The National Disaster Reduction Center of China

The National Disaster Reduction Center of China(NDRCC)(The Satellite Application Center for Disaster Reduction)of the Ministry of Civil Affairs(MCA)of the Peopled Repub-lic of China was established in 2002,and is a specialized agency under the Chinese Government.It is engaged in infor-mation service and decision-making assistance in support of comprehensive natural disaster management.

Risk Assessment of Disaster Chain: Experience from Wenchuan Earthquake-induced Landslides in China

This paper deals with the formative process of the Wenchuan earthquake disaster chain risk. Selected earthquake-landslides chain risk is critically evaluated by the probability of landslide displacement failure based on the Newmark's permanent-deformation model. In this context, a conceptual model of regional disaster chain risk assessment was proposed, in which the hazardformative environments sensitivity was the core factor as well as the main difference compared with single disaster risk assessment. The disaster chain risk is accumulation of primary disaster risk and the secondary disasters risks. Results derived from the Wenchuan case proved that the conceptual model was suitable for the disaster chain risk assessment, especially the sudden disaster chain. This experience would offer greater potential in application of conceptual model of disaster chain risk assessment, in the process of large-scale disaster risk governance.

Risk assessment of maize drought disaster in southwest China using the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate model

The East Asian monsoon has a tremendous impact on agricultural production in China. An assessment of the risk of drought disaster in maize-producing regions is therefore important in ensuring a reduction in such disasters and an increase in food security. A risk assessment model, EPIC（Environmental Policy Integrated Climate） model, for maize drought disasters based on the Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator crop model is proposed for areas with the topographic characteristics of the mountainous karst region in southwest China. This region has one of the highest levels of environmental degradation in China. The results showed that the hazard risk level for the maize zone of southwest China is generally high. Most hazard index values were between 0.4 and 0.5,accounting for 47.32% of total study area. However,the risk level for drought loss was low. Most of the loss rate was ＆lt;0.1, accounting for 96.24% of the total study area. The three high-risk areas were mainlydistributed in the parallel ridge–valley areas in the east of Sichuan Province, the West Mountain area of Guizhou Province, and the south of Yunnan Province.These results provide a scientific basis and support for the reduction of agricultural drought disasters and an increase in food security in the southwest China maize zone.

Analysis on the Characteristics and Application Capacity for Disaster Reduction of HJ-1A/B Satellites

With the global climate changes,the situation in coping with the natural disasters has become more serious and complicated.Many countries in the world focus on improving the technical support capacity for

The changing regional distribution of grain production in China in the 21st century

This paper examines the changing regional distribution of grain production in China. Based on the analysis of data from county statistics for the period 2000-2003, major differences in the main grain-output regions in China can be observed. The main grain-producing areas have shifted from the south to the north of China. New grain production regions have been also added to westem China since the late 1990s. The per capita grain consumption in one third of China＇s main grain-producing counties has fallen below 400 kg; most of these areas are located in southern China. In the new millennium, Northeast China, the central-south North China, and the add and semi-arid regions of Northwest China produced three quarters of the surplus grains. Most of these areas are located in regions susceptible to environmental change. The amount of grain production in these regions shows high fluctuations. It is argued here that fi.trther studies of recent environmental changes as well as a risk assessment of China＇s food security in main grain-output regions are needed.

BeiDou Integrated Disaster Reduction Application Platform

To better improve the emergency communication and location-based services of disaster information reporting network for serious natural response and relieL disaster emergency the national natural disaster reduction application platform based on BeiDou navigation satellite system is constructed. The administrative distributed platform is integrated with BeiDou positioning and multiple communication ways so as to achieve main disaster reduction application services, including disaster information acquisition and monitoring, emergency relief for trapped people, on-site emergency relief command service, relief supplies＇ transportation monitoring, and disaster information publishing service. By the platform, serious disaster information reporting time may be reduced to one hour and the emergency decision-making information service for serious natural disasters can be effectively improved, and it will be helpful to provide technical references for the industrial application and promotion of BeiDou inte- grated disaster reduction.

