No abstract

Volcanic eruptions alone may lead to serious natural disasters, but the associated release of water from a caldera lake may be equally damaging. There is both historical and geological evidence of the past eruptions of Mt. Baekdusan, and the volcano, which has not erupted for over 100 years, has recently shown signs of reawakening. Action is required if we are to limit the social, political, cultural, and economic damage of any future eruption. This study aims to identify the area that would be inundated following a volcanic flood from the Cheon-Ji caldera lake that lies within Mt. Baekdusan. A scenario-based numerical analysis was performed to generate a flood hydrograph, and the parameters required were selected following a consideration of historical records from other volcanoes. The amount of water at the outer rim as a function of time was used as an upper boundary condition for the downstream routing process for a period of 10 days. Data from the USGS were used to generate a DEM with a resolution of 100 m, and remotely sensed satellite data from the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used to show land cover and use. The simulation was generated using the software FLO-2D and was superposed on the remotely sensed map. The results show that the inundation area would cover about 80% of the urban area near Erdaobaihezhen assuming a 10 m/hr collapse rate, and 98% of the area would be flooded assuming a 100 m/hr collapse rate.