Recent Developments on Debris Flows

The book contains a collection of papers presented and discussed in the International Workshop on Debris Flows held in Kagoshima, Japan, in 1993. Papers are grouped in three chapters: (1) Observation and Measurement of Debris Flows, (2) Dynamics of Debris Flows, and (3) Control Measures for Debris Flows. Each chapter contains a brief introduction, which attempts to delineate principal goals, tasks and limitations of the respective research field and to describe the current state of knowledge. Each of the ten papers is clearly edited, and contains black and white figures. Discussions at the end of each paper supply precious clarification and enlightenment about the work itself.

The first chapter includes three papers. The first two papers deal with conditions that cause debris flows including rainfall, modeling and prediction of runoff, and related field measurements taken during real events. The third paper is more general and descriptive and gives information useful for classifying debris flows, which can exhibit highly variable behavior. Chapter 2, dedicated to the dynamics of debris flows, contains four papers. One of them consists of a clear review of rheological models that range from purely frictional to visco-plastic behavior. The other papers give precious contributions to the physical understanding of the dynamics of debris flows which, case by case, can be dominated by several factors depending on particle properties, concentration, and properties of the interstitial fluid. Chapter 3 discusses the performance, effectiveness and design criteria of different countermeasures and controls used against debris flows, including check dams, slit dams and breaker screens. The results of some laboratory experiments aimed to quantify the dynamic impact of debris flows are also presented in chapter 3.

The book is intended as a comprehensive overview of different aspects of debris flow phenomena. Such phenomena are very complex, and in the last twenty years, many approaches have been used to describe and investigate them. Until recent times, the design of mitigating structures relied more on a designer's professional experience than on actual scientific assumptions. Advances in understanding of debris flow dynamics, especially from a rheological point of view, are fundamental to provide parameters, such as debris flow velocity, hydrography, and maximum involved volumes. These parameters are essential for a correct design. Although the physics of debris flows are not well known yet and will not be in the near future, it appears that some common strategies have been developed to prevent and control the disasters associated with them. Common strategies and recent orientations are pointed out well by the papers in the volume, and the interested reader will find a well delineated overview and a comprehensive presentation of different points of view. Unfortunately, introductory chapters do not include a satisfactory list of references which would be useful to integrate those of the individual papers. Although the book represents a collection of papers from an International Workshop, the papers are quite variable with some more general and descriptive works beside papers including specific mathematical treatment of the physics of debris flows. This variability is not helpful in identifying a category of potential readers. As a result, this book will appeal to both scientists working on specific aspects of debris flows, and to less specialized readers interested in hints about the phenomena with more specific detail in some aspects of debris flows. Since research developments have been quite substantial in these last few years, the delay in the publication of the volume (contributions are dated 1993) has resulted treatments that are not fully updated.

RINALDO GENEVOIS
Dipartimento Di Geologia, Paleontologia e Geofisica
Università di Padova
Via Giotto, 1
35137 Padova (Italy)

ALESSANDRO SIMONI
Dipartimento Di Scienze della Terra e Geologico-ambientali
Università degli Studi di Bologna
Piazza di Porta S. Donato, 1
40127 Bologna (Italy)

Source

http://archives.datapages.com/data/sepm/journals/v66-67/data/068/068006/1236.HTM