Abstract
Debris flows and their volcanic counterparts lahars are one of the most destructive mass movement process worldwide, being responsible for hundreds of death every year and leading to horrific multi-thousand death tolls every decade or so. Consequently, debris flows have been the focus on intensive research with hundreds of papers appearing annually on various aspects of debris flow research. For most researchers and practitioners it is difficult to keep abreast of all advances in debris flow research and to extract the most relevant publications. Several dedicated conferences have been held whose sole focus is debris flows. In 2005 a book on debris flows and related processes was published (Jakob and Hungr 2005) to offer a more systematic review of the state-of-the-art. The book was published in 2005 and thus reflects mostly knowledge up to 2003 or 2004. With that it is outdated in some fields. It is clearly impossible to replace the 2005 book and provide a comprehensive review of all significant advances in debris flow science in the space of this chapter. The author has therefore attempted to provide a short summary and highlight outstanding questions and how they can be addressed, at least in part, by application of dendrochronology.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Allen CD, Savage M, Falk DA, Suckling KF, Swetnam TW, Schulke T, Stacey PB, Morgan P, Hoffman M, Klingel JT (2002) Ecological restoration of Southwestern ponderosa pine ecosystems: A broad perspective. Ecol Appl 12:1418–1433
Bigio EJ, Swetnam TW, Baisan CH (2005) The integration of tree-ring and alluvial fan records of hire history at the Missionary Ridge Fire near Durango, Colorado. Geol Soc Am Abst Prog 37(7):111
Bollschweiler M, Stoffel M, Ehmisch M, Monbaron M (2007) Reconstructing spatio-temporal patterns of debris-flow activity using dendrogeomorphological methods. Geomorphology 87:337–351
Bollschweiler M, Stoffel M, Schneuwly, DM (2010) Using event and minimum age dating for the assessment of hazards on a debris-flow cone. In: Stoffel M, Bollschweiler M, Butler DR, Luckman BH (eds) Tree rings and natural hazards: A state-of-the-art. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, this volume
Caine N (1980) The rainfall intensity-duration control of shallow landslides and debris flows. Geogr Ann 62A:23–27
Cannon SH, Gartner JE (2005) Wildfire-related debris flow from a hazards perspective. In: Jakob M, Hungr O (eds) Debris-flow hazards and related phenomena. Praxis, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, pp 363–385
Cannon SH, Kirkham RM, Parise M (2001) Wildfire-related debris-flow initiation processes, Storm King Mountain, Colorado. Geomorphology 39:171–188
Cannon SH, Gartner JE, Wilson RC, Bowers JC, Laber JL (2008) Storm rainfall conditions for floods and debris flows for recently burned areas in southwestern Colorado and southern California. Geomorphology 96:250–269
Cannon SH, Gartner JE, Rupert MG, Michael JA, Rea AH, Parrett C (2010) Predicting the probability and volume of post-wildfire debris flows in the inter-mountain west, USA. Geol Soci Am Bull 122(1–2):127–144
Chleborad AF, Baum RL, Godt JL, Powers PS (2008) A prototype system for forecasting landslides in the Seattle, Washington area. Geol Soci Am Rev Eng 20:103–120
Chen H, Lee CF (2000) Numerical simulation of debris flows. Can Geotech J 37(1):147–160
Covington WW, Moore MM (1994) Southwestern ponderosa forest structure Changes since Euro-American settlement. J Forest 92:39–47
DeBano LF (2000) The role of fire and soil heating on water repellency in wild-land environments: a review. J Hydrol 231–232:195–206
Frechette JD, Meyer GA (2007) Episodic geomorphic impact of severe fire in ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests of the Sacramento Mountain, New Mexico. Geol Soc Am Abst Prog 38:109
Gabet EJ, Sternberg P (2008) The effects of vegetative ash on infiltration capacity, sediment transport and the generation of progressively bulked debris flows. Geomorphology 101:666–673
Guzzetti F, Peruccacci S, Rossi M, Stark CP (2008) The rainfall intensity-duration control of shallow landslides and debris flows: an update. Landslides 5(1):3–17
Hungr O (1995) A model for the runout analysis of rapid flow slides, debris flows, and avalanches. Can Geotech J 32:610–623
Hungr O, McDougall S, Bovis MJ (2005) Entrainment of material by debris flows. In: Jakob M, Hungr O (eds) Debris-flow hazards and related phenomena. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York
Hutchinson JN, Bhandari RK (1971) Undrained loading a fundamental mechanism of mudflows and other mass movements. Geotechnique 21:353–358
Iverson RM, Denlinger RP (2001) Flow of variably fluidised granular masses across three-dimensional terrain. 2. Numerical predictions and experimental tests. J Geophys Res 106:552–566
Iverson R (2009) Elements of an improved model for debris flow motion. Invited contribution for Powders and Grains 2009. American Physical Society
Jackson M, Roering JJ (2009) Post-fire geomorphic response in steep, forested landscapes: Oregon Coast range, USA. Quat Sci Rev 28(11–12):1131–1146
Jakob M, Lambert S (2009) Climate change effects on landslides along the south-west coast of British Columbia. Geomorphology 107:275–284
