
The Landslide Dammed Lake
The Impact on the Community