The population in China's earthquake-prone areas has increased by over 32 million along with rapid urbanization

Accurate assessments of the population exposed to seismic hazard are crucial in seismic risk mapping. Recent rapid urbanization in China has resulted in substantial changes in the size and structure of the population exposed to seismic hazard. Using the latest population census data and seismic maps...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental research letters 2016-07, Vol.11 (7), p.74028
Main Authors: He, Chunyang, Huang, Qingxu, Dou, Yinyin, Tu, Wei, Liu, Jifu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
China
Earthquakes
Environmental risk
Exposure
Geological hazards
Growth rate
Hazardous areas
Older people
Population
population exposure
Rural urban migration
Seismic activity
Seismic hazard
urban planning
Urbanization
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Accurate assessments of the population exposed to seismic hazard are crucial in seismic risk mapping. Recent rapid urbanization in China has resulted in substantial changes in the size and structure of the population exposed to seismic hazard. Using the latest population census data and seismic maps, this work investigated spatiotemporal changes in the exposure of the population in the most seismically hazardous areas (MSHAs) in China from 1990 to 2010. In the context of rapid urbanization and massive rural-to-urban migration, nearly one-tenth of the Chinese population in 2010 lived in MSHAs. From 1990 to 2010, the MSHA population increased by 32.53 million at a significantly higher rate of change (33.6%) than the national average rate (17.7%). The elderly population in MSHAs increased by 81.4%, which is much higher than the group's national growth rate of 58.9%. Greater attention should be paid to the demographic changes in earthquake-prone areas in China.
ISSN:1748-9326
1748-9326
DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074028