Operation and Application of A,B Satellites for Environment and Disaster Monitoring and Forecasting

Environment and disaster monitoring and forecasting small satellite constellation A and B satellites(HJ-1-A,B) are called "environment and disaster reduction satellites A and B" for short.The constellation adopts a 10:30LT sun-synchronous circular orbit,with orbit altitude of 649km.HJ1-A and HJ-1-B are distributed with a phase difference of 180° in the same orbital plane,so as to enhance the time resolution of earth observation.The satellites have orbit maintenance capability,the lifetime is 3 years.Both satellites adopt CAST968 platforms.Two wide-coverage multispectral CCD cameras with resolution 30m and width 700km,a super-spectral imager with resolution 100m and width 50km as well as a data transmission subsystem of 120Mbit/s are deployed on HJ-1-A,which also carries Ka communication testing equipment of Thailand.HJ-1-B has two wide-coverage multispectral CCD cameras(the same as satellite A),one infrared camera with resolution 150m and width 720km and a data transmission subsystem of 60Mbit/s.The coverage period of the wide-coverage multispectral CCD camera is 48 hours.The revisit period of super-spectral imager is 96 hours and the coverage period ofinfrared camera is 96 hours.

Quantifying Disaster Physical Damage Using Remote Sensing Data——A Technical Work Flow and Case Study of the 2014 Ludian Earthquake in China

Disaster damage assessment is an important basis for the objective assessment of the social impacts of disasters and for the planning of recovery and reconstruction. It is also an important research field with regard to disaster mitigation and risk management. Quantitative assessment of physical damage refers to the determination of the physical damage state of the exposed elements in a disaster area, reflecting the aggregate quantities of damages. It plays a key role in the comprehensive damage assessment of major natural hazard-induced disasters. The National Disaster Reduction Center of China has established a technical work flow for the quantitative assessment of disaster physical damage using remote sensing data.This article presents a quantitative assessment index system and method that can be integrated with high-resolution remote sensing data, basic geographical data, and field survey data. Following the 2014 Ludian Earthquake in Yunnan Province, China, this work flow was used to assess the damage to buildings, roads, and agricultural and forest resources, and the assessment results were incorporated into the Disaster Damage Comprehensive Assessment Report of the 2014 Ludian Earthquake for the State Council of China. This article also outlines some possible improvements that can be addressed in future work.

Modelling and validation of flash flood inundation in drylands

In the context of climate change and human activities,flood disasters in arid mountainous areas have become increasingly frequent,and seriously threatened the safety of people's lives and property.Rapid and accurate flash flood inundation modelling is an essential foundational research area,which can aid in the reduction of casualties and the minimization of disaster losses;however,this modelling is also very difficult,and models need to be urgently developed to address flash flood forecasting and warnings.The objective of this study is to construct a numerical modelling method for flash floods in drylands.Based on a 2D high-resolution flood numerical model(Flood Map-Hydro Inundation2D),we hindcasted the dynamic process of flash flooding and show the spatio-temporal characteristics of flash flood inundation for the“8·18”flash flood disaster that occurred in Datong county,Qinghai province.The results showed that the model output effectively agreed with the observed inundation after the event in terms of both spatial extent and temporal process.Extensive flooding mainly occurred between 00:00 and 01:00 on August 18,2022.Qingshan,Hejiazhuang and Longwo villages were affected most heavily.We further conducted model sensitivity analysis and found that the model was highly sensitive to both roughness and hydraulic conductivity in drylands,and the effect of hydraulic conductivity was more pronounced.Our study confirmed the good performance of our model for the simulation of flash flooding in arid areas and provides a potential method for flash flood assessment and management in arid areas.

