Abstract: Rainstorm-induced flash floods and their associated chain disasters pose a common threat in mountainous areas. Their wide distribution, complex causes, and characteristics of abrupt, localized, and hidden occurrence increase the difficulty of disaster identification, monitoring, and prediction in the early stages. At present, research on the transformation mechanism and monitoring and early warning systems of mountain torrent disaster chains is an international frontier and hotspot issue in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation, which demands comprehensive interdisciplinary approaches. To address this challenge, we summarize the status and trends of domestic and foreign research on rainstorm-induced mountain torrent disaster chains, analyze the key scientific and technical issues that require breakthroughs, and proposes corresponding research directions and prospects. Key scientific and technical issues that urgently need to be tackled include: revealing the homologous chain transformation mechanism between rainstorm, flood, landslide (collapse), and debris flow; establishing accurate monitoring and stable transmission technology for disaster chains; and constructing an early warning index system and dynamic warning platform for disaster chains. Proposed research directions are as follows: identifying disaster-causing factors, developing monitoring and early warning technologies for key elements of the disaster chain, building monitoring and early warning platforms for mountainous small watersheds, and integrating and demonstrating monitoring and early warning technologies. Research prospects involve a multidisciplinary and multi-method approach, targeting “disaster-causing factor identification, key technology development, software platform construction, and integrated application demonstration” as the main research thread, and ultimately achieving breakthroughs and innovations in driving and evolving mechanisms of disaster chains, precise monitoring, and dynamic warning technology. The expected results can provide scientific and technological support for improving the defense capability against mountain torrent disaster chains and promoting sustainable ecological development and high-quality development of watersheds.

Key words: rainstorm-induced mountain torrent disaster, transformation mechanism of mountain torrent disaster chain, key disaster-causing factors, critical development condition, monitoring and early warning platform, defense capability against mountain torrent disaster chain