Hazards In China Research Articles

Analysis of social vulnerability to hazards in China

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.

Composite risk assessment of typhoon-induced disaster for China’s coastal area

Typhoons, as one of the most devastating natural hazards in China’s coastal area, have caused considerable personal injury and property damage throughout history. An indicator system which included two aspects of hazard and vulnerability with 14 indicators was built up for composite risk assessment of typhoon-induced disaster. The analytic hierarchy process was used to calculate the weight of each indicator, and the composite risk assessment model was then built up. The results indicated that there were no very high- or very low-risk areas in China’s coastal area. Out of the 18,000-km-long China land coastline, 30.99 % was at low risk, mostly along the coastal hill–mountain zone, Hainan and Guangxi coast; the major part (62.71 %) of the coastal area was classified as at moderate risk. Although only 6.30 % of the total was at high risk, the affected area was mainly distributed in Tianjin, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, the three main deltas with low topography, a highly developed economy, and a very dense population.

Risk analysis for drought hazard in China: a case study in Huaibei Plain

In recent decades, risk management is significant to mitigate the severe status caused by droughts. As one of the primary components in risk analysis, drought hazard analysis is basic but important. In this paper, the framework of drought risk analysis and the methodology for drought hazard analysis are presented, and Huaibei Plain of China is chosen as the study area. The whole study region is divided into three parts (northern, central, and southern) by geographical factors, and a developed index named drought comprehensive Z index (DCZI) containing hydrological and meteorological factors is employed for drought hazard analysis in each area. By comparison, it implicates that DCZI is applicable for Huaibei Plain and indicates drought extent more objectively. Moreover, the results of drought hazard analysis reflect that the northern area is affected by droughts more seriously. As for the whole region, there is a great probability of severe drought. Finally, some policy recommendations on drought management are also made.

Urbanization process and induced environmental geological hazards in China

Urbanization is a common development trend of countries all over the world, which is a mark of civilization and progress of human beings. The number of urbanization-induced environmental geological hazards has grown steadily in recent years and is receiving increased attention throughout the world. The purpose of this paper is to generalize China’s urbanization process and induced environmental geological hazards. Driving forces and characteristics of urbanization are briefly introduced in this study; specifically, the distribution of urban agglomerations is principally related to water resources, transportation and energy. Common geological hazards and particular ones in mountain city, mining city and coastal city are also summarized. The type and severity of hazards are different due to the differences of natural conditions and various urban functions. Main environmental geological hazards in cities are land subsidence, landslide and seawater intrusion, etc. Accordingly, reasons for these urbanization-induced geological hazards in different type of cities are analyzed and discussed. The research results may provide a clear perspective for urban geological hazard prevention, and suggestions for urban geological hazard control are pointed out.

The Spatial Symmetry Axis of Earthquake Hazard in China

Natural disaster risk assessment is one of the hot fields of the study of natural disaster. It is of theoretical and practical significance to accurately identify the trend of natural disasters. Not all the natural disaster has the quality of spatial symmetry, only some disasters during some certain periods (active period) and some certain regions share this quality, which requires substantial research work to distinguish. This paper takes the spatial symmetry axis of earthquake hazard in china as the key of assessing natural disaster risk to emphatically analyze the rationality of the existence of the spatial symmetry axis of the regions of western china, Yunnan province and Taiwan and find out the dynamics basis of spatial symmetry axis combing with those presentational features, so as to provide some theoretical thinking and methods for reference to identify the time, spatial trends of the earthquake disaster occurrence. The results show that the earthquakes have the quality of spatial symmetry in certain regions and the symmetry has the basis of dynamics, which can work as the basis of the regional earthquake trend. And further improvements are needed to judge the earthquake trend to combine the spatial imagery, dynamics basis and physical mechanism..

Study on Discriminant Criterion of Highway Landslide Disaster

Highway landslide disaster is the main type of geological hazard in China, which causes great economic loss and casualty. According to the engineering experience, discrimination and criterion of highway landslide disaster is put forward in this paper on the basis of laws and types of highway landslide disaster, which includes nine big macroscopic discriminant criterion and five big microscopic discriminant criterion. On the basis of development process and stage, the development of landslide disaster is divided into three stages according to the practical needs: early embryonic stage, medium potential stage, late induced phase. To regional discriminant criterion of highway landslide disaster as the foundation, this paper presents the discriminant criterion of development for highway landslide disaster. It is hoped that the findings herein will provide science direction for temporal discriminant of highway landslide disaster.

