Size of a debris flow deposition: model experiment approach

The prediction of the dangerous extent of a debris flow deposition is of vital importance, but difficult to achieve. Precise prediction of the depositional boundary of a debris flow event is impossible, but the size of a debris flow deposition could provide some estimates of the area, length, width, and thickness of a debris flow deposition. Based on in situ depositional experiments performed on a debris flow creek just after debris flows, a rule of thumb expressed by a group of equations containing the multiple-variate nonlinear functions is proposed in this paper. The interrelationships between the size and the causation also are discussed, and some empirical formulae to calculate the causative parameters for different regions are presented.