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DEBRIS FLOWS IN AREAS OF RESIDUAL SOILS: OCCURRENCE AND CHARACTERISTICS

M. A. KANJI, F. MASSAD, P. T. CRUZ


Prof. Dr., Polytechnical School. University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

ABSTRACT This paper presents some topics related to the occurrence of debris flows in regions dominated by residual soils, focusing on their genesis, mechanisms and basic characteristics. The data included in the analysis correspond to events occurred in several countries, but also include those occurred in Brazil, where practically all of them were in regions of residual soils. One event occurred at a Petrobras Refinery, at Cubato (So Paulo, Brazil), which was well studied and back analyzed utilizing theoretical and empirical formulae. Some of them were adjusted to fit to the observations. Triggering conditions of debris flows are discussed, considering innumerous cases well documented. Rain intensities that can deflagrate debris flows and landslides are discussed, with indication of degree of danger according to the rain precipitation. Estimations of peak discharge, quantity of sediments are discussed, as well as a relationship of rain intensity and area of slides.

Keywords: Debris flows, Triggering conditions, Mechanism, Parameters, Back-analysis. 1 INTRODUCTION This paper presents some topics related to the occurrence of debris flows in regions dominated by residual soils, focusing on their genesis, mechanisms and basic characteristics. The data included in the analysis correspond to events occurred in several countries, but also include those occurred in Brazil, where practically all of them were in regions of residual soils. The reason to start with the study of debris flows derived with the occurrence of a large debris flow in 1994 in the high hill slopes behind a large Petrobras refinery in Cubato, state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The event destroyed several utilities and flooded the industrial area, obliging to the interruption of the operation of the refinery for two weeks. The total loss, including removal of deposited rock blocks, mud and wood logs, and loss of production amounted to about US$ 44 mi. On the other hand, Petrobras has a strong program of environmental protection, in which this type of event was included. As a result, the Polytechnical School of the University of Sao Paulo was called in to help in the conception of protection works. This was the reason we were involved with the problem. A multidisciplinary group was formed, which has been working in the problem since then. To define the protection works, it is necessary to know the triggering conditions of such type of event, its mechanism and the related parameters, to be able to define design criteria and specific purpose of each work. Many other debris flows occurred in Brazil and in several other countries were studied and backanalyzed to check their parameters. Presently, the main protection works are completed for the larger hydraulic basin, and the works for two other secondary basins were already designed and should be built soon. 2 BRAZILIAN CASES OF DEBRIS FLOWS Gramani and Kanji (2001) presented for the first time an inventory of main debris flows in Brazil. The main cases along with their related conditions and consequences are summarized in Table 1. Their geographic distribution correspond chiefly to the mountain ranges of Serra do Mar (along the Southeastern coast), the Serra da Mantiqueira (neighbor to Serra do Mar) and to the Serra Geral (in the Southern part of the country). The first two are dominated by gneisses and some schists, while the last one consists of basalts. The relative heights of these mountain ranges is in between 800m to 1,300m, approximately. All of them present thick residual soils, due to tropical weather, except in portions of high inclination, when past landslides have reduced their thickness. It is common to find colluvium deposits in the lower part of the slopes, but sometimes in intermediate levels, due to topographic steps. Some other cases of debris flows occurred in the Cubato region, to be mentioned later, but their documentation is not complete, reason why they were not included in Table 1. 3 SUMMARIZED DESCRIPTION OF SELECTED CASES IN RESIDUAL SOILS

3.1 Individual Slide developing in Debris Flow (Anchieta Highway, km 42) A type of debris flow in residual soil occurred in the Anchieta Highway, linking the city of So Paulo (about 800m a.s.l.), a large industrial center, to the coast where is located the city of Santos, its port (the largest in South America) and a heavy industrial complex at Cubato. This highway was constructed in the 50s and is the main transportation way of imported and exported goods. In the 70s a 3 lane new modern highway (Imigrantes) was built for ascending, completed in 2002 with 3 other lanes for descending. In the sierra portion the 800m level difference are gained in less than 10km. The average declivity of the hill slopes is about 30 to 35 degrees. In December 1999, just before Christmas and summer vacations, when about 1 mi cars are expected to reach the coast, a heavy rain occurred for several days, causing a large landslide to occur, which crest was about 80m from the highway, as seen in

