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Enhancing disaster risk governance is crucial for improving the ability to cope with and adapt to the impacts of climate change. China experiences a diverse range of natural disasters distributed widely across the country. The evolving demographic, socio-economic, and geographic landscape requires heightened attention as it significantly shapes the extent and dynamics of regional vulnerability to natural hazards. This study aims to evaluate the spatial and temporal changes of social vulnerability in China based on data at the county level in the years of 2000, 2010 and 2020. The Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) was constructed by adopting nine demographic and socio-economic variables drawn from the variables in the US CDC SVI framework using Principal Component Analysis. Both economic development and demographic factors played important roles in determining the patterns of spatial distribution of SVI over the period. Result of spatial data analysis reveals distinctive and stable spatial heterogeneity of social vulnerability across counties. Furthermore, we applied the SVI with real-world impact data to validate the effectiveness and relevance of the constructed index. Using drought risk as an illustrative example, the research also assessed the applicability of the SVI in evaluating drought risks in China, considering hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. Public and private decision-makers can use the constructed SVI to identify hot spots and population subgroups that are most vulnerable to natural hazards to inform and facilitate adequate risk prevention and management at the national and local levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the granite regions of southern China, benggang poses a substantial threat to the ecological environment due to significant soil erosion. This phenomenon also imposes constraints on economic development, necessitating substantial investments in restoration efforts in recent decades. Despite these efforts, there remains a notable gap in comprehensive risk assessment that integrates both the erosion risk and disaster risk associated with benggang. This study focuses on a representative benggang area in Wuhua County, Guangdong province, employing transformer methods and high-resolution imagery to map the spatial pattern of the benggang. The integrated risk of benggang was assessed by combining soil-erosion risk and disaster risk, and cultivated land, residential land, and water bodies were identified as key disaster-affected entities. The machine-learning Segformer model demonstrated high precision, achieving an Intersection over Union (IoU) of 93.17% and an accuracy (Acc) of 96.73%. While the number of large benggang is relatively small, it constitutes the largest area proportion (65.10%); the number of small benggang is more significant (62.40%) despite a smaller area proportion. Prioritization for benggang management is categorized into high, medium, and low priority, accounting for 17.98%, 48.34%, and 33.69%, respectively. These priorities cover areas of 30.27%, 42.40%, and 27.33%, respectively. The findings of this study, which offer benggang management priorities, align with the nature-based solutions approach. Emphasizing the importance of considering costs and benefits comprehensively when formulating treatment plans, this approach contributes to sustainable solutions for addressing the challenges posed by benggang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy technology innovation is the necessary way and fundamental means to lead, promote, and support the revolution of energy production and consumption. While natural hazards, as an unavoidable external risk in the long-term development of human society, may affect the regional energy innovation level. In this study, we use the SDM bifixed model to investigate the direct, indirect, and aggregate effects of natural hazards on energy technology innovation for data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020. Results indicate that (1) Natural hazards not only have a significant negative impact on local energy technology innovation, but also inhibit energy technology innovation in neighboring regions, with significant spatial spillover effects. (2) Natural hazards have a more pronounced effect in western cities. (3) Natural hazards can enhance energy technology innovation through increasing environmental regulation and reducing FDI. Our study offers suggestions for strengthening post-natural disaster reconstruction and sub-regional resilience to disaster shocks, improving environmental regulation laws and regulations, and attracting more foreign direct investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro- and small businesses are more vulnerable to natural hazards than the larger ones. However, there are few attempts to systematically assess their vulnerabilities. Existing business vulnerability assessments use aggregate-level data, which poorly account for the prevalence of micro- and informal businesses in some areas. Also, they focus on business sensitivity and have not incorporated key elements of adaptive capacity into analysis. This study explores a firm-level assessment approach that would work better under resource and data constraints, which are common challenges to developing-country researchers. Surveys were conducted in four jurisdictions of China: Sanya, Zhuhai, Macao and Hong Kong. A total of 596 urban and rural businesses were involved. Indicators of business sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity were built into a structured questionnaire. The results were turned into a set of metrics for cross-location comparison. Aggregated scores suggest that business vulnerabilities increase from Sanya, Zhuhai, Hong Kong to Macao. Additional tests show that the integrated vulnerability scores are geographically differentiated and demonstrate compatibility with theoretical expectations. The value of this approach lies in its appropriate and realistic requirements for conducting business vulnerability assessments in small, isolated or less developed communities. Future applications need to overcome some uncertainties in the assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study estimates the impact of disaster shocks and risk perception on farmers' willingness for insurance. Based on data of 328 farmers from the Shandong province of East China, the study uses