Time-series analysis on bed morphology affected by debris flows along a headwater steep channel in Ohya-kuzure landslide, central Japan

Deformation of steep terrain has been occurring since the formation of Ohyakuzure landslide in 1707. Although erosion controls in recent decades have resulted in vegetation recovery in downstream portions of the landslide terrain, hillslope erosion and debris flows frequently occur in uppermost steep subwatersheds in the landslide area to yield vast amount of sediment downstream. Ichino-sawa subwatershed in the landslide terrain, where detailed monitoring of debris flows and related topographic changes have previously been performed, has particularly steep slopes, and geomorphic processes therein have been quite active. Freeze-thaw weathering of fractured bedrock on hillslopes made of shale and sandstone frequently occurs in winter to spring season, and resultant sediment particles are provided into channel beds, which act as a source of debris flows that frequently occurs in summer season with heavy or accumulated rainfalls. High-resolution assessment of erosion/deposition patterns in channel bed of the Ichinosawa catchment was performed using multi-temporal terrestrial laser scanning data covering 3 seasons for 2 years. Seasonal changes in spatial distribution of erosion and deposition in the channel bed is quantified using a 0.1-m DEM converted from the original point cloud by TLS. The multi-temporal datasets provides an estimate of annual sediment storage and yield on the order of 1,000 - 5,000 m3. Analysis of changes in elevation by transverse and longitudinal profiles shows contrasting patterns of erosion and deposition along the studied reach: in particular, changes in bed elevation is found to be less in a 50-m long reach, whose downstream part seems bounded by valley narrowing and a knickpoint. Several topographic metrics, including stream gradient, surface roughness and topographic openness, were examined to estimate the characteristics of differing transport processes induced by debris flows along the reaches.