Methodology for the assessment and classification of regional vulnerability to natural hazards in China: the application of a DEA model

This paper presents a new method for quantifying vulnerability to natural hazards in China. As an important area of vulnerability research, quantitative assessment of vulnerability has raised much focus in academia. Presently, scholars have proposed a variety of methods for quantitative assessment, which usually create an index of overall vulnerability from a suite of indicators, based on the understanding of the cause or mechanism of vulnerability. However, due to the complex nature of vulnerability, this approach caused some arguments on the indicator selection and the weight set for subindices. A data envelopment analysis–based model for the assessment of the regional vulnerability to natural disasters is presented here to improve upon the traditional methods, and a new approach for the classification of vulnerability is proposed. The vulnerability to natural hazards in China’s mainland is illustrated as a case study. The result shows that the overall level of vulnerability to natural hazards in mainland China is high. The geographic pattern shows that vulnerability is highest in western China, followed by diminishing vulnerability in central China, and lowest vulnerability levels in eastern China. There is a negative correlation between the level of vulnerability and the level of regional economic development.

The Achilles’ Heels of Growth: Factor Price Distortions and Wealth Transfer in China

As critical piece of China’s gradualist economic transition, domestic price reform still faces major challenges. In particular, factor price, which is still tightly-controlled and not market-based, is lower than market equilibrium price. Factor price distortion not only reduces market efficiency but also affects wealth distribution. Subsequent wealth transfer has, over the past ten to fifteen years, created a powerful vested interests and spawned social resentment, both of which may constitute major hazards in China’s future reform and development. Keeping in mind that China will have to address factor price distortion in its next step of reform, this paper takes stock of China’s journey toward price reform; examines the relationship among factor price distortion, previous economic growth, and policy; and estimates the size of resulting wealth transfer.

The impacting factors of vulnerability to natural hazards in China: an analysis based on structural equation model

The vulnerability to natural hazard is one of the inner characteristics of social economic system, which is determined and impacted by various factors from almost all the aspects of the system. Although it is widely agreed that the economic development, the migration, and the equity of resource allocation are among the most important impacting factors in forming and developing of the vulnerability, their interrelationship is still unclear enough. The study in this paper employs the method of structural equation model to discover the interrelationship between different latent impacting factors, as well as their contributions to the vulnerability of the system to natural hazards. It is found that, among the factors relating social and economic development, the equity of income allocation is a key point. Also the impacts from industrialization are different for different development levels. The conclusions are expected to be helpful references for the decision consideration of the local development strategies.

Digital 3-D Headforms Representative of Chinese Workers

Headforms are useful for designing and testing various types of personal protective equipment used to protect millions of workers from occupational hazards in China. Although the Chinese national standard of head-and-face dimensions for adults was first published in 1981, headforms based on those dimensions were never developed. In 2006, an anthropometric survey of 3000 Chinese civilian workers was conducted. As part of the survey, 350 subjects were scanned with a Cyberware 3D Rapid Digitizer. The manual measurements and 3-D digital scans from this survey were used to develop 3-D digital headforms that represent Chinese workers. The objective of this study was to develop headforms that represent today's Chinese workers. Ten facial dimensions relevant to respirator fit were chosen for defining a principal component analysis model which divides the user population into five face size categories. Mean facial dimensions from manual measurements were then computed to target the ideal facial dimensions for each size category. Five scans were chosen from each face size category to be used in the construction process. Selected scans were then averaged to construct a representative headform for each face size category. Five digital 3-D headforms were developed: small, medium, large, long/narrow, and short/wide. These distinct sizes of digital 3-D headforms take into account the linear distance between landmarks as well as the surface contours captured during the 3-D scan. The dimensions of constructed headforms were within approximately 4 mm between the corresponding computed means and manual measurements of anthropometric landmarks for the sample population in each size category. These new headforms represent the facial size and shape distribution of current Chinese workers and may be useful for respirator research and development. The Chinese medium headform has a wider face width, shorter face length, and smaller nose protrusion when compared with the current U.S. standard headforms. Upon validation, it may be useful to incorporate these dimensions into Chinese and international respiratory protective devices standards.

