Abstract
Intense rainfall events in mountain regions result in pronounced geomorphic activity including landslides, debris flows, sediment transport, and large woody debris. This study investigated the factors that affect wood deposition patterns during debris flows and the influence of wood on sediment deposition. We conducted flume experiments to simulate debris flow fans with driftwood and divided the experiments into plain and confluence sets. The plain set considered the condition where the debris flow tributary met a mild terrain, whereas the confluence set considered where the tributary met a mainstream. The results revealed that wood with roots was liable to form a log jam on the tributary, and small logs could travel long distances. In the confluence set, the mainstream flow caused asymmetric expansion of the debris flow fan and drove the small wood logs drifting downstream. In addition, wood logs may affect the sediment morphology, particularly in the plain set, which has no mainstream effect. In the plain set, driftwood constricted the development of fans in both volume and area. The wood also deflected the path and deposition of debris flows, causing an uneven fan surface. Our experiment results were consistent with the Japanese historical events, including the asymmetrical fans expansion in the confluence environment and the correlation between the travel distance and the size of the driftwood. This study provides valuable insights into the deposition patterns of debris flows with driftwood in mountain regions, filling the gap left by previous researches in driftwood-influenced debris flow deposition on fans.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and material
The data is available by asking.
References
Badoux A, Böckli M, Rickenmann D, Rickli C, Ruiz-Villanueva V, Zurbrügg S, Stoffel M (2015) Large wood transported during the exceptional flood event of 24 July 2014 in the Emme catchment (Switzerland). Proceedings of the Wood in World Rivers Conference. Padova Italy pp 1–3
Beebe JT (2000) Flume studies of the effect of perpendicular log obstructions on flow patterns and bed topography. Great Lakes Geograp 7:9–25
Bertoldi W, Welber M, Mao L, Zanella S, Comiti F (2014) A flume experiment on wood storage and remobilization in braided river systems. Earth Surf Process Landf 39:804–813
Best JL (1987) Flow dynamics at river channel confluences: implications for sediment transport and bed morphology. In: F. G. Ethridge RMF, M.D. Harvey (ed) Recent developments in fluvial sedimentology. Spec Publ Soc Sediment Geo pp 27–35
Best JL (1988) Sediment transport and bed morphology at river channel confluences. Sedimentology 35(3):481–498
Boyer P, Roberts N, Baird D (2006) Holocene environment and settlement on the Çarşamba alluvial fan, south-central Turkey: integrating geoarchaeology and archaeological field survey. Geoarchaeology 21(7):675–698
Braudrick CA, Grant GE (2000) When do logs move in rivers? Water Resour Res 36:571–583
Chen SC, Chao YC (2010) Essential characteristic and spatial distribution of large woody debris in Chiachiwan watershed. J Chinese Soil Water Conserv 41:308–318 (in Chinese)
Chen SC, Tfwala SS, Wang CR, Kuo YM, Chao YC (2020) Incipient motion of large wood in river channels considering log density and orientation. J Hydraul Res 58:489–502
Cheng SC, Liu YJ, Tseng MH, Huang HY, Chen SC (2020) Topographic characteristics by level of river blockage formed by confluences. J Chinese Soil Water Conserv 51:13–20 (in Chinese)
Comiti F, Agostino VD, Moser M, Lenzi MA, Bettella F, Agnese AD, Rigon E, Gius S, Mazzorana B (2012) Preventing wood-related hazards in mountain basins: from wood load estimation to designing retention structures. Proc 12th Congress Interp pp 651–662
Comiti F, Lucía A, Rickenmann D (2016) Large wood recruitment and transport during large floods: a review. Geomorphology 269:23–39
