A composite database of casualty-inducing earthquakes in mainland China

Chaoxu Xia (), Gaozhong Nie (), Huayue Li (), Xiwei Fan () and Wenhua Qi ()
Additional contact information
Chaoxu Xia: China Earthquake Administration
Gaozhong Nie: China Earthquake Administration
Huayue Li: China Earthquake Administration
Xiwei Fan: China Earthquake Administration
Wenhua Qi: China Earthquake Administration

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2023, vol. 116, issue 3, No 22, 3351 pages

Abstract: Abstract Detailed and accurate historical earthquake disaster data are an important basis for understanding the characteristics of earthquake disaster losses and for conducting research on earthquake disaster prevention strategies and post-earthquake emergency rescue work. Due to different project scopes and discrepancies in data accuracy, the currently available databases may contain errors such as missing data or data with low accuracies. In this study, we developed the Mainland China Composite Earthquake causing Casualties Database (MCCEC-DAT), which contains 252 historical earthquake records that span from 1966 to 2021. The database contains earthquake attribute information (earthquake time, location, epicenter latitude and longitude, focal depth, epicentral intensity, etc.), loss information (number of deaths and injuries, building damage ratio, economic loss, cause of death, etc.), and socioeconomic data (population, population density, area of each zone of seismic intensity, mortality rate, etc.). This database also contains the lethality levels generated by this study. These levels are the result of the quantitative evaluation of the overall characteristic levels of the earthquake area. Furthermore, this metric permits the direct comparison of different spatial locations. Based on the results of the statistical analysis, this work shows that the distribution of historical earthquakes in mainland China has obvious spatial and temporal characteristics. Events are mainly distributed throughout the southwest region, and the magnitudes of those events are relatively diverse. The mortality rate is significantly correlated with the building damage ratio and the lethality level. The lethality level can not only facilitate an improved understanding of the comprehensive level of historical earthquake regions, but this metric also provides a quantitative foundation for the comparative analysis of earthquakes between different regions. Furthermore, the database can also provide a foundation for future research, such as research into assessing the loss from earthquake disasters.

Keywords: Earthquake; Casualties; Database; Lethality level; Regional characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-022-05811-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:116:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s11069-022-05811-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-022-05811-z

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().