A New Landslide Runout Model and Implications for Understanding Post Wildfire and Earthquake Threats to Communities in California
Publication: Lifelines 2022
ABSTRACT
Wildfires and earthquakes contribute to a nearly ever-present cycle of hazards that are man-aged by coastal California communities every year. Worse still, fires, and earthquakes drive slope instability, primarily in the form of debris flows, debris avalanches, and debris floods whose runout can impact environment, infrastructure, and threaten lives along the landslide path. A better understanding of future landslide runout paths, travel distance, and potential landslide depth along the path, will improve our ability to manage future hazards; however, predictive models can be difficult to implement, hard to calibrate, and/or expensive to acquire. DebrisFlow Predictor is an agent-based runout model that predicts runout, inundation, scour, and deposition along the path, of debris flows and debris avalanches. Results credible and easily verified (numerically or visually) using several built-in features. DebrisFlow Predictor is intended to better inform and constrain land management decisions where debris flow and debris avalanche hazards exist.
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Lifelines 2022
Pages: 278 - 288
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Published online: Nov 16, 2022
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