ACHIEVEMENTS AND COUNTERMEASURES IN RISK REDUCTION OF GEOLOGICAL DISASTERS IN CHINA

Abstract

This paper summarizes the achievements in reduction of geological disasters in China. The areas of the achievements include survey and assessments, monitoring and early warnings, engineering countermeasures, emergency responses, information systems, technical equipment, technical standards, academic research, industry developments and construction of laws. Statistic analysis is used in the paper. Basic data are from national bulletins on geological disasters of P. R. China from 1995 to 2018. They consist of deaths or missing number of people and direct economic losses in a year. The analysis shows that numbers of fatalities by geological disasters are 1205 per year during 1995-2000, 884 per year during 2001-2005, 776 per year during 2006-2010(without the 1765 deaths from the flood-debris of Aug.8, 2010 in Zhouqu city, Gansu province), 395 per year during 2011-2017, and only 112 in 2018. During 2001-2010, the 194702 geological disasters caused direct economic loss of 38.53 billion RMB yuan. Averagely, 19.47 thousand geological disasters per year and 197.9 thousand RMB yuan loss per time. During 2011-2018, the 84718 geological disasters caused direct economic loss of 35.57 billion RMB yuan. Averagely, 10.6 thousand geological disasters per year and 419.9 thousand RMB yuan loss per time. Obviously, the total amount of geological disasters decrease along time, but economic loss increases per time. The proportion of direct economic loss of GDP declined 0.016‰per year since 2001. The prediction accuracy of geological disaster raised from 5%to 20%during 2003-2018. The number of people in urban and rural communities who need emergency hedging decreases. The results show that measurements to reduce geological disasters are prove to be effective. They include geological hazard survey and assessment, monitoring and early warning, geotechnical engineering, relocation and avoidance, emergency response and mitigation management. The paper discusses the current situation and existing problems with geological risk. They include weak disaster reduction culture, immature legal system and limitations of economic loss statistics(not including engineering and construction industry). Finally, the paper proposes a five-in-one partnership for disaster reduction which involves the government, enterprises, individuals, society(including insurance) and academia.