Assessment of regional vulnerability to natural hazards in China using a DEA model

This paper presents a new method for quantifying regional vulnerability to natural hazards in China. In recent decades, the study of vulnerability has gained a position of centrality in natural hazards research. How to quantitatively assess vulnerability has raised much interest in academia. Researchers have proposed a variety of methods for quantitative assessment. But these methods are very sensitive to weights set for subindices. As a result, analytic results are often less convincing. A model based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used for the assessment of regional vulnerability to natural hazards in an attempt to improve existing analytical methods. Using a regional natural disaster system framework, this article constructs an input-output DEA model for the assessment of regional vulnerability, and takes China’s mainland as a case study area. The result shows that the overall level of vulnerability to natural hazards in mainland China is high. The geographical pattern is that vulnerability is highest in western China, followed by diminishing vulnerability in central China, and lowest vulnerability levels in eastern China. There is a negative correlation between the level of regional vulnerability and level of regional economic development. Generally speaking, the more economically developed a region, the lower its regional vulnerability.

Drought hazard assessment and spatial characteristics analysis in China

Based on the monthly precipitation data for the period 1960–2008 from 616 rainfall stations and the phenology data of main grain crops, the spatial characteristics of drought hazard in China were investigated at a 10 km×10 km grid-cell scale using a GIS-based drought hazard assessment model, which was constructed by using 3-month Standard Precipitation Index (SPI). Drought-prone areas and heavy drought centers were also identified in this study. The spatial distribution of drought hazard in China shows apparent east-west difference, with the eastern part of China being far more hazardous than the western part. High hazard areas are common in the eastern and central parts of Inner Mongolian Plateau, the central part of Northeast China Plain, the northern part of Heilongjiang, the southeastern part of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the central and southern parts of Loess Plateau, the southern part of North China Plain, the northern and southern parts of Yangtze River Plain, and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Furthermore, obvious differences in drought hazard were found both within and between different agricultural zonings.

Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease's prevalence and impact on alanine aminotransferase associated with metabolic syndrome in the Chinese

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming a major public health hazard in China. The present study aimed to estimate the prevalence of NAFLD, NAFLD with abnormal serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels, and determine the potential associations of ALT levels with the components of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in the absence or presence of NAFLD in Chinese adults. A population-based cross-sectional survey was conducted with 2226 participants. Physical examinations, laboratory tests and hepatic ultrasounds were performed. Individuals were further stratified into higher or lower ALT subgroups with the upper quartiles of ALT in this population. The MetS was identified according to the criteria of the Chinese Joint Committee for Developing Chinese Guidelines (JCDCG). The standardized prevalence of NAFLD was 23.3% (NAFLD with abnormal ALT levels, 3.1%), 26.5% (NAFLD with abnormal ALT levels, 5.1%) in males, and 19.7% (NAFLD with abnormal ALT levels, 0.9%) in females. Multivariate logistic analysis revealed that higher ALT was significantly associated with elevated triglyceride (TG) in the non-NAFLD participants, independent of age, smoking status, drinking status, and other MetS-related measures with odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of 3.4 (1.6-7.1) and 2.3 (1.4-3.7) in males and females, respectively. On the other hand, the higher ALT was statistically associated with elevated TG and hyperglycemia in the NAFLD cases with odds ratios of 2.2 to 2.5 (P<0.05). The prevalence of NAFLD has become epidemic in Shanghai adults. NAFLD combined with ALT levels may be used to identify the individuals at the different risk levels of metabolic disorders.

Food self-sufficiency and natural hazards in China

China’s role in the global grain market is expected to expand with increasing demand for food and feed, both within and outside the country. Unforeseen crop failures caused by natural hazards might also be instrumental. This paper uses agricultural production (rice, wheat, maize, tubers, soybeans, and other grains) and natural disaster data (floods and droughts) for 31 provinces in China for the period 1995–2008 to examine the self-sufficiency of China’s domestic harvests. It aims to answer three questions: (1) Is the size of China’s current grain stock adequate as a buffer against seasonal crop failures of the same magnitude as in the past? (2) On a single province basis, does a diversity of grain crops reduce the risk of production shocks due to natural hazards? (3) Which regions are less likely to be affected by natural hazards and should therefore be set aside as agricultural land in order to meet future food self-sufficiency targets? The results show that if the worst crop failures of all provinces between 1995 and 2008 were to happen in the same year, a “theoretical worst-case scenario”, China’s cereal harvest might drop by 140 million tonnes. Therefore, their current grain stock of 120–200 million tonnes is sufficient to buffer China’s cereal supplies against 1 year of production problems. Provinces with a high degree of grain crop diversity over the 13-year period were less affected by floods and more affected by droughts. Food self-sufficiency was the highest in moderately diverse provinces. Key agricultural regions relatively less affected by natural hazards included parts of the North China Plain. In addition, China began to increasingly depend on three provinces in the drought-prone north-east region for attaining grain self-sufficiency. Policies need to enable farms of all sizes to adapt to change and to contribute to food self-sufficiency.

