The development of a landslide-dammed lake following the Badakshan tragedy in northern Afghanistan posed a difficult challenge to the already devastated community. The initial landslide events killed more than 350 people, and blocked the main river - creating a lake that inundated buildings in the village, and threatened to collapse the dam, endangering communities downstream. A collaboration between the Landslide Research and the Chair of Hydromechanics at TUM trialed a new methodology to quickly assess the potential flood hazard using freely available geodata and open-source software. The groups aim to demonstrate how these tools can be employed for disaster response, and encourage communities to improve preparedness for such unforeseen events.

Management of the disaster response was shared between the Afghan Government, the UN, NASA, the US Army, and others. Model results from TUM provided an insight into the 'worst case scenario', and gave local authorities confidence in works undertaken to drain the lake in a controlled manner.