Abstract
Following the 2010 VEI 4 eruption of Merapi volcano, more than 250 lahars were triggered during two rainy seasons from October 2010 to March 2012. This high number of post-eruption lahars mainly occurred in the Kali (valley) Putih watershed and was mostly associated with high-magnitude rainstorms. A lahar occurring on January 8, 2011, caused significant damage to homes in several communities, bridges, sabo dams, and agricultural crops. The aims of this contribution are to document the impacts of lahars on the Kali Putih watershed and specifically (1) to analyze the lahar frequency during the period of 1969–2012 on an inter-annual and intra-annual basis and to determine the link between the volume of tephra and the frequency of lahars; (2) to detail the lahar trajectory and channel evolution following the January 8th lahar; (3) to map the spatial distribution of the thickness and geomorphic effects of the lahar deposit; and (4) to determine the impacts of the lahar on the infrastructure (sabo dams and roads) and settlements in the distal area of the volcano. The Kali Putih watershed has experienced 62 lahars, which represent 22% of all lahars triggered on 17 rivers at Merapi between 2010 and 2012. The main geomorphic impacts are: (1) excessive sedimentation in valleys, settlements and agricultural areas; (2) undercutting of the river banks by as much as 50 m, accompanied by channel widening; and (3) abrupt changes in the river channel direction in the distal area (15–20 km downstream of the volcano). About 19 sabo dams were damaged, and 3 were totally destroyed. Over 307 houses were damaged, and the National Road Yogyakarta–Semarang was regularly cut (18 times during approximately 25 days). Although the sabo dams on Kali Putih were originally constructed to protect distal areas from lahar damage, they had little effect on the 2010–2012 rain-triggered lahars. The underlying design of those dams along this river is one of the main reasons for the major destruction in this sector of the volcano’s lower slope. The catch basin capacity of the sabo dam was only 1.75 × 106 m3, whereas the total volume of the 2010–2011 lahars exceeded 5 × 106 m3. In order to prepare for future lahars, the government has invested in significant mitigation measures, ranging from structural approaches (e.g., building new sabo dams and developing an early warning system) to non-structural approaches (e.g., contingency and preparedness planning and hazard education).
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(photographs: Hadmoko 2011)
(photographs courtesy of the Ministry of Public Work, 2011)
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Acknowledgements
This research was undertaken in the framework of two French–Indonesian collaborative programs: (1) the International Collaborative Research (Hibah Kerjasama International) financed by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture and (2) the SEDIMER program (Sediment-related Disasters following the 2010 centennial eruption of Merapi volcano, Java, Indonesia) funded by the AXA Research Fund. We are extremely grateful to the Faculty of Geography and Research Center for Disaster, Universitas Gadjah Mada for their research facilities and field equipment, and to BPPTKG and Proyek Merapi, Ministry of Public Work, for sharing some data. We are thankful to the P2D program from Biro Perencanaan dan Kerjasama Luar Negeri, Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, for facilitating the language editing and providing a travel grant to present some of these data at an international conference on Geomorphology in Paris. Special thanks to the students of Master of Disaster Management as well as Master of Geoinformation Science for Spatial Planning and Risk Management, Universitas Gadjah Mada, for their invaluable assistance during fieldwork.
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Hadmoko, D.S., de Belizal, E., Mutaqin, B.W. et al. Post-eruptive lahars at Kali Putih following the 2010 eruption of Merapi volcano, Indonesia: occurrences and impacts. Nat Hazards 94, 419–444 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3396-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3396-7