Most debris flows occur in valleys of area smaller than 50 km2. While associated with a valley, debris flow is by no means a full-valley event but originates from parts of the valley, i.e., the tributary sources. We propose that debris flow develops by extending from tributaries to the mainstream. The debris flow observed in the mainstream is the confluence of the tributary flows and the process of the confluence can be considered as a combination of the tributary elements. The frequency distribution of tributaries is found subject to the Weibull form (or its generalizations). And the same distribution form applies to the discharge of debris flow. Then the process of debris flow is related to the geometric structure of the valley. Moreover, viewed from a large scale of water system, all valleys are tributaries, which have been found to assume the same distribution. With each valley corresponding to a debris flow, the distribution can be taken as the frequency distribution of debris flow and therefore provides a quantitative description of the fact that debris flow is inclined to occur at valley of small size. Furthermore, different parameters appear in different regions, suggesting the regional differentials of debris flow potential. We can use the failure rate, instead of the size per se, to describe the risk of a valley of a given area. Finally we claim that the valleys of debris flow in different regions are in the similar episode of evolution.
Depressions in landscapes function as buffers for water and sediment. A landscape with depressions has less runoff,less erosion and more sedimentation than that without depressions. Sinks in digital elevation models (DEMs) can be considered the real features that represent depressions in actual landscapes or spurious features that result from errors in DEM creation. In many hydrological and erosion models,all sinks are considered as spurious features and,as a result,these models do not deal with the sinks that represent real depressions. Consequently,the surface runoff and erosion are overestimated due to removing the depressions. Aiming at this problem,this paper presents a new method,which deal with the sinks that represent real depressions. The drainage network is extracted without changing the original DEM. The method includes four steps:detecting pits,detecting depressions,merging depressions,and extracting drainage network. Because the elevations of grid cells are not changed,the method can also avoid producing new flat areas,which are always produced by the conventional filling methods. The proposed method was applied to the Xihanshui River basin,the upper reach of the Jialingjiang River basin,China,to automatically extract the drainage network based on DEM. The extracted drainage network agrees well with the reality and can be used for further hydrologic analysis and erosion estimation.
WANG YanPENG HongCUI PengZHANG WanshunQIAO FeiCHEN Cai'er
Debris flows have caused serious human casualties and economic losses in the regions strongly affected by the Ms8.0 Wenchuan earthquake of 2008. Debris flow mitigation and risk assessment is a key issue for reconstruction.The existing methods of inundation simulation are based on historical disasters and have no power of prediction.The rain-flood method can not yield detailed flow hydrograph and does not meet the need of inundation simulation. In this paper,the process of water flow was studied by using the Arc-SCS model combined with hydraulic method,and then the debris flow runoff process was calculated using the empirical formula combining the result from Arc-SCS.The peak discharge and runoff duration served as input of inundation simulation. Then,the dangerous area is predicted using kinematic wave method and Manning equation.Taking the debris flow in Huashiban gully in Beichuan County,Sichuan Province,China on 24 Sep.2008 as example,the peak discharge of water flow and debris flow were calculated as 35.52 m3·s-1 and 215.66 m3·s-,with error of 4.15%compared to the measured values.The simulated area of debris-flow deposition was 161,500 m2,vs.the measured area of 144,097 m2,in error of 81.75%.The simulated maximum depth was 12.3 m,consistent with the real maximum depth between 10 and 15 m according to the field survey.The minor error is mainly due to the flow impact on buildings and variations in cross-section configuration.The present methodology can be applied to predict debris flow magnitude and evaluate its risk in other watersheds inthe earthquake area.
One of the most remarkable characteristics of debris flow is the competence for supporting boulders on the surface of flow, which strongly suggests that there should be some structure in the fluid body. This paper analyzed the grain compositions from various samples of debris flows and then revealed the fractal structure. Specifically, the fractality holds in three domains that can be respectively identified as the slurry, matrix, and the coarse content. Furthermore, the matrix fractal, which distinguishes debris flow from other kinds of flows, involves a hierarchical structure in the sense that it might contain ever increasing grains while the total range of grain size increases. It provides a possible mechanism for the boulder suspension.