AN EMERGING CIVIL SOCIETY: THE IMPACT OF THE 2008 SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE ON GRASS-ROOTS ASSOCIATIONS IN CHINA

The western China, especially near the Wenchuan region witnessed a terrible earthquake in the year 2008, which led to some severe damage in the country. Several interviews and studies are conducted to explain the impact of this Sichuan earthquake on the development of the various grass-root associations present in the country.

Review of occupational hazard census and large-scale surveys in sixty years in China

To compare and analyze the all previous censuses and large-scale surveys on occupational hazard in China, draw lessons from the past, and try to provide references for the development of census or surveys on the occupational hazard in the new period. A literature retrieval had been performed mainly on the occupational hazard census and large-scale surveys since the founding of People's Republic of China. Only the survey items carried on a national scale were selected. Some keywords were drawn from these items such as survey time, survey scope, industries, occupational diseases and the rate of examination, organization and technical director, methods and so on. The outcomes and experiences were summarized. Since the founding of People's Republic of China, there were seven occupational hazard census and large-scale surveys carried in China, three of them were about silicosis or pneumoconiosis, two of them were about poison and carcinogens, one was about noise, another one was about the township industrial enterprises. Leadership attention was the fundamental guarantee of the success of the survey, sound occupational health management organizations were the base, collaborative relationship with each other was an import factor, and only the interdisciplinary team, scientific design, quality control and incentive mechanism could assure the quality of the survey. The survey should be designed and carried out according to industries.

Analysis of Determining Factors of the Public's Risk Acceptance Level in China

ABSTRACT This work will characterize risk acceptance in China, based on the psychometric paradigm, and explore the determining factors that influence the risk acceptable level to the Chinese public. For this purpose, a survey was conducted including 12 hazards, 10 risk attributes (including risk acceptance), and demographic variables. First, the research attempted to explore Nanjing citizens’ average risk acceptable level for 12 hazards in China. Second, intercorrelation analysis and factor analysis of nine risk attributes were performed to obtain the suitable risk perception factors as independent variables. Three risk perception models of acceptance were constructed, which were named “Environmental risk model,” “Daily risk model,” and “Technical risk model,” that explained 59.0–69.6% of variance separately. In general, the variables of Knowledge, Benefit, and Trust were found to be significant in all models, implying that these variables are the main determining factors. However, in the environmental risk model, the variable of effect was also significant, which means the determining factors would change for different types of hazards. These results could help the Chinese government to improve the communication of risks with the public and make effective mitigation policies to improve people's rational judgment on the acceptability of risks.

Policy issues on the control of environmental accident hazards in China and their implementation

Since the Open Door Policy was initiated in 1978, China's economy has undergone an incredible high-speed increase. However, along with the rapid economic development, some environmental problems, especially the environmental accidents, have posed a great threat to the public health and environmental security. This paper presented a brief summary of current regulations on prevention and control of environmental accident hazards in China. The regulation comprises legal requirements centering on hazardous chemicals, industrial safety evaluation, risk ananlysis and preparation of emergency plans. Further, the paper discussed the issues connected with implementation of the regulations in China. Based on the analysis and discussion, some key points that should be developed in China's future environmental accident hazards control were put forward, hoping to shed light on the decision making and risk management.

Exposure assessment of rainstorm waterlogging on old-style residences in Shanghai based on scenario simulation

Waterlogging is one of the most serious hazards in China. Old-style residences in cities are prone to be damaged by waterlogging hazards. This paper describes our exposure assessment of old-style residences in Shanghai during rainstorm waterlogging. Two rainstorm scenarios of 20-year and 50-year return periods were simulated with the rainstorm simulation model from Shanghai Flood Risk Information Center. Each old-style residence was ranked according to its degree of exposure indicated by the inundation depth of that residence. An exposure assessment model was then built to integrate three ranks of exposure in order to reflect the total exposure features of a district and to compare disaster situation among different districts. Our research results reveal that Hongkou District and Huangpu District are the regions most necessary for the government to carry out safety defense in old-style residences, while rainstorms bring little effect on old-style residences in the districts of Putuo, Luwan, Changning, Zhabei, and Jing’an. These results provide important information for Shanghai Municipal Government to improve waterlogging management, and the method of exposure assessment can also be applied in other cities to provide guidance regarding flood risk control.