Maize drought disaster risk assessment of China based on EPIC model

Digital Agriculture is one of the important applications of Digital Earth.As the global climate changes and food security becomes an increasingly important issue,agriculture drought comes to the focus of attention.China is a typical monsoon climate country as well as an agricultural country with the world’s largest population.The East Asian monsoon has had a tremendous impact upon agricultural production.Therefore,a maize drought disaster risk assessment,in line with the requirements of sustainable development of agriculture,is important for ensuring drought disaster reduction and food security.Meteorology,soil,land use,and agro-meteorological observation information of the research area were collected,and based on the concept framework of‘hazard-inducing factors assessment(hazard)-vulnerability assessment of hazard-affected body(vulner-ability curve)-risk assessment(risk),’importing crop model EPIC(Erosion-Productivity Impact Calculator),using crop model simulation and digital mapping techniques,quantitative assessment of spatio-temporal distribution of maize drought in China was done.The results showed that:in terms of 2,5,10,and 20 year return periods,the overall maize drought risk decreased gradually from northwest to southeast in the maize planting areas.With the 20 year return period,high risk value regions(drought loss rate]0.5)concentrate in the irrigated maize region of Northwest china,ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry in Northern China,Hetao Irrigation Area,and north-central area of North China Plain,accounting for 6.41%of the total maize area.These results can provide a scientific basis for the government’s decision-making in risk management and drought disaster prevention in China.

China’s Comprehensive Disaster Reduction

China is one of the countries in the world that are most affected by natural disasters. In recent years, with global climate change and rapid socioeconomic development in the country, natural disaster risks have been increasing and economic losses and the population affected have shown a growing trend;catastrophic disasters have repeatedly ravaged China, causing major socioeconomic impacts.The Chinese government attaches great importance to disaster prevention, reduction, and relief. Developments in laws and regulations on natural disaster management in the past three decades have provided an improved legal framework for disaster prevention, reduction, and relief. China’s disaster relief is guided by the principle of people-centered, government-led, multilevel management, mutual support within social networks, and self-rescue of victims. Through the years, the government has been expanding the scope of disaster relief and increasing the level of assistance, strengthening integrated coordination mechanisms, and standardizing procedures for relief work. Disaster prevention, reduction, and relief mechanisms based on China’s situation, and with Chinese characteristics, have been established. Attention has also been given to capacity-building. Much effort has been made to implement disaster reduction projects and to improve early warning systems, emergency response, science and technological support, human resource development, and community disaster relief systems. Future disaster reduction efforts of the Chinese government will focus on alleviating the impact of natural disasters, coping with catastrophic disaster risks, harmonizing the relationship between humans and nature, and attaining sustainable development.

Fourteen Actions and Six Proposals for Science and Technology-Based Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia Second Asian Science and Technology Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction:SciencePolicy Dialogue for Implementation of the Sendai Framework,April 2018

1 Introduction The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 shifts the focus from managing disasters to reducing risks.Such a shift requires a better understanding of risk in all its dimensions of environment,hazards,exposure,and vulnerability;a disaster risk governance that

Engineering survey of the Environment and Disaster Monitoring and Forecasting Small Satellite Constellation

The Environment and Disaster Reduction Satellite Constellation is a small satellite constellation developed by China for disaster monitoring.The two primary optical satellites,HJ-A and HJ-B,were successfully launched in September 2008.The satellites carry a charge-coupled device,hyperspectral imager,and infrared scanner,and have the capability for wide coverage and rapid revisits in disaster reduction applications.Also scheduled to be launched is the HJ-C,which will carry synthetic aperture radar and have the ability to provide allweather observations at any time.A follow-up‘4
4’satellite constellation including four optical satellites and four radar satellites is in the works,to achieve the capability of quantitative,all-weather,all-time disaster forecasting,monitoring and assessment.The corresponding disaster reduction application system has a series of functions including remote sensing data processing,disaster monitoring and assessment,decision support,and user service and information distribution,which serves the whole process of disaster management.Since its construction has been carried out,the system has successfully dealt with several huge domestic and international natural disasters,and effectively improved scientific decision support.The follow-up system’s construction will integrate,update,and extend the original system to fulfill large-scale,quantitative,allweather disaster operation application needs.

