Abstract. A hydrologically based model is developed for delineating hazard zones in valleys of debris flow basins. The basic assumption of this model is that the ratio of peak discharges of any two cross sections in a debris-flow basin is a power function of the ratio of their flow accumulation areas. Combining the advantages of the empirical and flow routing models of debris-flow hazard zoning, this hydrological model with minimal data requirements has the ability to produce hazard intensity values at different event magnitudes. The algorithms used in this model are designed in the framework of grid- based geographic processing and implemented completely on ArcGIS platform and a Python scripting environment. Qipan basin in the Wenchuan county of Sichuan province, southwest China where a large-scale debris-flow event occurred on July 11, 2013 was chosen as the test case for the model. The hazard zone identified by the model showed good agreement with the real inundation area of the event. The proposed method can help identify small hazard areas in upstream tributaries and the developed model is promising in terms of its application in debris-flow hazard zoning.
Debris flow-slide initiation mechanisms in fill slopes, Wellington, New Zealand
