Slope-catchment area relationship for debris-flow source area identification

Classification of the source areas of debris flow, mud flows, debris avalanches is fundamental for the zonation of the territory susceptibility to the propagation of these type of landslide phenomena. Here we describe and discuss the data and the methods adopted to derive empirical equations useful to identify and to classify the possible source areas of fast moving landslides at regional and national scale in Italy. The empirical equations were derived based on a large catalogue of debris flows and the fitting of quantile regression curves. We used a 10m resolution DEM and an inventory of more than 4000 landslides distributed on three different Italian regions. Results highlight that differences exist between the equation parameters derived for confined and unconfined debris-flows.