Table 1. Brazilian cases of documented debris flows


CASE SERRA ARARAS RJ, Jan 23,1967 CARAGUATATUBA, SP,Mar 18,1967 VIADUCT IV, Santos Railroad, SP, 1971 TUBARO, SC,1974 GR.FUNDA, SP, 1975 S. MARANGUAPE, CE, 1974 CACHOEIRA STREAM, Cubato, SP, 1976 PETROPOLIS, RJ, 1988 PEDRAS STREAM (RPBC), Cubato, SP, 1994 TIMB DO SUL, SC/RS, Dec. 1995 PEDRAS STREAM (RPBC), Cubato, SP, 1996 UBATUBA Highway, SP, 1996 QUITIE(Q),PAPAGAIO (P) Creeks, RJ, 1996 Anchieta Highway, SP,Dec. 1999 Lavrinhas, SP Jan 2000 H/L 0.07 ~0.15 ~0.15 0.28 0.27 0.12 0.27 0.47 0.18 BASIN AREA 10.4 4 2.64 23.1 2.64 2.13 (Q) 2.53 (P) RAIN 114mm/1h 275mm/24h 420mm/24h 586mm/48h 394mm/72h 742mm/16d >140mm/24h 40mm/1h 276mm/24h 145mm/24h 414mm/144h 60mm/1h >500mm/1h >10mm/10min 442mm/13 202mm/24h 128mm/24h 274mm/72h V (m/s) 8.4 10 >5 10 2.5 VOLUME (106 m3) >10x106 (7.6x106 t of solids 1x105 (estim.) >10x10 1x105 3x105 3x106 1.6x104 9x104 (Q) 4x104 (P) 3x105
6

LOSSES 1200 deaths, >100 houses destroyed, damage to HPP and roads 120 deaths, 400 houses destroyed., damage to roads. Steel viaduct destroyed., require-ed stabilization works in slope. 195 d., town flooded with debris Affected bridge pilar of railway 12 deaths, many houses destroyed. Copebras industry flooded with mud and debris. 2 earth and 2 masonry protection dams built. 171 deaths, 5,000 houses affected Petrobras Refinery flooded with debris, interruption of operations and cleaning (US$44mi) 29 deaths, ca. 20 houses destroyed, losses in agriculture and cattle. Petrobras Refinery protected by emergency works protected, no consequences, only cleaning. Severe damage to highway, required slope stabilization works. 1 death, hundreds of houses destroyed.

Highway affected in ca. 200m, traffic interrupted several weeks. 11 deaths, many houses and bridges de6 0.13 17.5 >70mm/1h 22 1.6x10 stroyed. H, L Total height and length of debris flow, V velocity (estimated or calculed), Basin Area in km2

Figure 1. Landslide at km 42 of the Anchieta Highway.

Figure 2. Evolution of the Anchieta Highway slide as a 3 km long debris flow..

the photo of Figure 1. It occurred in natural terrain covered with original forest and involved about 200.000m3 of residual soil and weathered rock. The examination of the slide scar indicated that the weathered rock had 3 systems of joints. Two of them were parallel to the slope, one dipping 30o towards the valley and another one dipping 80o into the soil mass. The third one was vertical and normal to the slope. The conjunction of the 3 systems of joints isolated small rock blocks, facilitating the slide of the saturated mass under hydrostatic pressure. Detailed geologic description was presented by Sadowski et al (2001). The failed mass run as a liquefied mass, generating a debris flow, that traveled along the inclined creek for more than 3km, as shown in the photo of Figure 2. 3.2 Simultaneous Landslides Generating Debris Flow (Petrobras Refinery at Cubato) Several heavy rains have occurred in the past, generating many landslides of the 800m high hill slopes of the Serra do Mar sited just behind the refinery, as shown in the photo of Figure 3, without major trouble during several decades. The slopes correspond to gneissic residual soils, with some colluvium deposits at the toe of the escarpment. However, in January 1985, a heavy rain caused the sliding of some hillside slopes of the Pedras Stream basin with invasion of mud, gravel, tree branches and wood logs and branches in a water reservoir at the Northern area. Following that event, some protection works were built, including a concrete wall surrounding the reservoir and nine gabion dams along the Pedras Stream and its tributary. In 1992, a new slide in two others hillsides lead to the construction of additional protection works, including concrete walls surrounding oil tanks and 8 gabion dams in two other creeks. In 1994 a large debris flow reached the Refinery causing damage to its East, West and North areas, destroying 8 of the 9 gabion dams previously built. 3 debris flow transported a volThe ume of the order of 300.000 m of mud, sand, gravel, large rocks and trees, reaching tanks of the North area, administrative buildings, the majority of the internal routes and almost all the

