A debris flow occurs when high intensity rainfall rapidly produces runoff that entrains debris material in channels. This forms a solid-liquid wave that increases in velocity as it erodes sediment while flowing downstream. Eventually the debris flow slows and deposition begins. Accurately simulating debris flows requires models for rainfall-runoff hydrology, debris flow triggering, and downstream hydraulic routing that reproduce physical processes and are validated against measurements of past events. The reliability of simulation results depends on models' abilities to replicate measured quantities like discharge, erosion depths, deposition depths, maximum levels, and routing times.