Farmers’Demand for Informal Risk Management Strategy and Weather Index Insurance:Evidence from China

In the absence of formal risk management strategies,agricultural production in China is highly vulnerable to climate change.In this study,field experiments were conducted with 344 households in Heilongjiang(Northeast China)and Jiangsu(East China)Provinces.Probit and logistic models and independent sample T-test were used to explore farmers’demand for weather index insurance,in contrast to informal risk management strategies,and the main factors that affect demand.The results show that the farmers prefer weather index insurance to informal risk management strategies,and farmers’characteristics have significant impacts on their adoption of risk management strategies.The variables non-agricultural labor ratio,farmers’risk perception,education,and agricultural insurance purchase experience significantly affect farmers’weather index insurance demand.The regression results show that the farmers’weather index insurance demand and the influencing factors in the two provinces are different.Farmers in Heilongjiang Province have a higher participation rate than those in Jiangsu Province.The government should conduct more weather index insurance pilot programs to help farmers understand the mechanism,and insurance companies should provide more types of weather index insurance to meet farmers’diversified needs.

Areas vulnerable to natural disasters and damage estimation of infrastructure in Busan, Korea

Since the damages caused by disasters associated with climate anomalies and the diversification of the social structure increase every year, an efficient management system associated with a damage assessment of the areas vulnerable to disasters is demanded to prevent or mitigate the damages to infrastructure. The areas vulnerable to disasters in Busan, located at southeastern part of Korea, were estimated based on historical records of damages and a risk assessment of the infrastructure was performed to provide fundamental information prior to the establishment of the real-time monitoring system for infrastructure and establish disaster management system. The results are illustrated by using geographical information system(GIS) and provide the importance of the roadmap for comprehensive and specific strategy to manage natural disasters.

Use of Internet Technology for the Improvement of Execution Management in Geotechnical Engineering Projects

An internet-based information and monitoring platform for the specific requirements of geotechnical engineering projects is presented. The platform is based on a hybrid-model approach consisting of a model-based information management system and a resource management system, the latter also referred to as DCMS. Project key information can be accessed via the main user interface, the 'graphical navigator'. The graphical navigator provides also a direct access to additional information in the DCMS. Prompt reac-tion in exceptional situations as well as in daily work gets an extensive support. In practical applications it has been proven that this platform seems to be an adequate tool especially for risk assessment and management in geotechnical engineering projects. Components and advantages of the platform as well as ex periences from the applications are presented and discussed in the paper.