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In the top-down Chinese political system, flood management has traditionally been led by the government, with the general public playing a supporting role. Within this context, individual-level disaster prevention behaviors are strongly interacted with the governmentpublic collaboration during the government-led flood management processes. This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how government-public collaboration affects individuals' flood mitigation responses in China. An online survey data with 550 respondents from the Yellow River Delta area was examined with regard to the individuals' willingness to take positive mitigation actions, and ordinal logistic regression models were constructed to explore the influence of the government-public collaboration factors, which are digested into three aspects: public involvement, public awareness and political trust, that motivate individuals to take flood mitigation measures. The results demonstrate that public involvement and political trust are positively correlated with the likelihood of individuals' adopting positive mitigation actions, while public awareness and selfreported preparedness were also positively correlated, although to a less significant degree. This study contributes to the current literature by increasing the understanding of how government-public collaboration determines individual mitigation actions in the Chinese collectivist cultural environment. The results of this study reveal that involving the public effectively and earnestly through various forms of community engagement are likely to promote individual-level disaster prevention behaviors, from this point of view, can help policymakers to guide local residents towards taking responsible flood risk management and preventative actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2000 to 2020, storm surges occurred 397 times in China, resulting in direct economic losses of up to CNY 220.64 billion. Storm surges not only threaten safety but also cause property damage; hence, it is necessary to assess the changes in vulnerability to storm surges in order to understand how to reduce said vulnerability. Fifteen coastal cities of four types were chosen, with different levels of urban development, rapid expansion of impervious surface, high extent of agricultural land, and high fishery output value. Viewing vulnerability through the dimensions of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptability, a GIS and RS were used to evaluate and assess the vulnerability in 15 coastal cities in China over the past 30 years. The results indicated that the vulnerability of these 15 Chinese cities presented the characteristics of a continuous downward trend from 1990 to 2020, and the average rate of reduction in vulnerability over the 10 years from 2005 to 2015 was the highest, at 2.23%. The areas of high vulnerability shifted from the southern region to the northern region. The vulnerabilities in the southern region, with Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Dongguan, changed significantly, to 3.30%, 3.20%, and 3.45%, respectively. An important factor in determining vulnerability reductions is a city's ability to adapt to storm surges. Coastal cities can improve their adaptability to storm surge disasters through general public budget expenditure, investment in fixed assets, GDP, and medical and health services, thereby alleviating their vulnerability. Due to China's frequent storm surge disasters during the 2005–2015 period, government departments have strengthened the investment of relevant resources in adaptive indicators, ultimately causing the cities' vulnerability to rapidly decrease during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Tide Forecasting and Visualization System (TFVS) is developed for providing the tidal information service for coastal regions of China. TFVS is capable of forecasting the tides (conducting harmonic analysis on the contrast) by invoking the T_TIDE package. Tide forecasting at 4 tidal stations has been carried out. Results show that the forecasted tides agreed well with the observations, which validates the accuracy and reliability of TFVS. Both forecasted and observed tides can be visualized and analyzed on TFVS. The realistic status of tides along China coastal region can be directly perceived/monitored on TFVS. In addition, TFVS provides reliable tidal data to the oceanographic community and further supports science-based decision-making (such as disaster mitigation) at local government levels. The storm surge in the coastal region of Jiangsu Province is carried out to detect the proportion between maximum astronomical tides and storm-induced water rise (storm surge) in storm situations. Using tidal data from TFVS, the average proportion of maximum astronomical tide to the highest total water level in Jiangsu Province is about 70%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature-based strategies for coastal protection against marine disasters have become a global trend. Over the past decade, marine ecological protection and restoration efforts in China have made exceptional progress. This study begins by outlining China's insurance policies on marine ecological protection, such as marine protected areas, marine ecological redline systems, bay chief systems, and marine ecological restoration practices, including the Blue Bay projects, comprehensive management of the Bohai Sea, coastal zone protection and restoration projects, and a special plan for mangrove protection and restoration. The synergy between ecological protection and disaster mitigation has been proposed as a nature-based conception of disaster prevention and mitigation with a holistic and systematic approach. This approach is conducive to balanced ecosystem restoration, disaster prevention, and mitigation. Finally, several potentialities are proposed to facilitate the development of a nature-based integrated coastal protection system in China. More focus should be placed on researching and improving new science for coastal ecological protection, enhancing the early warning and monitoring mechanisms of coastal ecosystems, promoting the organisation of legislative mechanisms for coastal construction and management, and enhancing the dissemination of coastal ecology and disaster mitigation science. • China's policies on marine ecological protection were analyzed. • Practices of marine ecological restoration were discussed. • The synergy between coastal ecology and disaster mitigation is systematically articulated. • Prospects of marine ecological protection and restoration in China are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seas and islands cannot be separated when it comes to sustainable development. For island countries (regions), the sustainable use of marine resources is an obvious choice and a top priority. Despite the fact that many people are still affected by COVID-19, increasing attention is being given to developing island resilience as a means to adapt to many challenges, including climate change. The core concerns of island development are therefore balancing the needs of ecological protection and the sustainable use of natural resources. The Island Research Center of the Ministry of Natural Resources of China etc. organized the 2022 International Island Forum on November 10, 2022 with the theme, 'Eco Islands, Blue Development.' A hybrid conference was held to bring together representatives of government agencies, academic institutions, and experts from many countries around