cluster analysis, analysis of variance, hierarchical linear model and structural equation model to determine the impact of disaster shocks and risk perception on farmers' willingness for insurance. A bootstrap method of bias correction was used to test the mediating effect of risk perception between disaster shocks and insurance willingness. Results revealed that the overall willingness of farmers for crop insurance was low. However, the farmers' willingness for crop insurance increased with an increase in disaster shocks and risk perception. The parametric analysis also confirmed that disaster shocks and risk perceptions have a significant and positive impact on the farmers' willingness for crop insurance. Risk perception has a partial mediating effect between disaster shock and farmers' willingness for crop insurance. It indicates that disaster shock not only impacts on farmers' willingness for crop insurance directly but also has an indirect impact on farmers' willingness for crop insurance through risk perception. Farmers are encouraged to participate in the early warning disaster programs to increase awareness of climate change and resilience against weather aberrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some flow-like landslides tend to lose materials while moving on a relatively dry sliding surface. This phenomenon is called bed deposition. In contrast to the bed entrainment phenomenon, bed deposition is relatively poorly understood. Therefore, an improved depth-averaged model is proposed to quantify this phenomenon. The deposition depth is calculated according to the momentum conservation of the deposited mass, and the rheological property of the sliding mass on the bottom is modified considering an abrupt increase in the depth of the sliding surface after deposition. Utilizing the proposed model, the Gaolou landslide, a typical flowlike landside occurring on October 6th, 2006 with an obvious bed deposition phenomenon in Shaanxi Province of China, is simulated to investigate the influence of bed deposition on its propagation process. The results indicate that the proposed model can effectively depict the bed deposition phenomenon in the Gaolou landslide. Bed deposition dissipates part of the kinetic energy of this landslide; thus, the simulated debris inundation area would likely be overestimated when this effect is neglected. On the other hand, the thin liquefied layer formed by the bed deposition process reduces the friction energy dissipation, contributing to the high mobility of this landslide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to assess the multi‐level effects of natural hazards on trust in Chinese society. Drawing on the Chinese General Social Survey conducted in 2012 and provincial disaster damage records, it examined the association between individuals' past experiences of disasters and province‐level damage (measured by the number of affected people, deaths, and economic loss) and various forms of trust: in‐group; out‐group; generalised; and political. The findings indicate that Chinese individuals with experience of disasters have higher levels of out‐group trust but lower levels of political trust. Similarly, at the province level, damage owing to disasters over the past three years (2009–11) positively impacted on residents' out‐group trust while negatively affecting their political trust. However, when provincial damage was aggregated for disasters over the past five years (2007–11), which included the devastating Sichuan earthquake on 12 May 2008, only total deaths had a positive effect on generalised trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate potential damage from debris flows, numerous check dams have been constructed in thousands of debris flow gullies all over the world. However, the efficiencies of these check dams are largely unknown because they are normally designed based on empirical methods. This paper presents an assessment of the impeding effect of check dams constructed in the Hongchun debris flow gully in Sichuan Province, China by using an improved finite difference model. Compared with other models, the improved model can consider both the impeding effect of check dams and bed entrainment. We analyzed the impeding effect of these check dams on different initial scales of debris flows. The results show that these check dams perform quite well in constraining bed entrainment downstream of the gully. The average velocity, peak discharge, and final scale of a debris flow in the gully can be substantially reduced by constructed check dams. The impeding effect is sufficient when the initial volume of the debris flow is less than 1.5 times that of the catastrophic debris flow event that occurred in this gully on 14 August 2010. This study improves our understanding of the influence of check dams on the dynamic and bed entrainment processes of debris flows. The model adopted in this study can be a robust tool to quantify the efficiencies of existing check dams and provide reasonable guidance in the design of check dams in debris flow gullies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal river deltas face high risks from multiple natural hazards due to the combined effects of human activities, natural processes, and climate change. Vulnerability and risk assessments are essential for reducing and managing risks and, in the process, contribute to sustainable development. Despite adopting a social-ecological and multi-hazard perspective, previous risk assessments failed to achieve balanced consideration of both social and ecological sub-systems. To address this gap, we used an integrated risk assessment framework which incorporates the role of ecosystem services (ES) as a core component. A modular indicator library of ES indicators relevant to coastal river deltas was used to characterize multi-risks in the Pearl and Yangtze River deltas. Results indicate a higher risk level in the Pearl River Delta, with the key drivers of vulnerability and risk varying with scales. Visualizing hazard-prone and highly vulnerable areas facilitates the implementation of targeted management measures and policies to reduce disaster risks from natural hazards. Ecosystem services have been identified as important factors of the risk profiles, and their inclusion in risk reduction strategies ensures that policies can be put in place that allow ecosystems to provide services sustainably to communities. • Ecosystem services were integrated into risk