Debris flows are composed of a mixture of solid materials (from clay sized to boulders of a few meters) and water, which behave like a fluid and show a great mobility and destructive capacity.
Debris flows occurs all over the world and is frequent in steep mountainous regions (per example, at the mountain ranges systems of Alps and Andes).
Despite of being a well-known phenomenon, debris flows are somehow unpredictable and complex to simulate. For that reason, there are already a significant number of employed mitigation structures, although none of them are generally applicable.
In fact, most of those structures have been designed based on empirical methods. According to historical records, a significant number of structures had an ineffective behavior during debris flow occurrences.
STOPDEBRIS project focuses on develop design guidelines for structural solutions for debris flow mitigation, namely for slit dams. These guidelines should have a generic application as well as allow an effective behavior by the slit dam during debris flows occurrences, increasing the safety of settlements and material goods located at the downstream valley.
The STOPDEBRIS project main objectives are:
- Develop and test new structural mitigation solutions for debris flow, based on physical model experiments
- Develop practical design guidelines for slit dams
- Promote more effective structural debris flow mitigation