Takahashi Tamotsu. Debris flow: mechanics, prediction, and countermeasures

2nd edition. — CRC Press, 2014. — 540 p.The main themes in the first edition were focused on a single debris flow event and the following topics were discussed: the classification from the mechanical point of view; the characteristic behaviors of flow; the analyses and predictions of the processes during its initiation, flowing down and deposition; the reproductions of some representative debris-flow disasters using numerical simulations; and the methods for preventing or mitigating the debris-flow disasters. These themes should, of course, constitute the main parts of the second edition as well. But, from the countermeasure planning point of view, the preventing or mitigating functions of the structures should continually be shown for a long period during which many debris flows and highly sediment-laden floods occur. In this context, the analyses of sediment runoff over a long period are also important. Therefore, in the second edition, a sediment runoff model that is named ‘SERMOW’ and its improved version ‘SERMOW ver.2’ are introduced in the new chapter 6, where the sediment runoff volumes during a long period as well as the hydrograph, sediment graphs divided into several particle size groups for a single debris flow event can be predicted.
Recently, after the publication of the first edition, the large-scale landslides with the formation of landslide-dams occurred such as that induced by the Wenchuan earthquake of May 2008 in China, that induced by severe rainfall brought about by the typhoon Morakot in August 2009 at Shiaolin in Taiwan, and that induced by typhoon No. 12, in September 2011 at the Nara and Wakayama districts in Japan, among others. In this context, some considerations on the mechanics of the high mobility of large-scale deep-seated landslides and debris avalanches are added in the second edition.
Several other topics that may contribute to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of debris flow mechanics are also added.
Fortunately, the first edition of this book was acclaimed by many readers, but a considerable time has elapsed since the publication, so that Taylor&Francis suggested me to revise. In response to the suggestion I decided to publish the second edition, renovating under the above-mentioned viewpoints.
July 2013
Tamotsu Takahashi