Major Natural Disasters in China, 1985–2014: Occurrence and Damages

Weixiao Han, Chen Liang, Baofa Jiang, Wei Ma and Ying Zhang
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Weixiao Han: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, China
Chen Liang: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, China
Baofa Jiang: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, China
Wei Ma: Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, China
Ying Zhang: Climate Change and Health Center, Shandong University, 44 West Wenhua Road, Jinan 250012, China

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: This study aimed to describe the characteristics of natural disasters and associated losses from 1985 to 2014. The Mann-Kendall method was used to detect any long-term trends and abrupt changes. Hotspot analysis was conducted to detect the spatial clusters of disasters. We found an increasing trend in the occurrence of integrated natural disasters ( tau = 0.594 , p < 0.001 ), particularly for floods ( tau = 0.507, p < 0.001), landslides ( tau = 0.365, p = 0.009) and storms ( tau = 0.289, p = 0.032). Besides, there was an abrupt increase of natural disasters in 1998–2000. Hotspots of droughts, floods, landslides and storms were identified in central, southern, southwest and southeast areas of China, respectively. Annual deaths from integrated natural disasters were decreasing (tau = ?0.237, p = 0.068) at about 32 persons/year, decreasing at 17 persons/year for floods ( tau = ?0.154, p = 0.239), and decreasing at approximately 12 persons/year for storms ( tau = ?0.338, p = 0.009). No significant trend was detected in inflation-adjusted damages while a declining trend was detected in the ratio of year damage against GDP (gross domestic product). In conclusion, there has been an increasing trend in occurrence of natural disasters in China with the absence of an increase in life and economic losses. Despite the progress in the disaster adaption, there will be great challenges in disaster control for China in the future.

Keywords: natural disasters; spatiotemporal; changing patterns; Mann-Kendall trend test; hotspots; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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