Journal of the Japan Society of Erosion Control Engineering, Vol.58,No.1,2005

Debris disasters caused by deep slope failures and debris flows triggered by heavy rainfall
during Typhoon Aere in the east mountainous region of Hsinchu Prefecture, Taiwan

Satoshi TSUCHIYA Takahisa MIZUYAMA Hiroshi IKEYA


Abstract

An unusually large number of typhoons visited Southeast Asia in 2004; 27 to the beginning of December, and 10 hit just in Japan. Heavy rains caused serious debris|related damage. Rainfall totaling over 1,000 mm caused many shallow and some deep slope failures. In Taiwan, mountainous regions were also damaged severely by flash]floods and landslides because of the heavy rains accompanying Typhoon Aere. And deep slope failures causing debris flows measuring a million m3 killed 15 people in the east mountainous region of Hsinchu Prefecture, Taiwan. If, as seems likely, the sea temperature east of the Philippines remains high in the coming year, we can expect many more and large typhoons to be generated. If so, there is a high possibility of deep slope failures likely in Taiwan up to 10 times large as those that occurred in Izumi]shi, Kagoshima Prefecture, and Minamata]shi, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The rainfall with largely amount and highly intensity could result in increased the number and area size of slope failures, however, we have little knowledge of enlarged deep slope failures. This paper describes debris disasters caused by deep slope failures and debris flows triggered by the heavy rainfall during Typhoon Aere from 23 to 25 August 2004 in the east mountainous region of Hsinchu Prefecture, Taiwan.

Key words:Typhoon Aere, deep slope failure, debris flow, heavy rainfall, Taiwan
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