processing units. The rainfall intensity in 24 hours was 214 mm and the maximum precipitation during one hour, prior to the event, was close to 60 mm. This large accident resulted in 10 days of no refining production, at a cost of US$ 44 millions. A detailed description of the event was presented by Massad et al (1998) Later, in 1996, a small scale debris flow took place in the same area along the Main Tributary of Pedras Stream. A debris lobe 4 m high that existed before this event was completely taken away by the flow. The volume of solids transported by this debris flow was measured and reached roughly 16,000m3. The heavy rains caused about 100 slides within the hydraulic basin of the Pedras Stream, which scars and erosion along the streams can be seen in Figure 3. The practically simultaneous slide caused local blockage of the stream and the blowouts of these small natural dams generated the debris flows. The total volume of solids transported correspond to the soil mass removed by the slides (checked by airphoto interpretation), plus river bed material removed by the flow and banks erosion. The grain size distribution along the Main Tributary of Pedras Stream varied according to its inclination. In the steeper parts metric rock blocks predominated, while in the flatter parts, sand, gravels and smaller rock blocks prevailed. A grain size analysis, including sedimentation, sieving and an in situ measurements of the big stones and rock blocks, carried out with the torrent bed material of the 1996 event, collected in a flatter area, is shown in Figure 4. From the curve, it may be figured out that d50 is close to 10mm. Since the events of 1994 and 1996 were well documented and studied, they were used in back analysis to check theoretical formulae to obtain peak discharges, volume of sediments, and other parameters to be mentioned later on. The protection works built along the streams are described in Cruz et al (2000). This is a typical example of debris flow generated by simultaneous landslides.

Caminho do Mar

Main Tributary

Pedras Stream

Photo 1: Aerial view of the region affected by 1994 debris flows, showing the heavy erosion along the streams, the landslide scars and the Refinery installations.

slides and line B to the upper bound of some Brazilian debris flows. Line B is represented by the expression: H (1) = 1.87V 0.15 L 4.3 Geologic Setting In the descriptions of debris flows presented in the literature, a great variety of geological settings are mentioned. The most frequently geology refers to alluvium and fluvial terraces; colluvium or tallus deposits; residual soils derived from granite and gneiss; pyroclastic volcanic deposits, as ash, conglomerate and lahars; and varied sedimentary or metamorphic rocks, as sandstones, shales, schists, etc. It has not been possible to distinguish geologic settings that are more prone to develop debris flows, except for the cases in pyroclastic deposits. In general, two general geological factors are of main importance: (a) the availability of loose material or a mantle of residual soil (consisting of earth, pebbles and boulders), that could be removed or displaced to contribute to the debris flow formation; and (b) a geological setting that promotes steep slopes. It is also well recognized that the rainfall is the main triggering factor of debris flows and, for this reason, the determination of the critical rain intensity is an issue of great interest. 4.4Rainfal Concerning rains of high intensity, the threshold value is often defined in mm/min, as indicated by various authors. One can conclude that a rainfall of about 1mm/min (or even less), occurring during several minutes can trigger a debris flow, if the other mentioned conditions exist. However, it is required that a previous period of rains of larger duration but with lower intensity occurs. Other data (triggering debris flows) reported in the literature, refer to the precipitation in mm under varied periods of time, making difficult the comparison of the different data. A further difficulty is that in many cases the data are not reported, but only the criteria adopted by the several authors to express the rains causing the risk of debris flow initiation. For the purpose of comparing the main different existing criteria of triggering rains expressed in so different terms, the data available in the literature was gathered and plotted in a new type of graph correlating the rain intensity for different periods of time, as shown in Figure 8, based on Kanji et al (1997, 2001). It is necessary to clarify that the precipitation is in accumulated terms, that is, when the dots corresponding to a mass movement are linked together, the rainfalls of shorter duration (e.g. in 1 hr) are contained in the rainfall of the larger period of time, in the same general event of rains. If the rains stop for a certain period, the account is reinitiated when the rains restart. Large and catastrophic landslides mostly correspond to high values of precipitation in large periods of time (several days to weeks) and debris flows mainly occur under rains of very large intensity in shorter periods of time (minutes or a few hours, at the most) after a preceding period of rains even of small intensity. On the basis of such graph, it can be seen that the lower boundary to all of the cases registered is a curve that represents the minimum triggering condition, expressed by the following equation:

Figure 4. Grain size analysis of deposits from 1996 debris flow at the Petrobras Refinery, Cubato.

