Disaster Risk Management in China

Abstract

Disasters have been endemic throughout history. In Judeo history, the flood survived by Noah was about as complete a disaster to contemporary humankind as can be imagined. Egypt was plagued with droughts and floods of the Nile. In Greek/Roman culture, events such as eruptions of Mount Vesuvius caused tremendous suffering and damage. Similar disasters disrupted human activity throughout the world, to include unrecorded events at Easter Island. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies stated that over a recent 10 year period, almost two billion people have been affected by disasters. 1 People in Asia accounted for almost 89% of the population affected by natural disasters between 1975 and 2003. 2 In very recent activity, we have continued to see disasters, such as the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, 3 European flooding in August 2005, hurricane Katrina in the US in September 2005, 4 and Sichuan earthquakes in 2008. These disasters were all geological. There have been biological disasters such as the SARS scare, and the current swine flu virus scare. Nuclear systems receive a great deal of attention, to include the Netherlands, 5 the US, 6 Russia, 7 and elsewhere. Like all governments, the US government expends considerable effort in developing emergency response capability. 8 The US Department of Homeland Security also has systems, to include their Critical Infrastructure Protection Decision Support System (CIPDSS). 9 A common theme is that we are never prepared adequately, yet society copes, and no matter how successful response is, critics abound. 10 We will begin the chapter with a review of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China and the responses to that disaster. We will then review the rich and growing field of emergency management, focusing on the use of modeling and technology to support better response. These tools include database systems, data mining, other forms of quantitative modeling, culminating in emergency management support systems. There are many software products developed to support disaster planning. In a broad sense, they cover data manipulation as well as modeling specific scenarios. Many software providers are moving to virtual services, making their products available on-line. We review a few of the applications involving database systems and data mining, followed by a review and demonstration of emergency management support systems, and one of the financial instruments designed to deal with that aspect of disaster management.