China is one of the countries with the heaviest natural disasters in the world. Under the background of global climate change, China’s economy and society have developed rapidly, urbanization has accelerated, the pressure of resource and ecological have intensified and the situation of natural disasters is getting more serious and complicated. In the new situation, we should carry out scientific development viewpoint, figure out the serious situation, strength the awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation and increase the level of emergency management for disaster so that we can provide a safe and stable environment for the development of economy and society.
Natural disasters refer to the natural phenomenon that brings dangers to human existence or damages to living environment, including: drought, flooding, typhoon, blizzard and sandstorm and other meteorological and hydrological disasters; volcanoes, earthquake, collapse, landslide, debris flow and other geological disasters; storm, tsunami and other marine disasters; biological disasters; ecological and environmental disasters. The main features of natural disasters in country are:
Natural disasters were of great variety
The main natural disasters in our country are meteorological and hydrological disasters, geological disasters, marine disasters, biological disasters, ecological and environmental disasters. Almost all types of natural disasters have occurred in China except for modern volcanic activities.
Disaster areas are widespread
In China, more than 70% cities and 50% population are located in areas with severe meteorological, geological and marine disasters. More than two-thirds of the country is threatened by flooding. The eastern and southern coastal regions and some inland provinces are hit by tropical cyclones frequently. In the northern and northeastern areas, drought occurred frequently. In the southern and southwestern areas, drought occurred sometimes. All provinces have experienced destructive earthquakes of magnitudes of 5 or above. Because of the complicated geological structures, geological disasters such as mountain collapse, landslide and debris flow occur frequently in the mountainous and plateau region which accounts for 69% of land area.
The frequency of disasters is high
China is strongly influenced by monsoon climate so there are many
meteorology disasters and regional drought almost occurs every year.
The eastern coastal region has an average of seven tropical cyclones
landing each year. China is located in the intersections of Eurasia,
the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean so the movement is active and
the earthquake is extremely frequent. And, China is the country with
the most earthquakes in the world. Besides, forest and grassland fires
occur frequently.
The losses caused by disasters are serious
From 1990 to 2008, averagely, more than 400 million people were influenced, more than 3 million houses collapsed, more than 9 million people need emergency relocation and the direct economic loss is 200 billion yuan because the different kind of natural disasters in our country every year.
Especially the severe drought happened in Sichuan and Chongqing in 2006, the severe cryogenic freezing rain and snow disaster happened in southern area in the beginning of 2008 and the major earthquake happened in Sichuan, Gansu and Shanxi in May 12, 2008. All the disasters above caused heavy losses. Now and for some time to come, under the background of global warming, the frequency of extreme weather and climate events will increase further; the flooding, drought, high temperature wave, low temperature freeze, forest and steppe fire, agricultural disease and insect pests caused by the climate change are likely to increase; the frequency of super typhoon and storm will increase; the geologic disasters such as torrential flooding, landslide and debris caused by regional floods will increase and also, as the earth’s crust changes, the risk of earthquake damage will increase too.
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