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Characterizing the spatial distribution of typical natural disaster vulnerability in China from 2010 to 2017

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Abstract

Natural disaster vulnerability can intuitively reflect the susceptibility of an area to environmental changes. Better understanding the spatial distribution of natural disaster vulnerability is a critical process for taking effective adaptation and management. Although significant achievements have been made in disaster vulnerability, few studies are known about natural disaster vulnerability at the national scale, especially from the typical natural disaster events in China. In this study, with normalizing selected indicators and calculating vulnerability index, we analyzed the spatial distribution of natural disasters vulnerability during 2010–2017 using the geospatial techniques. The results showed that natural disaster vulnerability has certain spatial differences, but different natural disaster can occur in the same area during the study period. Drought disaster can occur in all regions of China, especially in Inner Mongolia. Flood disaster is mainly concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River Basin. The wind and storm disaster is chiefly in the northern regions in China. The freezing disaster is widely distributed in China. Furthermore, the regions with low vulnerability were primarily distributed in the eastern coastal region, indicating that the rapid development of economy and technology can resist or mitigate natural disaster to a certain extent. This study offers a solution to study natural disasters and provides scientific basis for disaster prevention and mitigation actions.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewers.

Funding

This research was funded by National key Research and Development Project (2018YFD0800201), the APN Global Change Fund Project (Nos. ARCP2015-03CMY-Li and CAF2015-RR14-NMY-Odeh), the Jiangsu Province Agricultural Three Renovations Project of China (No. SXGC [2014]287), The National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41271361), The Key Project of Chinese National Programs for Fundamental Research and Development (973 Program, No. 2010CB950702), The National High Technology Project (863 Plan, No. 2007AA10Z231), The National Natural Science Foundation (41501575) and the Public Sector Linkages Program supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (PSLP: No. 64828).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Qian Wang, Yang-yang Liu, Lin-jing Tong, Yan-zhen Zhang, Xiao-yu Li & Jian-long Li

  2. School of Geographic Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Qi-peng Zhang

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  1. Qian Wang
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  2. Qi-peng Zhang
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  3. Yang-yang Liu
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  4. Lin-jing Tong
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  5. Yan-zhen Zhang
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  6. Xiao-yu Li
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  7. Jian-long Li
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Contributions

QW, LT, and YZ contributed to formal analysis; JL helped in funding acquisition; QW, Q-Z, and XL contributed to software; QW and YL was involved in writing—original draft; QW and JL helped in writing—review and editing. All authors have approved the final article.

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Correspondence to Jian-long Li.

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Wang, Q., Zhang, Qp., Liu, Yy. et al. Characterizing the spatial distribution of typical natural disaster vulnerability in China from 2010 to 2017. Nat Hazards 100, 3–15 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-019-03656-7

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