A Review on the methods of the debris-flow prediction and warning

Debris flows can create severe damage for humans' life and estate especially in the mountainous areas. The frequency of debris flow occurrence has an increasing trend due to climate change. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the prediction methods of this phenomenon to identify an appropriate approach for reducing its danger and people awareness. In recent years, rainfall threshold, regression logistic model and data mining methods were mainly employed for predicting these flows. In this study, a review on the mentioned methods for predicting debris flows reveals that it is better to select the convenient method for predicting debris flow based on the conditions and characteristics of the case study so that one or a combination of these methods may provide appropriate results. Generally, among the mentioned methods, data mining approaches are recommended as superior method in this study because of easy application, high accuracy and lack of requirement for the large number of observed data especially in areas that have data shortage problem. The current study can be effective for identifying debris flows prediction approaches to reduce its damage.