The objective of this paper is to explore the effects of different modes of water supply on the occurrence of debris flow. The physical model was used with water supplied from the upstream tank to simulate surface runoff, and with water supplied from hoses in the base to simulate the upwelling of ground water. It is found that the debris flow caused by surface runoff has a smaller scale and behaves more like erosion process. The debris flow caused by upwelling of ground water has massive movement and is induced by lowering of effective stress. The characteristics of the two different modes can be used to verify the field conditions with enough field evidences.