ABSTRACT
Assessments of impulse waves resulting from landslides can be required to manage risks to public safety, private property and infrastructure near shorelines. For the prediction of sub-aerial landslide-generated wave impacts for the Site C Clean Energy Project on the Peace River in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, a new hybrid wave modelling approach was developed that combined empirical wave generation estimates with numerical wave propagation and runup modelling. The empirical equations, derived from laboratory-scale flume studies carried out at ETH Zurich, used landslide attributes to predict initial wave characteristics. Using these parameters as input, the wave propagation and runup stages were simulated using the depth-averaged shallow flow numerical model TELEMAC-2D. This hybrid approach was validated by comparing simulated wave amplitudes and runups with the results of six 1:400 scale physical model tests carried out in the 1980s. Wave runup in every case was simulated to within +/−30% accuracy, which is within the range expected using the empirical equations. This hybrid method of modelling landslide-generated waves can avoid the relatively high costs associated with physical models as well as the complex problem of numerically modelling the interaction of landslide material and water during wave generation.
