Debris Flow Conference: 2nd International Conference FRIAR 2010 on Flood Recovery, Innovation and Response

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 morphoclimatic environments and in recent years have attracted more and more attention from the scientific and professional communities, and concern from the public, due to the increasing frequency with which they occur and the death toll they claim.

Higher population pressures on natural resources and increased activity in hazard-prone areas have the potential to increase the magnitude of hazards. 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 the following fields; erosion and slope instability, sediment transport, debris flow and debris flood data acquisition, debris flow phenomenology and laboratory tests. It will also allow the discussion of the most advanced, state-ofthe-art methodologies in monitoring, modelling, mechanics, hazard prediction and risk assessment.

This conference follows the success of the first meeting held in Rhodes, Greece (2006) and New Forest, UK (2008).