Are Debris Floods and Debris Avalanches Responding Univocally to Recent Climatic Change – A Case Study in the French Alps

A new hierarchical Bayesian approach to analyse environmental and climatic influences on debris flow occurrence

“…Other authors only focused on environmental parameters in alpine regions without quantifying the respective role of climatic and environmental parameters in debris flow activity (e.g. Bovis and Jakob, 1999;Jomelli et al, 2003Jomelli et al, , 2011Guzzetti et al, 2006;Tung-Chueng and Ru-Jen, 2006;Chiarle et al, 2007;Magliulo et al, 2008).…”

“…Such variables have already been mentioned in the literature (e.g. Van Steijn, 1996;Jomelli et al, 2004Jomelli et al, , 2011Wilford et al, 2004;Magliulo et al, 2008). Debris-flow prone catchments are characterised by steeper catchments and steeper channel slopes than those which only produce bedload transport, as already observed in many regional studies (Marchi and Brochot, 2000;De Scally and Owens, 2004;De Scally et al, 2010;Bertrand et al, 2013).…”

Territorial Accessibility and Decision-Making Structure Related to Debris Flow Impacts on Roads in the French Alps

“…Debris flows are rapid flows of saturated nonplastic debris within a steep channel (Hungr 2005) that owe their destructive power to the interaction of solid and fluid forces (Iverson 1997). In mountain areas like the Alps, debris flows are a serious threat as they periodically damage critical infrastructure and disrupt transport networks (Jomelli et al 2011;Papathoma-Köhle et al 2011;Fuchs et al 2013). Because many valleys are landlocked, disruption of transport networks not only affects the damaged area, but extends to all areas and activities linked to it.…”