Application of physical modelling of debris flow triggering to field conditions: Limitations posed by boundary conditions

Abstract

Debris flows are often triggered by Hortonian overland flow during high-intensity rainstorms. Data derived from debris flow trigger zones in the southern French Alps were fed into a physical model of debris flow triggering based on Takahashi. Using a Monte Carlo approach with 1000 runs, the results show a wide distribution of safety factor values, indicating that physical modelling based on actual field measurements may not always be practical. As all safety factor values obtained are well below 1 even though debris flows only occur during very high-intensity rainstorms, the model used must be inappropriate. Apparently, the composition of the overland flow plays an important role: during high-intensity rainstorms it usually has a very high sediment content and contains stones. This prevents it from flowing through the pores of coarse debris accumulations in the central gully of a trigger zone; it will rather run over the debris. This situation is more stable than with the fluid flowing through the pores. The behaviour switch of the fluid above a certain sediment and stone content thus drastically changes the triggering conditions for debris flows and it is concluded that debris flow triggering in the area requires the occurrence of both overland flow and landsliding.