Managing Flood Risk: Practices in China

Dr. PENG Jing

Vice President, IWHR

Chair, WFEO-CEIT

Contents

General Situation of Flood Disasters

System for Flood Control and Disaster Relief

Flood Risk Management

Concluding Remarks

1. General Situation of Flood Disasters

3

⚫ A country prone to flood disasters.

⚫ In 2,155 years (206 BC to 1949) 1,092 severe floods.

⚫ At present, one of the most devastating natural

disasters.

Yangtze River Flood in 1998Catastrophic flash flood and

debris flow disaster in Zhouquin 2010

Landslide-dammed lake in Jinsha River in 2018

Rainstorm-triggered waterlogging in Haikou

in 2018

Yangtze-Huaihe Rivers Floods

in 1931Hankou street flooded in 1935

■ Threatened by serious floods: 1.1 million km2

■ Threatened & affected by flash floods: 3.86 million km2

1.1 features - Wide Influence

2/3

90%

Territorial area affected

by floods/flash floods to different degrees

Population affected

by floods to different degrees

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Flooded cities

Counties (cities and districts) suffering flood disasters

受洪涝灾害县（市、区） 受淹/内涝城市

1.2 features - High Frequency of Occurrence

165 2094

2,094 (73%) counties

affected by flood

165 (25%) cities

suffering from floods/waterlogging

citiesCounties

on average per year

1.3 features – Diverse in Type

Flash floodsIn mountainous areas

Urban waterlogging/

pluvial floods

River-ice floodsin north China

Storm surges

River floodsIn plain area of lowland

1.4 features – Direct Economic Losses

239.00

779.08

412.77

641.74

1796.60 1653.30

2208.36

930.11

2550.90

930.23

711.63 623.03

838.00

1300.51

713.51

1662.20

1332.62

1123.30

955.44 845.96

3745.43

1301.27

2675.32

3155.74

1573.55

1660.75

3643.26

2142.53

1.37

3.98

1.72

2.05

4.10

2.86

3.26

1.24

3.21

1.13

0.80 0.65

0.82

1.11

0.52

0.91

0.64 0.46

0.32 0.25

0.94

0.28

0.57 0.55

0.25 0.25

0.49

0.26 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Pe

rcen

tage

of flo

od

-ind

uced

dire

ct e

co

no

mic

losse

s in

GD

P o

f th

e y

ea

r (%)

Year

洪涝灾害直接经济总损失 洪涝灾害直接经济总损失占当年GDP的比值Flood-induced direct

economic losses

Flo

od

-ind

uced d

irect e

co

no

mic

losse

s

(10

0 m

illion

yu

an

)

Percentage of flood-induced direct

economic losses in GDP of the yearDirect economic losses are still on the rise

Percentage of flood-induced direct economic losses down.

2. System for Flood Control and Disaster Relief

System of

engineering

measures

System

non-engineering

measures

Reservoirs Levees

Flood detention basins

Culvert gates

Laws & regulations

Organizations4 levels

Monitoring and early warning

Emergency supplies and

rescuers

Sci-Tech support

Good for main rivers + on-going for small-size rivers + flash flood

3.1 Flood mapping (1st stage: for key areas)

• 496,000 km2

• 55,900 maps

Since 2013, investment 1.5bn RMB

227

45

78

198

26

保护区

城市

蓄滞洪区

中小河流

洪泛区Flooded plains

Small and medium-

sized rivers

Flood detention basins

Cities

protected areas

3. Flood risk management

Yangtze River Basin Flood Scenario (case in 1954 )Flooding Process of Sankeshu Breach of Huangguang Levee

3.2 National Project on Flash Flood Disaster Prevention

Rain gauges

Alert systems

Management Systems at state, provincial and municipal level

Warning dissemination

Guiding evacuation

Monitoring +analyzing warning platform

54,000 automatic rain gauges;

20,000 automatic water stage gauges

Flash flood automatic monitoring and early warning system(set up in 2,076 counties)

In County-level

A total

investment of

30 billion yuan

since2010

(2013-2016)

29 provinces

300+ cities

2,000+ counties

Basic info. of rainstorm

characteristics for

530,000 small river

basins

Key prevention and control areas (1.2008 million km2)

Prevention and control areas (3.8561 million km2)

Capacity building: data base of flash flood evaluation in villages

3.3 Management planning supported by sci-tech

Revision of the plans

Emergency rescue

Compensation for flood detention basins

Flood damage assessment

Flood evacuation

Public awareness of flood risks

Plan design

Municipal gov’t

Catastrophe fund

Reserve fund

Co-insurance

Capital market

Reinsurance

risk

diversification

A B … Z

Gov’t

Support

Market

Operation

exceeding limits on claims

Counties

CCTV releasees to public the flash flood meteorological early-warning information

（Since 2015 ）

10 pm July 22

Zhenbeibu Town, Xixia District, Yinchuan, Ningxia

24-hour rainfall forecast: 74mm

1-hour actual rainfall: around 39mm

Blue alert threshold: 32mm

Number of missing people: 1

Flash flood weather forecast

Higher

probabilityHigh

probability

Flash flood weather forecast analysis

1 am July 23

Laochi Village, Langjiazui Reservoir and Shuifu Village of

Shuifu Town, Gaolan County, Lanzhou, Gansu

24-hour rainfall forecast: 10mm

6-hour actual rainfall: around 22mm

Blue alert threshold:29mm

Death toll: 3

8 pm July 22 – 8 pm July 23Flash flood weather forecast

22 July 2018

Illustration

Precipitation forecast

No rain

Light rain

Moderate rain

Heavy rain

Rainstorm

Torrential rain

Flash flood warning

Very high probability

High probability

Probability

Possibility Disaster site

3.4 Public Awareness-Raising

3.5 Achievements in Flood Risk Management

3589

5113

3012

3499

5340

3852

5840

2799

4150

1896 1942

16051819

1551

1282

1660

2276

1230

633 538

3222

519673

775

486319

686

316187

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

De

ath

toll (n

um

ber o

f peo

ple

)

Year

3909

1614

495

Down by 2,295 on average each year

Down by 1,119 on average each year

11.5 Significantly reduce the

number of deaths and the

number of people affected

by water-related disaster

In terms of death toll, in past 3 decades

Speedy Urbanization new media era

Rapid economic developmentGlobal climate change

4.1 Challenges

Changing environment

Rising flood

risk

4. Concluding Remarks

11.5 Significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of

people affected + substantially decrease the direct economic

losses caused by disasters, including water-related disasters, +

focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations.

13.1 Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related

hazards and natural disasters in all countries.

13.3 Improve education, awareness-raising + human and

institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation,

impact reduction and early warning.

4.2 Way to go for sustainable development

Strengthen engineering measures01 Speed up hi-tech applications02

Enhance public participationand education

03 Improve laws and regulations04

International Exchange and Cooperation

4.3 Further to do

Thank You！