assessments for two river deltas. • The overall disaster risk level in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) is higher than in the Yangtze River Delta. • The higher risk in the PRD stems from greater multi-hazard exposure due to the coastal location of most regions. • Incorporating ecosystem services into risk assessment broadens the range of potential disaster risk reduction measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Episodic wildfires are expected to occur more frequently under future climate change scenarios, with substantial effects on CO2 exchange between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. This study examined the effects of wildfire on soil respiration (R S) and its heterotrophic (R H) and autotrophic (R A) components, as well as their temperature responses (temperature sensitivity, Q 10). Methods We began this study in January 2014, 8 months after a wildfire, in a montane coniferous forest in southwestern China. A trenching method was used to exclude plant roots and quantify R H. R A was calculated by subtracting R H from R S. Important findings From 2014 to 2015, the wildfire significantly reduced R S, R H and R A by 61.3%, 42.5% and 84.0%, respectively, leading to increases in the ratio of R H to R S, from 0.63 in the unburned stand to 0.85 in the burned stand. Ignoring diurnal differences, the wildfire did not affect the Q 10 of R S or R H, but substantially decreased the Q 10 of R A, from 2.62 in the unburned stand to 2.08 in the burned stand. However, the daytime Q 10 of R S and R H was suppressed following the wildfire by 25.1% and 28.8%, respectively, primarily due to increased daytime soil temperature. In the montane coniferous forest, monthly precipitation but not soil temperature drove seasonal dynamics of soil CO2 release. Our findings help to clarify the mechanisms underlying carbon cycling responses to natural disturbance, especially under a warmer future climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Climate change and its projected natural hazards have an adverse impact on the functionality and operation of transportation infrastructure systems. This study presents a comprehensive framework to analyze the risk to transportation infrastructure networks that are affected by natural hazards. The proposed risk analysis method considers both the failure probability of infrastructure components and the expected infrastructure network efficiency and capacity loss due to component failure. This comprehensive approach facilitates the identification of high‐risk network links in terms of not only their susceptibility to natural hazards but also their overall impact on the network. The Chinese national rail system and its exposure to rainfall‐related multihazards are used as a case study. The importance of various links is comprehensively assessed from the perspectives of topological, efficiency, and capacity criticality. Risk maps of the national railway system are generated, which can guide decisive action regarding investments in preventative and adaptive measures to reduce risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the accelerating progress of industrialization, urbanization and population growth in recent decades, community resilience, the ability of communities to function effectively and recover successfully in the aftermath of disasters and shocks, has received great attentions. A number of studies had been conducted focusing on community resilience. This article applied community resilience framework to the coastal areas of China, which are the most densely populated and economically developed areas in China with the most frequent marine disasters. City-level social and economic data were used to construct a community resilience index (CRI). Using factor analysis and the global principal component analysis method, 55 city-level indexes were reduced into 15 factors that explain 73.99% of the variance. Getis-Ord G* Statistics were used to depict the high-value clusters and low-value clusters of the CRI. Clearly identified spatial and temporal variations of the CRI showed that both the overall level and regional differences of the CRI increased from 2003 to 2013; the overall spatial agglomeration characteristic of community resilience was not significant. Our findings also highlighted the key elements to improving community resilience: a robust and developed economic system; excellent education programs and training to improve consciousness on disaster prevention and mitigation; adequate investment on critical infrastructure, especially transportation and communication; proper environmental policies to protect ecosystems and water rouses; and extra attention and disaster risk budgets for vulnerable populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adjacent debris flows may interact in many ways: two or more concurrent debris flows may merge; one debris flow can run out over an existing debris flow fan. Such interactions may cause debris flow properties to change in the mixing process as well as more severe adverse effects than those caused by a single debris flow. This paper aims to investigate the interactions among channelized debris flows originated from adjacent catchments. Both concurrent and successive debris flows are considered. If several debris flows originate from different locations concurrently and merge, the volumetric sediment concentration (i.e., the ratio of the volume of solid material to the total volume of debris flow), C , is a good index to capture the mixing process of these debris flows. The change in C reflects where mixing occurs and the mixing degree. The debris flow properties (e.g., yield stress and dynamic viscosity) evolve in the mixing process and can be captured by the change in C . The debris flow with a larger volume dominates the mixing process, and the properties of the mixed debris flow are more similar to those of the larger debris flow. The inundated areas and runout distances of successive debris flows are smaller than those of concurrent debris flows of the same total volume due to the smaller scales of the individual events and blockage by the earlier debris flows. However, the deposit depth in the interacting part of the debris flow fans of successive debris flows can be much larger than that of concurrent debris flows, leading to more destructive cascading hazards (e.g., the formation of debris barrier lakes). The sequence of successive debris flows not only significantly