Abstract
China is a country prone to high frequency of natural catastrophic events. According to the natural disaster data from 1900 to 2011, the major disaster types include drought, earthquake, epidemic, extreme temperature, flood, mass movement wet and storm. The occurrence of natural disaster and economic loss is increased during the studied period. However, the death toll induced by natural disaster is decreased significantly. A new frame of social development and natural disaster is proposed to discuss the impact of population and GDP on the influence of disaster through the recording and reduction efforts. The results indicated that economic development contributes to the reduction in the impact of natural disaster on the people lives and society. New comprehensive integrated management, including international cooperation, should be established.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aalst MK (2006) The impacts of climate change on the risk of natural disasters. Disasters 30(1):5–18
Board on Natural Disasters (1999) Mitigation emerges as major strategy for reducing losses caused by natural disasters. Science 284:1943–1947
Climate Change 2007 (2008) Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Crompton RP, McAneney KJ (2008) Normalised Australian insured losses from meteorological hazards: 1967–2006. Environ Sci Policy 11:371–378
Easterling D et al (2000) Climate extremes: observations, modeling, and impacts. Science 289:2068–2074
Forthergill A, Peek LA (2004) Poverty and disasters in the United States: a review of recent sociological findings. Nat Hazards 32:89–110
Greenough G et al (2001) The potential impacts of climate variability and change on health impacts of extreme weather events in the United States. Environ Health Perspect 109(5):191–198
Guha-Sapir D, Vos F (2010) In coping with global environmental change, disasters and security. Springer, New York, p 699
Hallegatte S, Hourcade J, Dumas P (2007) Why economic dynamics matter in assessing climate change damages: illustration on extreme events. Ecol Econ 62:330–340
John KF, Merle G (2005) China: a new history, 2nd edn. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, p 560
Kahn ME (2005) The death toll from natural disasters: the role of income, geography, and institutions. Rev Econ Stat 87(2):271–284
Kellenberg DK, Mobarak AM (2008) Does rising income increase or decrease damage risk from natural disasters? J Urban Econ 63:788–802
Lu Y, Teng ZZ (2000) A comprehensive demographic history of China, vols 1 and 2. Shandong People’s Press, Jinan
Ming Z et al (2011) Integrated risk governance: China integrated natural disaster relief system. Science Press, Beijing, p 252
Mirza MMQ (2003) Climate change and extreme weather events: can developing countries adapt? Clim Policy 3:233–248
Oh CH, Reuveny R (2010) Climatic natural disasters, political risk, and international trade. Glob Environ Chang 20:243–254
Pan XB et al (2011) Natural disaster occurrence and average global temperature. Disaster Adv 4:61–63
Peduzzi P (2005) Is climate change increasing the frequency of hazardous events? Environ Poverty Times 3:7
Poumadere M, Mays C, Mer SL, Blong R (2005) The 2003 heat wave in France: dangerous climate change here and now. Risk Anal 25(6):1483–1494
Report of the damage caused by disaster in China (1995) National Bureau of Statistics of China and Ministry of Civil Affairs of China. China Statistics Press, Beijing, p 407
Statistical Yearbook of China (2011) Chinese State Statistics Bureau, Beijing
Stomberg D (2007) Natural disasters, economic development, and humanitarian aid. J Econ Persp 21(3):199–222
The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database (2011) www.emdat.net. EM-DAT. Universitécatholique de Louvain, Brussels
Tierney K (2012) Disaster governance: social, political, and economic dimensions. Annu Rev Environ Resour 37:341–363
Toya H, Skidmore M (2006) Economic development and the impacts of natural disasters. Econ Lett 94:20–25
Wei YM, Fan Y, Lu C, Tsai HT (2004) The assessment of vulnerability to natural disasters in China by using the DEA method. Environ Impact Assess Rev 24:427–439
Yasuhara K et al (2012) Effects of climate change on geo-disasters in coastal zones and their adaptation. Geotext Geomembr 30:24–34
Acknowledgments
We thank Abel Garza of Kingsville, TX, for his suggestions and comments on the early version of the paper. We appreciate the critical comments from three anonymous reviewers. This study is supported by the Tsinghua University, Institute of Plant Quarantine of Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine (Young Innovative Team Program) and the Public Welfare Project for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (No. 201310091).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, S., Luo, Z. & Pan, X. Natural disasters in China: 1900–2011. Nat Hazards 69, 1597–1605 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0765-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0765-0