An integrated geospatial information service system for disaster management in China

The Chinese Government and citizens face enormous challenges of disaster management as widespread devastation,economic damages,and loss of human lives caused by increasing natural disasters.Disaster management requires a complicated iterative process that includes disaster monitoring,early detection,forecasting,loss assessment,and efficient analysis of disaster reduction.Each task typically involves the use of technologists and multiple geospatial information resources,including sensors,data sources,models,geo-tools,software packages,and computing resources.However,most existing disaster management systems operate in a typical passive data-centric mode,where resources cannot be fully utilized.This impediment is partially being addressed by the increasingly complex application requirements and the growing availability of diverse resources.In this paper,we summarize and analyze the practical problems experienced by the National Disaster Reduction Application System of China.To address the issues of data-centric,centralized,isolated solutions,we propose a novel Focusing Service Mechanism,which is capable of scheduling and allocating for optimum utilization of multiple resources,to dynamically generate collaborative and on-demand disaster information services.We also demonstrate the design and implementation of the Integrated Disaster Information Service System(IDISS).Through the service strategies of Virtualizing,Wrapping,and Integrating,disasterrelated resources are constructed into services in the IDISS.These services are dynamically aggregated into focusing service chains,for diverse disaster management tasks.Actual applications illustrate that the proposed service system can significantly improve the capability of disaster management in China.

Disaster prevention and reduction in Anthropocene

Natural disasters cause considerable property damage and loss of life as well as destruction of ecosystem and natural resources. In the context of global change, extreme events are expected to increase in both frequency and intensity. To prevent natural disasters and mitigate the loss, we need to act quickly and effectively. It would be conducive to achieve sustainable economic development, reduce disaster vulnerabilities and risks, and build resilience through implementing effective measures of disaster prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Evaluating the Influence of Multisource Typhoon Precipitation Data on Multiscale Urban Pluvial Flood Modeling

Based on station precipitation observations,radar quantitative precipitation estimates(QPE), and radar fusion data during Typhoon Fitow(2013), the influence of multisource precipitation data on multiscale urban typhoon pluvial flood modeling is studied. Using Shanghai, China,as the study area, a simplified 2D hydrodynamic model is applied to simulations. Combined with actual flood incidents reported by the public and soil moisture data, we perform multiscale verifications and determine the applicability of three precipitation datasets in the modeling. The results are as follows:(1) At the city scale, although QPE have higher spatial resolution, these estimates are lower than station observations. Radar fusion data have both high accuracy and high spatial resolution. For flood depths above 5 cm, the radar fusion precipitation scenario can improve the matching probability by 6%.(2) At the neighborhood scale, the radar fusion precipitation scenario can effectively mitigate the problems of an uneven spatial distribution of stations and a weak QPE to accurately capture pluvial details.(3)One fixed-point assessment shows that different precipitation data have little influence on the temporal characteristics of the modeling result-all three types of data can accurately reflect flood occurrence times. This work can provide a scientific basis for constructing effective urban pluvial flood monitoring systems.

ABM-based emergency evacuation modelling during urban pluvial floods:A“7.20”pluvial flood event study in Zhengzhou,Henan Province

Increasing urban pluvial flood disasters due to climate change and rapid urbanisation have been a great challenge worldwide.Timely and effective emergency evacuation is important for reducing casualties and losses.This has become a bottleneck for emergency management.This study aimed to develop a commonly used Agent-Based Mode(ABM)for pluvial flood emergency evacuation at the city scale,exploring the cascading impacts of pluvial flooding on human behaviour and emergency evacuation.The July 2021 pluvial flood event in Zhengzhou,Henan Province,claiming 380 lives and 40.9 billion yuan in direct losses,was selected as this case study.A raster-based hydraulic model(ECNU Flood-Urban)was used to predict flood inundation(extent and depth)during an event in Zhengzhou’s centre.Moreover,a comparative analysis of emergency evacuations was conducted before and after the pluvial flood event.The results showed that crowd behaviour plays an important role in an emergency evacuation,and extensive flooding leads to an 11-83%reduction in the number of evacuees.This study highlights the importance of risk education and contingency plans in emergency response.The ABM model developed in this study is proven to be effective and practical and will provide support for decision-making in urban flood emergency management.

