Assessment of provincial social vulnerability to natural disasters in China

作者：Zhou, Yang; Li, Ning^*; Wu, Wenxiang; Wu, Jidong

来源：Natural Hazards, 2014, 71(3): 2165-2186.

DOI：10.1007/s11069-013-1003-5

• Natural hazards
• Socioeconomic vulnerability
• Built environmental vulnerability
• Social vulnerability
• Factor analysis (FA)
• China

Assessment of social vulnerability has been recognized as a critical step to understand natural hazard risks and to enhance effective response capabilities. Although significant achievements have been made in social vulnerability researches, little is know about the comprehensive profile of regional social vulnerability in China. In this study, the social vulnerability to natural hazards was firstly divided into socioeconomic and built environmental vulnerability. Then, using factor analysis, we identified the dominant factors that influence the provincial social vulnerability in China to natural hazards based on the socioeconomic and built environmental variables in 2000 and 2010 and explored the spatial patterns of social vulnerability. The results indicated that the provincial social vulnerability in China showed significant regional differences. The social vulnerability in the southeastern and eastern regions of China was greater than its northern and central parts over the past decade. Economic status, rural (proportion of agricultural population and percentage of workers employed in primary industries), urbanization, and age structure (children) were the dominant driving forces of variations in provincial socioeconomic vulnerability in two studied years, while lifelines and housing age could explain most of changes in built environmental vulnerability in 2000 and 2010. There were no statistically significant correlations between social vulnerability and disaster losses (p > 0.05), indicating the impact of disasters was also related to the intensity of hazards and exposure. Disaster relief funds allocated to each province of China depended more on its disaster severity than the regional integrated social vulnerability over the past decade. These findings would provide a scientific base for the policy making and implementation of disaster prevention and mitigation in China.

• 出版日期2014-4
• 单位北京师范大学; 中国科学院; 地表过程与资源生态国家重点实验室; 中国科学院地理科学与资源研究所