Debris Flow Records Wanted

A team of scientists from UCSB and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab is conducting a field study of the devastating January 9 debris flows. We are seeking help from the community in our analysis of pre-fire channel characteristics and of the debris flows themselves.

If you have geotagged photos or videos of the creeks in Montecito or their mountain canyons (i.e. Cold Spring, Hot Springs, Montecito, San Ysidro, and Romero Creeks) taken within the last five years, would you consider sharing them with us, so that we can establish pre-disaster conditions?

We are also trying to establish the exact arrival times of the bouldery fronts of the debris flows at locations throughout the built-up area. We can measure these arrival times from the audio or video portions of security or hand-held cameras, and compile them into a map of debris-flow passage. We would appreciate being allowed to use any such records.

Please email your files to debrisflow@bren.ucsb.edu. Email attachments are limited to 25 MB per email. When sending attachments, please indicate in the subject line the creek name (Cold Spring, Hot Springs, Montecito, San Ysidro, Romero).

Contacts:

Thomas Dunne

Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, UCSB

tdunne@bren.ucsb.edu

Tom Farr

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91109

tom.farr@jpl.nasa.gov