influences the runout characteristics of the debris flows but also substantially affects the cascading hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is likely to raise the frequency and severity of climate variability, rendering smallholder farmers increasingly vulnerable. This necessitates adaptation actions to mitigate potential losses. Based on farm household survey data collected from three Chinese mountain villages, the study examines farmers' adaptation measures in response to drought and factors driving motivations to adapt. The results show that climate risk perceptions and households' assessment of their own abilities to adapt are important determinants of proactive adaptation decisions, with the latter found a better predictor than the former. The influences of village context and farm income are also significant. By drawing attention to the vital roles of human cognition to stimulate adaptation responses, the study emphasizes the need for greater efforts to raise risk awareness and, more importantly, to equip households with a feeling of perceived capacity to adapt. This can be done by providing additional information on risk-reducing measures and how to implement them as well as to make them affordable. Adaptation can also be improved by continuing investment in developing agriculture and rural livelihoods, such as policy interventions that enhance farm income. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Social vulnerability in this study represents the differences between the capacity to cope with natural hazards and disaster losses suffered within and between places. The assessment of social vulnerability has been recognized as a critical step in understanding natural hazard risks and enhancing effective response capabilities. This article presents an initial study of the social vulnerability of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (B-T-H) Region in China. The goal is to replicate and test the applicability of the United States Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) method in a Chinese cultural context. Thirty-nine variables adapted from the SoVI were collected in relation to two aspects: socioeconomic vulnerability and built environment vulnerability. Using factor analysis, seven factors were extracted from the variable set: the structure of social development, the level of economic and government financial strength, social justice and poverty, family structure, the intensity of space development, the status of residential housing and transportation, and building structure. Factor scores were summed to get the final SoVI scores and the most and least vulnerable units were identified and mapped. The highest social vulnerability is concentrated in the northwest of the study area. The least socially vulnerable areas are mainly distributed in the Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang core urban peripheral and central city areas of the prefecture-level cities. The results show that this method is a useful tool for revealing places that have a high level of vulnerability, in other words, areas which are more likely to face significant challenges in coping with a large-scale event. These findings could provide a scientific basis for policy making and the implementation of disaster prevention and mitigation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, losses resulted from natural disasters have dramatically increased and combined with a significant rise in the intensity and frequency of natural hazards, and in exposure. China is prone to multiple hazards and has experienced huge changes in its social fabric during the past two decades, especially in its population density, development patterns, and other social characteristics. These changes may have exposed the population and society to higher risks than ever before. It is, therefore, important to identify and assess regional social vulnerability to natural hazards to strengthen decision making in disaster risk reduction planning and risk governance. To quantify regional social vulnerability to natural hazards and map its temporal-spatial distribution in China, we carefully selected variables from an extensive compilation of provincial socioeconomic and demographic data. Because of the data issue of high dimension and low sample size, we used a two-level approach to calculate social vulnerability index scores. Dynamic geographic patterns of social vulnerability were captured, and spatial autocorrelations were then calculated. The results indicated a quasi-dualistic structure of social vulnerability in China, with a higher distribution in eastern China compared with that in western China, and a declining trend in spatial clustering in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve natural disaster management, it is important to recognize the variability of the vulnerable populations exposed to hazards and to develop location-based emergency plans accordingly. This paper presents a mathematical model to establish a model of social vulnerability index (SoVI), which includes 12 social variables, and the regional social vulnerability to natural hazards was formulated by them. Taking a city as statistical unit, the variability of vulnerability to natural hazards was explored among the 323 cities based on the SoVI. The results indicate that vulnerability is a location-based regional phenomenon, with the most vulnerable cities being located in the southwest of China and the eastern areas being generally less vulnerable. The results will be helpful for policy makers to formulate disaster management plans, which can be beneficial for people in more vulnerable areas who are responding to, coping with, and recovering from natural disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of social vulnerability has been recognized as a critical step to understand natural hazard risks and to enhance effective response capabilities. Although significant achievements have been made in social vulnerability researches, little is know about the comprehensive profile of regional social vulnerability in China. In this study, the social vulnerability to natural hazards was firstly divided into socioeconomic and built environmental vulnerability. Then, using factor analysis, we identified the dominant factors that influence the provincial social vulnerability in China to natural hazards based on the socioeconomic and built environmental variables in 2000 and 2010 and explored the spatial