With climate change and deforestation, debris flows and debris avalanches have become the most significant landslide hazards in many countries. In recent years there have been numerous debris flow avalanches in Southern Europe, South America and the Indian Subcontinent, resulting in major catastrophes and large loss of life. This is therefore a major high-profile problem for the world's governments and for the engineers and scientists concerned.

Matthias Jakob and Oldrich Hungr are ideally suited to edit this book. Matthias Jakob has worked on debris flow forĀ over a decade and has had numerous papers published on the topic, as well as working as a consultant on debris flow for municipal and provincial governments. Oldrich Hungr has worked on site investigations on debris flow, avalanches and rockfall, with emphasis on slope stability analysis and evaluation of risks to roads in built-up areas. He has also developed mathematical models for landslide dynamic analysis. They have invited world-renowned experts to joint them in this book.


There are several books on geohazards such as landslides, floods and earthquakes, but there is no book that provides a unified framework for geohazard risk management along linear facilities, such as roads, railways, pipelines, electrical transmission lines and telecommunication cables. This book will describe how geohazards commonly cause different types of linear activities to fail to perform their intended function. Risk control techniques for each type of geohazard can vary amongst the different types of linear facility. This book will describe the common techniques used, highlighting those that tend to be most cost-effective for each hazard and facility type.