In order to study the impacts and hazards of debris flow disaster on the Linzhi—Jiacha section along the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet,remote sensing and geographical information systems techniques are used to extract information on the material sources in the debris flow origin areas along the Linzhi—Jiacha section and analyze the distribution characteristics of the material sources.Results from the study showed that the distribution of the material sources in the debris flow origin areas is not uniform due to the influences of formation lithology,altitude,and topographic slope.After glacier melting and glacier type mudflow,the material sources are more developed and the accumulated loose materials are more abundant,which further stimulates the material sources and produces a large amount of new material sources in the debris flow origin areas.Consequently,the frequency of debris flows along the river is raised and the scale of the debris flows is enlarged.