Field observation of debris-flow activities in the initiation area of the Jiangjia Gully, Yunnan Province, China

The Jiangjia Gully, which is located in Dongchuan District, Yunnan Province, China, is a watershed prone to debris flows and has long-term recorded data of debris-flow occurrence. However, the initiation mechanism has mainly been studied by experiments in this watershed. To further reveal debris-flow formation mechanism in the Jiangjia Gully, debris-flow activities in the initiation zone were observed with hand-held video cameras in the summer of 2016 and 2017. In these two years, six debris-flow events were triggered in Menqian Gully, a major tributary of the Jiangjia Gully, while debrisflow activities in some sub-watersheds of Menqian Gully were recorded with video cameras in four events. The video recording shows that landslides constituted an important source for sediment supply in debris flow. Some landslides directly evolved into debris flows, while the others released sediment into rills and channels, where debris flows were generated for sediment entrainment by water flow. Therefore, debris-flow occurrence in the Jiangjia Gully is influenced both by infiltration-dominated processes and by runoff-dominated processes. In addition, rainfall data from four gauges installed in Menqian Gully were analyzed using mean intensity(I), duration(D), peak 10-minute rainfall(R10min) and antecedent rainfall(AR) up to 15 days prior to peak 10-minute rainfall. It reveals that debris-flow triggering events can be discriminated from nontriggering events either by an I-D threshold or by an R10min-AR threshold. However, false alarms can be greatly reduced if these two kinds of thresholds are used together. Moreover, behaviors including intermittency of debris flow, variance in moisture content and volume among surges, and coalescence of multiple surges by temporary damming were observed, indicating the complexity of debris-flow initiation processes. These findings are expected to enhance our knowledge on debris-flow formation mechanism in regions with similar environmental settings.

Quantitative evaluation of eco-geotechnical measures for debris flow mitigation by improved vegetation-erosion model

Eco-geotechnical measures for debris flow mitigation and control have attracted wide attention,but the mitigation effect is lack of quantitative evaluation of coordinated measures.In order to evaluate the debris flow mitigation effect in the combinations of geotechnical engineering and ecological engineering,this study investigated the different trends of debris flows behaviour based on the sediment deposition on the gully bed and the loose material on the hillslope.Besides,this research proposed a new model involving vegetation coverage,source gravity energy and debris flow volume based on vegetation-erosion model.The new model validated that the debris flow volume was proportional to the gravity energy of gravel and rock fragments on the hillslope and inversely proportional to the vegetation coverage in a dry-hot valley setting.Furthermore,a typical area in the valley of the Xiaojiang River in Yunnan Province,China was quantified with the new model.The results showed that under different gravity energy conditions,the implementation order of check dam construction and afforestation was important for debris flow mitigation.