Jakob M (2009) A real-time debris flow warning system for the North Shore Mountains of Vancouver, Canada. European Geosciences Conference, Vienna
Jakob M, Hungr O (eds) (2005) Debris-flow hazards and related phenomena. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York
Jakob M, Weatherly H (2005) Debris flow hazard and risk assessment. Jones Creek, Washington. In: Hungr O, Fell R, Couture R, Eberhardt E (eds) Landslide risk management. Proceedings, pp 533–542
Jakob M (2005) A size classification for debris flows. Eng Geol 79:151–161
Jakob M, Weatherly H (2003) A hydroclimatic threshold for landslide initiation on the North Shore Mountains of Vancouver, British Columbia. Geomorphology 54:137–156
Jakob M, Hungr O, Thomson B (1997) Two debris flows with anomalously high magnitude. In: CL Chen (ed) Debris-flow hazards mitigation: mechanics, prediction and assessment: Proceedings of the first International Conference, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp 382–394. American Society of Civil Engineers, New York
Jakob M (1996) Morphometric and geotechnical controls of debris flow frequency and magnitude in southwestern British Columbia. Ph.D. thesis, University of British Columbia
May CL, Gresswell RE (2004) Spatial and temporal patterns of debris-flow deposition in the Oregon Coast Range, USA. Geomorphology 57:135–149
MacArthur RC, Schamber DR (1986) Numerical method for simulating mudflows. Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on River Sedimentation, Jackson, Mississippi, pp 1615–1623
McDougall S, Hungr O (2004) A model for the analysis of rapid landslide motion across three-dimensional terrain. Can Geotech J 41:1084–1097
Meyer G, Wells SG (1997) Fire-related sedimentation events on alluvial fans, Yellowstone National Park, USA. J Sediment Res 67:776–791
O’Brien JS, Julien PY, Fullerton WT (1993) Two-dimensional water flood and mud-flow simulation. J Hydraul Eng 119(2):244–259
Pierce JL, Meyer GA (2008) Long-term fire history from alluvial fan sediments – the role of drought and climate variability, and implications for management of Rocky Mountain Forests. Int J Wildland Fire 17:84–95
Pierce JL, Meyer GA, Jull AJT (2004) Fire-induced erosion and millennial-scale climate change in northern ponderosa pine forests. Nature 432:87–90
Pudasaini SP, WangY HK (2005) Modelling debris flows down general channels. Nat Haz Earth Syst Sci 5:799–819
Rickenmann D, Laigle D, McArdell W, Huble J (2006) Comparison of 2D debris-flow simulation models with field events. Comput Geosci 10:241–264
Santi PM, deWolfe VG, Higgins JD, Cannon SH, Gartner JE (2008) Sources of debris flow material in burned areas. Geomorphology 96:310–321
Shakesby RA, Doerr SH (2006) Wildfire as a hydrological and geomorphological agent. Earth-Sci Rev 74:269–307
Sassa K (1985) The mechanism of debris flows. Proceedings of the XI International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, San Francisco, vol 1, pp 1173–1176
Stoffel M, Bollschweiler M (2009) Tree-ring reconstruction of past debris flows based on a small number of samples – possibilities and limitations. Landslides 6:225–230
Stoffel M (2010) Frequency-magnitude relationships, seasonality and spread of debris flows on a forested cone. In: Stoffel M, Bollschweiler M, Butler DR, Luckman BH (eds) Tree rings and natural hazards: A state-of-the-art. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, this volume
Stoffel M, Beniston M (2006) On the incidence of debris flows from the early Little Ice Age to a future greenhouse climate: a case study from the Swiss Alps. Geophys Res Lett 33:L16404
Strunk H (1995) Dendrogeomorphologische Methoden zur Emittelung der Murfrequenz und Beispiele ihrer Anwendung. Roderer, Regensburg
Takahashi T, Nakagawa H (1989) Debris flow hazard zone mapping. Proceedings of the Japan–China (Taipei). Joint Seminar on Natural Hazard Mitigation, Kyoto, Japan, pp 363–372
Tekka PR, Genevois R, Deganutti AM, Armento MC (2007) Numerical modelling of two debris flows in the Dolomites (Northeastern Italian Alps). Chen and Major (eds) Fourth International Conference on Debris Flow Hazard Mitigation: Mechanics, Prediction, and Assessment. Millpress, Netherlands, pp 179–188
Wilkerson F, G Schmid (2010) Dendrogeomorphic applications to debris flows in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. In: Stoffel M, Bollschweiler M, Butler DR, Luckman BH (eds) Tree rings and natural hazards: A state-of-the-art. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, this volume
Acknowledgements
Susan Cannon kindly provided materials for the debris flows and wildfire section and reviewed an early draft. Markus Stoffel and Michelle Bollschweiler provided helpful comments on a draft of this chapter.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jakob, M. (2010). State of the Art in Debris-Flow Research: The Role of Dendrochronology. In: Stoffel, M., Bollschweiler, M., Butler, D., Luckman, B. (eds) Tree Rings and Natural Hazards. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 41. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8736-2_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8736-2_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8735-5
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-8736-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)