Environmental Geology

, Volume 55, Issue 3, pp 619–627 | Cite as

Relationships between debris flows and earth surface factors in Southwest China

  • Fangqiang Wei
  • Kechang Gao
  • Kaiheng Hu
  • Yong Li
  • James Smith Gardner
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Southwest China, including the Provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing, is a region with serious debris flow hazards, where 7,561 debris flow sites have been identified. Based on the data from these sites, the distribution regularity of debris flows was analyzed. Earth surface factors that may influence the formation of debris flows were analyzed from the viewpoints of energy and material conditions. Four major earth surface factors were selected: relative relief, stratigraphy, fault density and land-use conditions. With the support of GIS, the research region was divided into 125,177 grid cells and for each cell data for the four factors were collected. Based on this information, the distribution of quantity and the occurrence probability of debris flows and the role of each factor were statistically analyzed. The results should be helpful for the assessment of debris flow hazards and debris flow forecasting in the research region.

Keywords

Debris flow Earth surface factor Debris flow distribution Southwest China 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX3-SW-352).

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2007

Authors and Affiliations

  • Fangqiang Wei
    • 1
    • 2
  • Kechang Gao
    • 3
  • Kaiheng Hu
    • 2
  • Yong Li
    • 2
  • James Smith Gardner
    • 4
  1. 1.Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Surface ProcessChinese Academy of SciencesChengduChina
  2. 2.Institute of Mountain Hazards and EnvironmentChinese Academy of SciencesChengduChina
  3. 3.South China University of TechnologyGuangzhouChina
  4. 4.Natural Resources Institute, Clayton Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth and ResourcesUniversity of ManitobaWinnipegCanada

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