4 DEBRIS FLOWS TRIGGERING CONDITIONS 4.1 General Conditions The generation of a debris flow is generally associated with numerous and simultaneous landslides that bring material to the riverbed, which is temporarily dammed. It is a frequent observation that in this period the river decreases of even ceases. When the temporary dam is overtopped or fails, the retained mass of water is suddenly released, carrying the solid materials accumulated and removed from the riverbed. The transported mass travels with high velocity and peak discharges. It is of great value to recognize the conditions that trigger a debris flow, mainly in order to forecast when an event may occur, to take preventive or mitigation measures. An extensive review of the related literature was made (Kanji et al, 2001), resulting in a series of comparisons of debris flows characteristics according to the intervening factors, as presented bellow. 4.2 Geomorphology One of the main conditions for the occurrence of debris flows is the existence of steep slopes, which explains why they generally occur in mountainous regions. The higher the angle, the higher the probability of occurrence, provided that other conditions is also present. As an example, the debris flows that stroke Cubato (Brazil) in 1994, the number of landslides increased progressively with the increase of slope angles (due to the hyperbolic profile of the creek), in the following manner, in terms of average slopes (as described by Massad et al., 2000): 15% at 15 degrees (elev. less than 300m ), 38% at 32 degrees (elev. 300 to 500m) and 47% at 42 degrees (elev. 500 to 750m). The minimum slope angles usually mentioned in the literature are above 20 to 25 degrees. The minimum slope or river bed angle may vary, as a function of the area of the hydraulic basin (due to high water concentration in small basins with flow restraints due to narrow gorges), as indicated by Van Dine (1985). His lines for angles of initiation, transportation and sedimentation, as a function of basin area, are shown in Figure 6. In this figure, observed values of Brazilian debris flows were also plotted, showing a good agreement for basin areas smaller than about 10 km2. Larger basins seem to show higher initiation angles. The reach or run-out of a mass movement is represented by the height (H) and the length (L) of a mass movement (Hsu, 1975; Hutchinson, 1983, 1988; Sassa, 1996, and Evans,Clague, 1988). The correlations show decreasing values of H/L for increasing slide volumes. In Figure 7, line A corresponds to land-

P = 22,4 (t) 0.41

(2)

in which P is the accumulated rainfall, in millimetres, and t is the corresponding period of time, in hours.

8 SIZE OF ROCK BLOCKS (m)

6
MAXIMUM

PREDOMINANT

0 0 5 10 15 20 RIVER BED INCLINATION (DEGREES)


PEDRAS STREAM MAIN TRIBUTARY

25

30

Figure 5. Relationship of rock block sizes and the river bed inclination at the Pedras Creek and its Main Tributary.

60
s lo p e a n g le (d e g re e )

50 40 30 20 10 0

GFVA Qt Pg BN Cb Ch Mr

Start of debris flow Transportation Deposition

Ant Tb

6
2

10

12

Drainage area (km )


GF - Grota Funda (SP/Brazil) VA - Anchieta Highway (SP/Brazil) BN - Brao Norte stream (SP/Brazil) Qt - Quitite (RJ/Brazil) Pg - Papagaio (RJ/Brazil) Ant - Antofagasta (Chile/) Ch - Cachoeira stream (SP/Brazil) Mr - Maranguape (CE/Brazil) Tb - Timb do Sul (SC/Brazil) Cb - Cubato (SP/Brazil)

Figure 6. Lines defining slope angles for initiation, transportation and deposition of debris flows as a function of basin drainage area (apud Van Dine, 1985), and observed slopes for several Brazilian debris flows in the Serra do Mar. eas of increasing severity: probability of occurrence of landslides, great probability of generalized landslides with possible occurrence of debris flows, and highly catastrophic occurrences always developing debris flows. The comparison with other criteria mentioned in the literature, converted to the same terms, shows that he proposed curve envelopes or is parallel to all of them, as demonstrated by Kanji et al. (1997).

