The critical rainfall characteristics for torrents and debris flows in the Wenchuan earthquake stricken area |
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Authors: | Ningsheng Chen Chenglin Yang Wei Zhou Guisheng Hu Huan Li David Hand |
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Institution: | 1. Key Lab of Mountain Hazards and Surface Processes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China, 610041 2. Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China, 610041 3. College of Water Resource & Hydropower of SCU, Chengdu, China, 610065 4. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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Abstract: | Critical rainfall assessment is a very important tool for hazard management of torrents and debris flows in mountainous areas.
The Wenchuan Earthquake 2008 caused huge casualties and property damages in the earthquake-stricken area, which also generated
large quantities of loose solid materials and increased occurrence probabilities of debris flows. There is an urgent need
to quantify the critical rainfall distribution in the area so that better hazard management could be planned and if real time
rainfall forecast is available, torrent and debris flow early-warning could be issued in advance. This study is based on 49-year
observations (1954–2003) of up to 678 torrent and debris flow events. Detailed contour maps of 1 hour and 24 hour critical
rainfalls have been generated (Due to the data limitation, there was insufficient 10 minute critical rainfall to make its
contour map). Generally, the contour maps from 1 hour and 24 hours have similar patterns. Three zones with low, medium and
high critical rainfalls have been identified. The characteristics of the critical rainfall zones are linked with the local
vegetation cover and land forms. Further studies and observations are needed to validate the finding and improve the contour
maps. |
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Keywords: | Debris flow Mountain torrent Earthquake-stricken area Critical rainfall |
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