理解青藏高原三江源地区放牧压力的空间异质性

Elucidating the distribution of the grazing pressure requires an understanding of the grazing activities.In this study,we analyzed the grazing behavior of yaks in Three-RiverSource Region(TRSR)and identified the main factors influencing the distribution of grazing intensity(GI)using trajectory data and remote sensing datasets.Our results revealed that a semi-resident transhumance strategy is employed in this region.The average grazing time(GT)of four GPS collars over the year was 11.84 h/day(N6),11.01 h/day(N11),9.25 h/day(N18),and 11.61 h/day(N24).GT was generally higher in warm seasons(summer and autumn)than in cold seasons(spring and winter).The average daily moving speed was found to be closely related to the pasture size of different herders and the seasons.Geodetector analysis identified the distance to camp(DOC)as the most important single factor influencing the distribution of GI,explaining up to 52% of the GI variations.However,relying solely on this factor may not accurately depict the actual GI distribution.When pairwise factors interacted,the explanatory power of the model increased,ranging from 34.55% to 63.26%.Our study highlights the importance of considering multiple factors when predicting grazing intensity,as grazing activities tend to cluster near settlements,but other factors may also be influential.

Vegetation dynamics in Qinling-Daba Mountains in relation to climate factors between 2000 and 2014

Using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer-normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI) dataset,we investigated the patterns of spatiotemporal variation in vegetation coverage and its associated driving forces in the Qinling-Daba(Qinba) Mountains in 2000–2014.The Sen and Mann–Kendall models and partial correlation analysis were used to analyze the data,followed by calculation of the Hurst index to analyze future trends in vegetation coverage.The results of the study showed that(1) NDVI of the study area exhibited a significant increase in 2000–2014(linear tendency,2.8%/10a).During this period,a stable increase was detected before 2010(linear tendency,4.32%/10a),followed by a sharp decline after 2010(linear tendency,–6.59%/10a).(2) Spatially,vegetation cover showed a "high in the middle and a low in the surroundings" pattern.High values of vegetation coverage were mainly found in the Qinba Mountains of Shaanxi Province.(3) The area with improved vegetation coverage was larger than the degraded area,being 81.32% and 18.68%,respectively,during the study period.Piecewise analysis revealed that 71.61% of the total study area showed a decreasing trend in vegetation coverage in 2010–2014.(4) Reverse characteristics of vegetation coverage change were stronger than the same characteristics on the Qinba Mountains.About 46.89% of the entire study area is predicted to decrease in the future,while 34.44% of the total area will follow a continuously increasing trend.(5) The change of vegetation coverage was mainly attributed to the deficit in precipitation.Moreover,vegetation coverage during La Nina years was higher than that during El Nino years.(6) Human activities can induce ambiguous effects on vegetation coverage: both positive effects(through implementation of ecological restoration projects) and negative effects(through urbanization) were observed.

A fundamental theorem for eco-environmental surface modelling and its applications

We propose a fundamental theorem for eco-environmental surface modelling(FTEEM) in order to apply it into the fields of ecology and environmental science more easily after the fundamental theorem for Earth’s surface system modeling(FTESM). The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei(BTH) region is taken as a case area to conduct empirical studies of algorithms for spatial upscaling, spatial downscaling, spatial interpolation, data fusion and model-data assimilation, which are based on high accuracy surface modelling(HASM), corresponding with corollaries of FTEEM. The case studies demonstrate how eco-environmental surface modelling is substantially improved when both extrinsic and intrinsic information are used along with an appropriate method of HASM. Compared with classic algorithms, the HASM-based algorithm for spatial upscaling reduced the root-meansquare error of the BTH elevation surface by 9 m. The HASM-based algorithm for spatial downscaling reduced the relative error of future scenarios of annual mean temperature by 16%. The HASM-based algorithm for spatial interpolation reduced the relative error of change trend of annual mean precipitation by 0.2%. The HASM-based algorithm for data fusion reduced the relative error of change trend of annual mean temperature by 70%. The HASM-based algorithm for model-data assimilation reduced the relative error of carbon stocks by 40%. We propose five theoretical challenges and three application problems of HASM that need to be addressed to improve FTEEM.