Abstract:

Based on the latest provincial flood disaster loss data and observational precipitation data of meteorological stations in China, the spatial-temporal characteristics of flood disaster losses and the related hazards from 2001 to 2020 were studied. During 2001-2020, floods have caused an annual average of more than 100 million affected population, with direct economic losses of CNY 167.86 billion yuan. Despite the increasing trend of direct economic losses, the affected population and crop area, fatalities, damaged houses and proportion of direct economic losses to gross domestic product all show decreasing trend in the recent 20 years. The areas are more seriously affected by floods in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River basin, Heilongjiang, Hebei, Gansu, and Guangxi provinces. The fatalities and damaged houses are decreasing while the direct economic losses are increasing in most of China. However, the affected population and crop area show different trend distribution, increasing in northern China while decreasing in southern China. In the past decade, flood losses except fatalities have increased compared to the previous decade in most parts of northern China, especially in Hebei and Heilongjiang provinces. At the same time, total precipitation increases in most parts of northern China, and the amount of heavy rainfall and rainstorm days increase greatly in Heilongjiang and Hebei provinces, which further increases the risk of floods in the relatively vulnerable northern China.

Key words: Flood disaster, Disaster loss, Precipitation, Climate change