the world to discuss the key issues of sustainable island development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landslides and rock avalanches triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake produced 257 landslide dams, mainly situated along the eastern boundary of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau where rivers descend approximately 3,000 m into the Sichuan Basin. The largest of these dams blocked the Tongkou River (a tributary of the Fujiang River) at Tangjiashan. The blockage, consisting of 2.04 × 10 m of landslide debris, impounded a lake with a projected maximum volume of 3.15 × 10 m, potentially inundating 8.92 km of terrain. Its creation during the rainy season and the possibility of an uncontrolled release posed a serious, impending threat to at least 1.3 million people downstream that could add substantially to the total of 69,200 individuals directly killed by the earthquake. Risk assessment of the blockage indicated that it was unlikely to collapse suddenly, and that eventual overtopping could be mitigated by notching the structure in order to create an engineered breach and achieve safe drainage of the lake. In addition to the installation of monitoring and warning instrumentation, for emergency planning we estimated several outburst scenarios equivalent to 20, 25, 33, and 50% of the dam failing suddenly, creating, respectively, 3.35, 3.84, 4.22, and 4.65 km of flooded area, and overbank water depths of 4.6, 5.1, 5.7, and 6.2 m, respectively, in Mianyang, the second largest city in Sichuan Province, 48 km downstream from the blockage. Based on these scenarios, recommendations and plans for excavating a sluiceway, draining the lake, and downstream evacuation were proposed and later were implemented successfully, with the blockage breached by overtopping on June 10, less than a month after dam emplacement. The peak discharge of the release only slightly exceeded the flood of record at Mianyang City. No lives were lost, and significant property damage was avoided. Post-breaching evaluation reveals how future similar mitigation can be improved. Although initial breach erosion was slow, later erosion was judged uncontrollably rapid; increased slope of the engineered channel and adoption of a compound, trapezoid-triangular cross-section can be considered, as can other measures to control the rate of breach incision. Evacuees from Mianyang City spent an unnecessarily long time (12 days) in temporary settlements; more precise risk management planning can reduce this time in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we use the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake as a background event for analyzing and applying the principles of site selection of emergency shelters for a disastrous earthquake. Based on field investigations and analyses of remote sensing imagery, we identified the distribution of active faults and the locations of co-seismic surface rupture zones—areas in which buildings are at risk of intensive damage. It is important that emergency shelters are located outside of such vulnerable areas. One of the lessons learned from the Wenchuan Earthquake is that high fatality rates occur in areas without life-saving shelters. The principles that underlie the selection of emergency shelter sites are as follows: (1) keep far away from active fault zones, with the distance depending on the characteristics of the fault, including the nature of hangingwall and footwall structures; (2) disaster-mitigation strategies should be developed as a multi-dimensional system for the management of natural hazards, human activities, and urban expansion, involving keeping away from vulnerable slopes and establishing an early-warning system; (3) the accessibility of mountainous regions must be considered, including establishing small emergency shelters that house large numbers of people and covering regions with an uneven distribution of villages; and (4) government and law-making agencies in China must establish new earthquake design codes for buildings, emphasizing the importance of public facilities (including schools, collective welfare institutions, and medical facilities) as emergency shelters during disastrous earthquakes. The site-selection process requires an interdisciplinary approach involving seismologists, engineers, environmental and social scientists, emergency management personnel, and government officials. The parameters upon which the above principles are based can be qualitatively determined, thereby providing a valuable initial database for further quantitative analysis. The preliminary results and knowledge gained in the present paper can be used as a decision-making tool to support the government in earthquake-recovery and reconstruction programs. We also discuss practical examples of site evaluation in regions that suffered heavy damage during the Wenchuan Earthquake. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Quantitative assessment for the efficiencies of check dams is necessary for the purpose of reducing the risk of potential debris flow disasters. In this paper, an improved finite difference model is adopted to assess the efficiency of the check dam in Dagou debris flow gully, Gansu Province, China. Unlike other numerical models, the improved model can simultaneously consider bed entrainment and the impeding effect of check dams, so it can reflect the interaction between check dams and debris flow dynamics. The results show that the existing 10 m check dam may only be sufficient to prevent a debris flow with less than 0.8 times the volume of the catastrophic event occurred in this gully in 2013. Otherwise, a higher check dam should be constructed in order to prevent a larger event. The location of a check dam has significant influence on the dynamics of the debris flow. Generally, a check dam constructed in the upper part of the gully performs better in controlling bed entrainment and the discharge. Comparing with the locations in downstream, the dam site located in upstream of this gully seems to be a better choice in terms of both efficiency and engineering quantity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warming has strongly influenced the quantity and variability of natural disasters around the globe. This study aims to characterize the varying patterns between rising temperatures and climate-related natural disasters in China from 1951 to 2010. We examined the overall trend in the patterns of an 11-year cycle, and climate-related natural disaster responses to periods of rising and dropping temperature. We used Morlet wavelet analysis to determine the length of a temperature cycle period, and the arc elasticity coefficient to assess the number of climate-related natural disasters in response to the changing temperature. We found that: (1) the overall relationship between temperature and the number of climate-related natural disasters was positive; (2) however, on the cycle level, the pattern of climate-related natural disasters was found to be independent of temperature variation; (3) on the rise-drop level, temperature increases were associated with declines in the number of climate-related natural disasters. Moreover, as temperature decreased, the number of climate-related natural disasters increased substantially, such that temperature had a more considerable influence on the quantity of climate-related natural disasters during the temperature-drop period. Findings in this study can help enhance the dissemination of warning and mitigation efforts to combat natural disasters in the changing climate.