Recent catastrophic debris flows in Luding county, SW China: geological hazards, rainfall analysis and dynamic characteristics

About 127 debris flow gullies have been identified, and debris flows have been an important type of geological hazards in Luding County, affecting cities, towns, rural areas, scenic spots and human’s engineering projects, such as mining and waterpower utilizing equipments. In this summary paper, recent two catastrophic debris flow events occurred on June 30, 2005, in Chuni town, in the central of the county, and on August 11, 2005, in Hailuogou scenic spot, in the southwest of the county, respectively, are reviewed. The debris flow events are introduced on the basis of field investigation and RS interpretation and the triggering factors for flow occurrence are identified. Furthermore, the rainfall related to flow occurrence including antecedent rainfall and intraday rainfall is analyzed, and a power-law function which can be used as a basic warning line is established based on both antecedent effective rainfall and intraday rainfall. Then dynamic parameters such as flow velocity and flow discharge are calculated, respectively. Through comparison and discussion, some conclusions are made including (1) The antecedent rainfall played an important role for debris flows which generated predominately based on the slope-instability due to the saturated loose sediments; (2) Despite slower flow velocity and smaller magnitude, the slope-type debris flows just like 2005-6-30 debris flows usually lead to serious damages for the difficulty to forecast and to prevent; (3) The mistaken recognition on debris flow hazards and lack of prevention consciousness strengthen the hazard and damage degree. This research is of certain significance for the prevention and mitigation of debris flow hazards and for the planning of the town building and tourism development in the future.