It is interesting to note that the threshold curve is approximately parallel to statistically determined curves for 2 and 100 years return periods for the cities of Santos and Ubatuba, in the coast of the state of So Paulo, Brazil. This indicates that the severity of the events is related to the return period of the rains. Consequently, above the threshold curve, the mass movements increase in degree the higher it plots in the graph, since it will correspond to larger rain fall return periods. In the same graph of Figure 3 two other curves are shown, separating tentatively 3 ar-

1 2 4 3 5

8 6

7 9*

1 Main Tributary Pedras Stream 4 Brao Norte Stream(Cubato) 7 Anchieta Highway (SP) 2 Quitite (RJ) 5 Cachoeira Stream (SP) 8 Grota Funda (SP) 9 Timb do Sul (SC)

3 Pedras Stream (Cubato- SP) 6 Caraguatatuba (SP)

*estimated volume
Figure 7. Relationship between the ratio height (H) to length (L), or reach of debris flows and landslides, with the corresponding volume.

1200
CE

1100 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 0,01

G L TL

TL = 22,4 x t^0,41

0,1

10

100

1000

10000

tim (hour) e
Colom (som cases) bia e Antofagasta91(CHILE) SAraras67(BR) 1 RJaneiro88(BR) Ubatuba96(BR) MtQuieto00(BR) Other Brazilian Cases) Critical Curve-Triggering Lim (TL) it Lim Curve of Catastrophic Events (CE) it Maiquetia99(VEN) Caragua67(BR) Tubarao74(BR) Cubatao94(BR) Via Anchieta99(BR) CJordao00(BR) Orher Internacional Cases Lim Curve of Generalized Landslides (GL) it

Figure 8 Accumulated rain against respective time causing debris flows and large landslides (modified from Kanji et al., 1997 and Gramani & Kanji, 2001). The lower line is a threshold line for slope mass movements. The other curves separate areas of increasing severity.

It is worth mentioning that the graph of Figure 6 must be utilized in the following manner: the starting of time counting and accumulation of precipitation is when the rains start after a period of draught; if the rains stop, even if it is for a few days, the accumulation of precipitation and time must restart; within a large period of rains, there high probability of occurrence of rains with higher intensities. An important fact that can be observed is that a heavy rain (e. g. in 1hr) usually occurs within an episode of larger duration. Neyama (1989) and Ikeya (1989) also recognized this fact, showing graphs relating accumulated rains in 24hr to rains in 1hr (contained in the 24hr rains), although Ikeyas data show much scattering. The same type of relationship for the coastal cities of Santos and Ubatuba (both are coastall cities and located close to the toes of the Serra do Mar) from statistical data for various return times, with values very close to those of Neyama. Therefore, one can deduce the following relationship between the probable rain precipitation in 1hr (P1h) and in 24hrs (P24hrs), in mm: (P1h) = 10 + 0.237 (P24hrs) (3)

c=o

tg ( ) ( o ) [tg ( ) tg ( )]

(7-a)

valid when:

10 o 20 o
Also, c must satisfies the following condition:

(7-b)

0,3 c 0,9 c*

(7-c)

* In these expressions, c is the solid concentration, per unit volume, of the channel deposits; o is the mud density (water plus clay and silt); , the particle density; and , the friction angle of the granular material. Takahashi recommends the adoption * of c 60%; then, from inequation (7-c), it follows that c varies from 30 to 54%. For the Petrobras Refinery event of 1994, with o12kN/m3; 26,5kN/m3; 35 degrees and 15 it follows, from equation (7-a), that c50%. 5.3 Estimation of the peak discharge The debris flow peak discharge (qT) may be obtained by means of Takahashis Equation (Takahashi, 1991):

5 CHARACTERISTIC PARAMETERS OF DEBRIS FLOWS The main parameters to design protective works are related to the flow and deposition of the debris torrent: a) the peak debrisflow discharge; b) the velocity; c) the impact forces and the pressure applied to the structures; and d) the sediment volume transported by the debris flows. Cruz and Massad (1997) and Massad et al. (1997) proposed some guidance to determine these design parameters on a rational basis, chiefly the peak debris flow discharge and the sediment volume transported by a debris flow. 5.1 Estimation of the velocity The average velocity (U) may be computed by means of the following formula proposed by Rickenmann (1991) based on Takahashi s Theory (Takahashi, 1991):
g 0 ,2 0 U = 1,3 sen0 ,2 ( ) q0,6 0 ,4 d
50

qT =

c* Qo c* c

(8)

where QO is the flood water discharge. The peak discharge of a debris flow (qT) is also given by:

qT = U h b

(9)