De Haas T, Densmore AL, Stoffel M, Suwa H, Imaizumi F, Ballesteros-Cánovas JA, Wasklewicz T (2018) Avulsions and the spatio-temporal evolution of debris-flow fans. Earth Sci Rev 177:53–75
De Haas T, van den Berg W, Braat L, Kleinhans MG (2016) Autogenic avulsion, channelization and backfilling dynamics of debris-flow fans. Sedimentology 63:1596–1619
Delorme P, Voller V, Paola C, Devauchelle O, Lajeunesse É, Barrier L, Métivier F (2017) Self-similar growth of a bimodal laboratory fan. Earth Surf Dyn 5:239–252
Gippel CJ, Finlayson BL, O’Neill IC (1996) Distribution and hydraulic significance of large woody debris in a lowland Australian river. Hydrobiologia 318:179–194
Hooke RL (1967) Processes on arid-region alluvial fans. J Geol 75:438–460
Ishikawa Y (1994) Occurrence of driftwood in mountain streams, downstream and disasters. Japanese J Water Sci 38(1):51–77 (in Japanese)
Jakob M, Friele P (2010) Frequency and magnitude of debris flows on Cheekye river, British Columbia. Geomorphology 114:382–395
Lange D, Bezzola GR (2006) Schwemmholz: Probleme und lösungsansätze. VAW-Mitteilungen 188. ETH Zurich, Switzerland (in German)
Leite Ribeiro M, Blanckaert K, Roy A, Schleiss AJ (2012) Flow and sediment dynamics in channel confluences. J Geophys Res Earth Surf 117(F1)
Liang MC, Tfwala S, Chen SC (2022) The evaluation of color spaces for large woody debris detection in rivers using XGboost algorithm. Remote Sensing 14:998
Lucía A, Comiti F, Borga M, Cavalli M, Marchi L (2015) Dynamics of large wood during a flash flood in two mountain catchments. Nat Hazard 15:1741–1755
Ni WJ, Capart H (2006) Groundwater drainage and recharge by networks of irregular channels. J Geophys Res Earth Surf 111
Rickenmann D (1997) Sediment transport in swiss torrents. Earth Surf Process Landf J British Geomorphol Group 22:937–951
Ruiz-Villanueva V, Piégay H, Gurnell AM, Marston RA, Stoffel M (2016) Recent advances quantifying the large wood dynamics in river basins: new methods and remaining challenges. Rev Geophys 54:611–652
Schumm SA, Mosley MP, Weaver W (1987) Experimental fluvial geomorphology. Wiley, New York
Shrestha BB, Nakagawa H, Kawaike K, Baba Y, Zhabg H (2020) Numerical and experimental study on debris flow with driftwood fan deposition. Annual Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 54:139–144
Stoffel M, Mendlik T, Schneuwly-Bollschweiler M, Gobiet A (2014a) Possible impacts of climate change on debris-flow activity in the swiss alps. Clim Change 122:141–155
Stoffel M, Tiranti D, Huggel C (2014b) Climate change impacts on mass movements—case studies from the European alps. Sci Total Environ 493:1255–1266
Wohl E, Goode JR (2008) Wood dynamics in headwater streams of the Colorado rocky mountains. Water Resour Res 44
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Prof. Masahiro Chigira, Prof. Sumio Matsuura, and Asia Air Survey Co., Ltd. for providing the aerial images of cases.
Funding
This research was financed by National Science and Technology Council (grant number: 109–2625-M-005–008-MY2) and Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (grant number: SWCB-110–081), Taiwan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualization: Su-Chin Chen, Yen-Yu Chiu; data curation: Jia-Yen Wu, Ching-Ying Tsou, methodology: Yen-Yu Chiu, Jia-Yen Wu, Su-Chin Chen; analysis: Yen-Yu Chiu, Yi-Jun Liu, Hung-En Chen; supervision: Su-Chin Chen; writing—original draft: Yen-Yu Chiu, Ching-Ying Tsou; writing—review and editing: Yen-Yu Chiu, Hung-En Chen, Su-Chin Chen.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Chiu, YY., Wu, JY., Chen, HE. et al. Interaction between driftwood deposition patterns and debris flow fan development. Landslides 20, 2291–2302 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-023-02116-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-023-02116-5