patterns of social vulnerability. The results indicated that the provincial social vulnerability in China showed significant regional differences. The social vulnerability in the southeastern and eastern regions of China was greater than its northern and central parts over the past decade. Economic status, rural (proportion of agricultural population and percentage of workers employed in primary industries), urbanization, and age structure (children) were the dominant driving forces of variations in provincial socioeconomic vulnerability in two studied years, while lifelines and housing age could explain most of changes in built environmental vulnerability in 2000 and 2010. There were no statistically significant correlations between social vulnerability and disaster losses ( p > 0.05), indicating the impact of disasters was also related to the intensity of hazards and exposure. Disaster relief funds allocated to each province of China depended more on its disaster severity than the regional integrated social vulnerability over the past decade. These findings would provide a scientific base for the policy making and implementation of disaster prevention and mitigation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daily precipitation data from 590 stations in China covering a period of 1960-2005 are analysed using copulas, the modified Mann-Kendall (MK) trend test and linear regression. Changing characteristics of eight precipitation indices are investigated in both time and space. Results indicate that (1) the regions west of 100°E, particularly northwest China, exhibit a wetting tendency as reflected by increasing/decreasing number of consecutive rain/non-rain days; (2) the drying tendency is observed mainly in the regions covered by the Yellow River basin, the Huaihe River basin, and the Haihe River basin, and relatively moderate changes in precipitation indices are found in northeast China; (3) precipitation extremes are intensifying in the regions east of 100°E, particularly in case of south China, specifically the lower Yangtze River basin, the southeast rivers and the Pearl River basin. The intensification of precipitation extremes in south China is mirrored mainly by the decreasing number of rain days and increasing number of consecutive non-rain days. Besides an increasing percentage of P90 to the annual total precipitation, (4) the intensification of precipitation extremes has the potential to increase the probability of occurrence of natural hazards, particularly floods and droughts. The spatial distribution of flood- and drought-affected crop areas is in agreement with that of precipitation extremes, showing considerable impacts of precipitation extremes on meteor-hydrological hazards. An increasing number of consecutive non-rain days in south China will cause a higher risk of droughts. The regions east of 100°E are heavily populated and are economically developed. Food security, water security, and sustainable socioeconomy in China urgently call for effective water resource management policy. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characteristics of Xinjiang Province, China, make it vulnerable to frequent natural hazards. Due to limited ability of the population to withstand and to recover from disasters, the region’s social and economic development is comparatively low. This article addresses the lack of research on this topic by gathering information from primary source documents from 1759 to 1911. The first part of the article provides an overview of disasters in Qing-dynasty Xinjiang. The second part of the article describes the types of relief provided by Qing government. The author concludes that the government paid a high level of attention to relief in the region.

Predicting the location and timing of mudslides with adequate lead time is a scientifically challenging problem that is critical for mitigating landslide impacts. Here, a new dynamic modeling system is described for monitoring and predicting storm-triggered landslides and their ecosystem implications. The model ingests both conventional and remotely sensed topographic and geologic data, whereas outputs include diagnostics required for the assessment of the physical and societal impacts of landslides. The system first was evaluated successfully in a series of experiments under idealized conditions. In the main study, under real conditions, the system was assessed over a mountainous region of China, the Yangjiashan Creeping (YC) slope. For this data-rich section of the Changjiang River, the model estimated creeping rates that had RMS errors of ∼0.5 mm yr−1 when compared with a dataset generated from borehole measurements. A prediction of the creeping curve for 2010 was made that suggested significant slope movement will occur in the next 5 years, without any change in the current precipitation morphology. However, sliding will become imminent if a storm occurs in that 5-yr period that produces over 150 mm of precipitation. A sensitivity experiment shows that the identified location fails first, triggering domino-effect slides that progress upslope. This system for predicting storm-triggered landslides is intended to improve upon present warning lead times to minimize the impacts of shallow, fast moving, and therefore hazardous landslides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uncertainty and complexity of natural hazards put forward new requirements for emergency management systems. In order to deal with natural hazards effectively, it is important to build a cooperative network between government organizations and social organizations. The social network analysis method is adopted, the April 2013 Ya'an China earthquake is taken as a case study, the institutionalized emergency organization network before the disaster and the actual response organization network after the disaster are analyzed, and centrality, between centrality, closeness centrality and core-periphery are calculated. Through qualitative and quantitative research, the functions of social organization in the process of natural hazards emergency relief are revealed, the role orientation of social organization in the emergency management network is analyzed, and the influence factors of the social organization participation in the natural hazards relief is pointed out. Research results will help to promote the cooperation between social organization and government, and improve the efficiency of natural hazards emergency relief.