An investigation of the Brumadinho Dam Break with HEC RAS simulation

Abstract

The Brumadinho dam disaster occurred on the 25 January, 2019 when Dam I, an upstream tailings dam at the Corrego do Feijao iron ore mine, 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) east of Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil, suffered a catastrophic failure. Over 248 people died and over 2.88 billion worth of property were lost or damaged due to the subsequent mud flow and flooding. This is merely 4 years after the previous Mariana dam break affecting over 1 million people downstream due to iron ore mining waste flowing downstream into river basin. To prevent a similar tragedy from reoccurring, it's useful to examine the cause of the Brumadinho dam break and compare observations with model simulations. HEC RAS, developed by US Army Corps of Engineers, is used to model the mud flow from the Brumadinho dam break based on the NASA SRTM elevation dataset over Brazil. The extent of the mud flow from the HEC RAS simulation matches the actual flooding due to the dam break. This simulation technique can later be used for future dam collapse predictions.