Snow hazard regionalization in China

Abstract

For the zoning of snow hazard in China, on the principles of (a) comprehensive analysis integrated with dominant factors, (b) multi-level division, and (c) serving the agriculture and stock-raising, transportation and communication, we first classified China into two large zones according to the situation of snow or no snow distribution. Secondly, based on the climate and landform, properties of snow cover and main features of snow hazard, the large zone of snow hazard can be classified into three second-level regions. In order to obviously reflect the difference of snow cover quantity and snow hazard type as well as hazardous degree, twenty subregions (third-level) of snow hazard are further divided in detail. In addition, the boundaries and the principal features of the differences between the various snow hazard regions are provided.