Introduction

Debris Flow 2012 is the fourth conference in this successful series which started in Rhodes, Greece (2006); followed by the New Forest, UK in (2008) and Milano, Italy (2010).

Debris and hyper-concentrated flows are among the most frequent and destructive of all water related processes. They mainly affect mountain areas in a wide range of morpho-climatic environments and in recent years have attracted more and more attention from the scientific and professional communities, as well as concern from the public, due to the increasing frequency with which they occur and the death toll they claim.

Higher population pressure on natural resources in hazard-prone areas and the development of activities have the potential to increase the magnitude of this hazard. This calls for improvements in the criteria used to identify debris flow risk areas and to design suitable prevention and mitigation measures.

The conference will provide a forum for engineers, scientists and managers from laboratories, industries, governments and academia to interchange knowledge and expertise in fields such as erosion and slope instability, sediment transport, debris flow and debris flood data acquisition, debris flow phenomenology and laboratory tests, using the most advanced, state-of-the-art methodologies in monitoring, modelling, mechanics, hazard prediction and risk assessment of debris flow phenomena.