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Hazard assessment of debris flows in the Wenchuan earthquake-stricken area, South West China

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Abstract

The Longxi river basin with the city of Dujiangyan, in the Sichuan province of South West China, belongs to the seismic area of the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Lots of loose co-seismic materials were present on the slopes, which in later years served as source material for rainfall-induced debris flows. A total of 12 debris flows, were triggered by heavy rainfall on August 13, 2010 in the study area. The FLO-2D numerical analysis software was adopted to simulate debris flows intensity, including movement velocities and maximum flow depths. A comparison of the measured fan spreading with the simulation results, the evaluation parameter Ω was used to verify accuracy of simulation, the results show Ω values ranging between 1.37 and 1.65 indicating relative good simulation results. This study also estimated the flood hydrograph for various recurrence intervals (20, 100, and 200 years, respectively) to perform scenario simulations of debris flows, and followed Swiss and Austrian standards to establish a debris flow hazard classification model on the basis of a combination of the debris flow intensity and the recurrence period. This study distinguishes three hazard classes: low, medium, and high. This proposed approach generated a debris flow hazard distribution map that could be used for disaster prevention in the Wenchuan earthquake-stricken area, South West China.

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Acknowledgments

The research was supported by the independent research fund of State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection at Chengdu University of Technology (SKLGP2015Z018), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41672299) and the Fund for International Cooperation (NSFC-RCUK_NERC), Resilience to earthquake-induced landslide risk in China (Grant No. 41661134010). The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions to improve the paper.

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Correspondence to Ming Chang.

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Chang, M., Tang, C., Van Asch, T.W.J. et al. Hazard assessment of debris flows in the Wenchuan earthquake-stricken area, South West China. Landslides 14, 1783–1792 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-017-0824-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-017-0824-9

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