(4)

with:

Q qo = o b

(5)

where h is the debris flow forefront height. * Due to the difficulties in estimating c , equation (8) looses in accuracy. Empirical correlations are then used to estimate Vs and qT. To figure the debris flow peak discharge (qT) it is possible to apply an empirical correlation with the total volume (VT), as is illustrated in Figure 9 (Takahashi, 1991). The data in this figure were obtained from Japan (Sakurajima Vulcano and Yake Dake) and Canada (British Columbia). The scatter is relatively large, due to the influence of factors as the hydrographic basin shape; channel conditions and other flow characteristics (Takahashi, 1991).

where is the slope; g, the acceleration of gravity; d50, the average grain size, in meters; and qo, the specific discharge flow; b, the channel width and Qo, the water discharge for the basin. For the Pedras Stream, that crosses the RPBC, the slope angle 3 15. Moreover, considering that d50=10 mm; QO=46m /s, the 100 years design water discharge, and b=40 m, it results U=11m/s. Notice that U does not depend on h, the debris flow forefront height. 5.2 Estimation of the solid concentration The debris flow volume of solids (sediments) (Vs) results from the equation:

Vs = c VT

(6)

where VT is the total volume of the debris flow. The solid concentration per unit volume (c) is given by Takahashis Equation (Takahashi, 1991): Figure 9: Peak discharge and total volume of debris-flows (Takahashi, 1991)

Nevertheless, since the graph of figure 2 is bi-logarithmic, the following average equation can be established, to be used in comparison with other methods:

VT = 500 qT

(10)

Based on equation (7) and taking into account that debris flows in the Serra do Mar occur after a long period of rain and a peak rainfall in short time, as stated above, the following expression was proposed by Massad et al (1997):

qT =

2 A I1 (1 c )

(11)

Applying to the event of Pedras Stream it results in approxi3 mately 152.000 m , considering the average values. Another way to compute the volume of solids (Vs) is the evaluation of the amount of sediments run off. In fact, an estimation was carried out for all the Pedras Stream basin, including its tributaries, based on aerial photos that were taken before and after the 1994 debris flow. For the sediments yielded from slope failures, the volumes were calculated with the support of field observations (Wolle, 1988) of landslides in Serra do Mar, that is: depth to slip surface of the order of 0.7 to 1.0m; and porosity of soil equals 36%. Taking into account the total slipped area, indicated on Table 2, and that the granular material remobilized from the torrent bed deposits amounted 40,000 m3, it follows:

2 where A is the basin area, in km ; and I1, the rainfall intensity accumulated in the hour that precede the debris flow, in mm/h. Araya Moya (1994) proposed a formula to estimate the peak discharge of a debris-flow (qT), based on his experience in Chile. Back analysis of several cases only agreed with his formula when the original factor I24 (the accumulated rain in the 24hrs period preceding the debris flow) was changed to I1, (the amount of rain in the hour that preceded the debris flow). In its modified form (Massad et al, 1997), the formula may be written:

VS = 226.000 (1 0.36) 0,85 + 40.000 163.000m3


(14) A third way to estimate Vs is by combining equations (6) e (10), that leads to:

VS = 500 c qT

(15)

qT = 1,4

1 H 0,85 A I1 (1 c ) L0 ,58

0 ,19

(12)

