Risk assessment of debris flow based on group decision making – A case study of Luanchuan County, Henan Province, China

Abstract

Luanchuan County, located in the mountains of Western Henan Province, is characterized by poor geological environment and abundant material sources and rainfalls. Debris flows have occurred many times in this county, and in some gully debris flows exhibit a large scale, requiring risk assessment. In the multi-factor comprehensive assessment methods for debris flow risk, it is really important to determine the weight of each factor since this affects the reliability of the assessment results. Given that the subjective weighting method can accurately reflect the importance of each factor, in order to improve the reliability of subjective weighting, the group decision making method is used to determine the weight of each factor. Group decision making is realized using the analytic hierarchy process and the data fusion algorithm. In this method, the expert combination weight is determined; on this basis, a model for comprehensive assessment of debris flow risk is established by the linear weighted sum method, and risk assessment is performed for gullies with medium to large-scale debris flows in the study area. The assessment results show that all debris flow gullies face minor to moderate risks. For gullies with high risk degree, it is suggested to timely clear material sources in channels and construct or reinforce retaining dams in order to prevent re-occurrence of debris flows.