Brief communication: Rethinking the 1998 China floods to prepare for a nonstationary future

A mega-flood in 1998 caused tremendous losses in China and triggered major policy adjustments in flood-risk management. This paper aims to retrospectively examine these policy adjustments and discuss how China should adapt to newly emerging flood challenges. We show that China suffers annually from...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Natural hazards and earth system sciences 2019-04, Vol.19 (3), p.715-719
Main Authors: Du, Shiqiang, Cheng, Xiaotao, Huang, Qingxu, Chen, Ruishan, Ward, Philip J, Aerts, Jeroen C. J. H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cascading
China
Climate change
Communication
Environmental aspects
Environmental impact
Environmental policy
Environmental risk
Flood management
Flood risk
Floods
Forecasts and trends
Global temperature changes
Governance
International trade
Investment
Investments
Management techniques
Novels
Public participation
Risk
Risk management
Urban planning
Urbanization
Water governance
Water policy
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Summary:A mega-flood in 1998 caused tremendous losses in China and triggered major policy adjustments in flood-risk management. This paper aims to retrospectively examine these policy adjustments and discuss how China should adapt to newly emerging flood challenges. We show that China suffers annually from floods despite large-scale investments and policy adjustments. Rapid urbanization and climate change will exacerbate future flood risk in China, with cascading impacts on other countries through global trade networks. Therefore, novel flood-risk management approaches are required, such as a risk-based urban planning and coordinated water governance systems with public participation, in addition to traditional structural protection.
ISSN:1684-9981
1561-8633
1684-9981
DOI:10.5194/nhess-19-715-2019