where2c is the solid concentration in volume; A, the basin area, in km ; I1, defined above, in mm/h; H, the maximum difference in height within the basin, in m; and L, the total length of the torrent, in km. The modification proposed by Massad et al. (1997) is supported by field observations of debris flows. In fact, as mentioned before, debris flows in Japan have shown the importance of the rainfall peak that preceded the event, in short times as 10 minutes (Suwa, 1989). There is an agreement among Japanese researchers that it suffices 3mm/10min of rain to trigger a debris flow. However, it is also important to have in mind that debris flows are complex phenomena, with different characteristics according to the place they occur (Takahashi, 1994). In China, as well as in Serra do Mar, it is the rainfall accumulated in one hour or more that trigger the phenomenon. That is why it is proposed to take I1 as the rainfall intensity accumulated in the hour that preceded the debris-flows. For the Main Tributary of Pedras Stream at the Petrobras Refinery, the use of equation (9) resulted in qT=90m3/s for the event h of March 9t , 1996. It is possible to confront this value indirectly, with an empirical data. In a narrow passage, 22 m wide, the maximum height of the debris flow was measured in the range 1 to 1.5 m. Knowing that QO=4 m3/s, and having in mind that b=22m; 15; and d50=10mm (from Figure 4), equation (4) gives U3.5m/s and, from equation (9), it follows that h=1,2m, which agrees with the observed value. 5.4 Estimation of the volume of solids The total volume of solids transported by a debris flow may be estimated on the basis of probable sediment run-off. Basically, there are three sources of material: a) the soils from the slopes (sediment yield from landslides); b) the riverbed deposits remobilized; and c) the material eroded by the torrent at the banks. Japanese experience (IPT, 1990) indicates the following relationship between Vs (volume of solids) and A (basin area):

where qT is given by equations (11) or (12). Using the values of 3 qT shown in Table 3 we get Vs=158.000 and 195.000 m , or, in 3 average, 176.000 m . Finally, this figure and those given by equations (13) and (14) are in a rough agreement with the measured value, presented on Table 3. 5.5 Estimation of volume of solids through the relationship between relative area of slides and rain intensity. Massad (2002) found a relationship between the total area of the landslides that generated debris flow and the rain intensity, utilizing data of some studied large events (e.g. Petrobras Refinery and Copebras industry, in Cubato, Caraguatatuba, Timb do Sul, all in Brazil and Harihara (Nakagawa, 2000), in Japan). Estimating adequately the average depth of the landslide, it is possible to estimate the volume of sediments. The relationship is expressed by:

Aslide =

c I 1 1 p 1 c e 1 n

'

(16)

where Aslide is the percent of the slides area with respect to basin total area, I1 is the debris flow triggering rain intensity in the preceding hour, in m/h; n is the soil porosity; c is the volumetric solid concentration, e is the average thickness of the slides and p is the ratio of the volume of solids remobilized from the river bed and eroded from the banks to the total volume of solids. If c=50%, a very common value and supposing p is negligible, the expression (16 ) reduces to:

Aslide =

' I1 1 n

(17)

Then, in first analysis, the percentage of slides area related to the total area of the basin is directly proportional to the rain intensity. Still simpler expressions can be used for specific values of porosity: Aslide = 1.5 I1 Aslides = 2 I1 (for n=33%) (for n=50%) (18) (19)

VS = 30,000 to 85,000 m3/km2 A

(13)

Figure 10 shows the plots of the studied cases indicating a good agreement of area of slides and rain intensity, as a function of soil porosity.
35 30 25 Ae (%) 20 15 10 5 0 0,000 0,050 I'1 (m/h) Timb do Sul Rio Cachoeira/Brao Norte Caraguatatuba Crrego das Pedras (RPBC) 0,100 0,150
=50%
' I1

Ae =

(1 )

40%

30%

Figure 1: Mathematical relation between the slipped area (Ae), in % of the total basin area, and rainfall intensity (I1), accumulated in the hour that precede de debris flow, valid for c=50%; p=0 and e=1m (Massad, 2002). 6 COMMENTS AND FINAL REMARKS

The characteristics and sources of the sediments of some debris flows that occurred in Serra do Mar, Cubato, state of So Paulo, Brazil, were described. It was shown that the larger debris flows are associated with extensive landslides, which constitute the main source of sediments. A grain size distribution was presented, in conjunction with a description of some features of the stream bed deposits. The size of large boulders, measured along the debris flow path, correlated very well with river bed inclination. The peak discharge and the volumes of solids, transported by debris flows, that are some of the chief parameters to design protective works, were determined by means of both, empirical expressions and theoretical formulas. One conclusion of this paper refers to the soundness of this approach. In fact, the peak discharges and volume of sediments, computed with these empirical correlations showed consistent results with the available data on debris flows in the Cubato Region. Additionally, a relationship between the percentage of area of landslides with respect to the total basin area and the rain intensity of the 1h rain that preceded the debris flows is also presented. 7 REFERENCES, SYMBOLS AND UNITS

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