Health Impact of Outdoor Air Pollution in China: Current Knowledge and Future Research Needs

Outdoor air pollution is one of China’s most serious environmental problems. Coal is still the major source of energy, constituting about 75% of all energy sources. Consequently, air pollution in China predominantly consists of coal smoke, with suspended particulate matter (PM) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) as the principal air pollutants. In large cities, however, with the rapid increase in the number of motor vehicles, air pollution has gradually changed from the conventional coal combustion type to the mixed coal combustion/motor vehicle emission type. Currently, inhalable particles (PM <10 μm in aerodynamic diameter; PM10), SO2, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are the criteria pollutants of concern in China. Generally, PM levels in cities in the north are higher than those in the south, whereas SO2 and NO2 levels do not differ much. In 2004, the annual average PM10 concentrations for major Chinese cities were 102 μg/m3 in southern cities, 140 μg/m3 in northern cities, and 121 μg/m3 in cities nationwide. The annual average concentrations of SO2 and NO2 nationwide were 66 μg/m3 and 38 μg/m3, respectively (China State Environmental Protection Agency 2005). Although its ambient air quality has improved substantially, China is still facing the worst air pollution problem in the world. Outdoor air pollution has become a major concern for public health. The World Bank (2007) estimated that the total health cost associated with outdoor air pollution in urban areas of China in 2003 was between 157 and 520 billion Chinese yuan, accounting for 1.2–3.3% of China’s gross domestic product. Health end points studied in China in association with air pollution include all-cause mortality, mortality and morbidity due to cardiopulmonary disease, and numbers of outpatient and emergency department visits (Chen et al. 2004). Changes in respiratory and other clinical symptoms, lung function, and immune function are also studied. Dozens of time-series studies have been conducted in large Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenyang, Wuhan, and Taiyuan, to assess the association of short-term exposure to air pollution with mortality or morbidity (Chen et al. 2004). Mortality or morbidity risk estimates per unit increase in air pollution level among Chinese populations are generally similar in magnitude to risks estimated in other parts of the world. A recent multicity time-series analysis in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Wuhan provided further evidence of short-term risks (Wong et al. 2008), with significant health effects detected at air pollution levels below minimum air quality standards in China. Currently, a new national-level air pollution time-series study, the China Air Pollution and Health Effects Study (CAPES), is under way. In addition, several ongoing panel studies are examining associations between air pollution and subclinical health outcomes before, during, and after the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. These panel studies should provide a unique opportunity to assess the public health benefits of air pollution reduction in a city where air pollution levels have been high. Relatively few studies have examined long-term effects of air pollution in China. Several prospective cohort studies in North America and Europe have estimated effects of long-term exposure to air pollution on mortality (Pope and Dockery 2006), but it is not clear whether the findings from developed countries apply to China, given differences in the levels and characteristics of air pollution, and in sociodemographic characteristics. So far, there has been no cohort study of air pollution in China, but results of cross-sectional analyses in Beijing, Shenyang, and Benxi have suggested that long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with increased mortality (Chen et al. 2004). However, results of these analyses are difficult to interpret because of the lack of information on potential confounders. In short, there is sufficient evidence that exposure to outdoor air pollution is a health hazard in China. The importance of these increased health risks is greater than in developed countries because air pollution in China is at much higher levels and because the Chinese population accounts for more than one-fourth of the world’s total population. Most of the Chinese studies discussed above were ecologic in nature, thus limiting their power for causal inference. Future research will need to clarify the lifetime course of air pollution effects with full control of potential confounders (e.g., prospective cohort studies), examine the relevance of cumulative exposures, disentangle effects of multiple pollutants, investigate gene–environment inter actions and other factors that may modify air pollution health effects, and identify pathophysiologic links between air pollution and health hazards for the Chinese population. Finally, pollution needs to be reduced and air quality and health indicators need to be monitored; this will enable the people and relevant authorities to be aware of the trends and consequences of air pollution, so they can determine how to ameliorate the situation.