Study On Flood Disaster Risk Management System In China

Flood is a natural disaster leading to the most serious economic losses in the20thcentury, and many countries in the world, including China, are facing severe floodrisk. In recent years, the focus of water management philosophy has transferred fromcrisis management after flood to systematic flood risk management in the wholeprocess of governments and international organizations. As an important part of floodrisk management, the flood risk management system has been paid more and moreattentions. Internationally, many countries and regions, such as the United States andthe European Union, are moving forward the flood risk management system steadily.Domestically,"pushing forward the establishment of flood risk management system"has first been written to the National Water Resources Development in "11thFive-Year Plan", and in the "12th Five-Year" period, this work will be deepened. Theestablishment and improvement of flood risk management system is not only aforefront problem to be researched urgently in flood risk management theory, but alsoa practical one to be solved stringently in flood pretention and mitigation practice.Therefore, this paper will discuss the topic systematically and deeply to provide kinda useful suggestion for China‘s flood pretention and mitigation work.Around the theme of flood risk management system, this paper has doneresearches in the following four aspects: Firstly, it makes clear the reach base of floodrisk management system. Secondly, it reviews the historical changes of the flood riskmanagement system in China systematically. Thirdly, it estimates the performance offlood risk management system in China and conducts in-depth analysis of the causes.Fourthly, it puts forward the policy recommendations to improve flood riskmanagement system in China on the basis of reference to international experiences.This paper discusses the research base of flood risk management system mainlyfrom two aspects. Firstly, this paper defines the related concepts of the study object. Aftersystematic explanation of concept of flood risk, risk management and system, thepaper considers that the so-called flood risk management system is series of conductrules been used to manage right now, future and residual flood risk. It needs toestablish some a special flood management organization, to constitute specific lawand regulation of flood management, to take engineering measures withnon-engineering measures to deal with risk on the basis of risk analysis and riskassessment. Overall, a formal flood risk management system should include theorganizational structure, operating mechanism and legal system.Secondly, this paper explains the theoretical bases in economics. Due toTime-Delay, Path-Dependence and Knock-on effect in the institutional evolution, weshould make long-term and systematic analysis of the evolution of flood riskmanagement system to find out the unique development path, and make in-depthanalysis of the existing flood risk management system. Then, we ought to establish anew flood risk management with lower system improvement costs, which isacceptable to all parties, so as to reduce the cost of implementation of the new systemarrangements.This paper reviews and summarizes the historical evolution and the reality of theflood risk management system in China mainly from two perspectives.From a historical perspective, the concept of flood risk management experiencesthree stages‘change, that is―human subjecting to nature‖,―human reconstructingnature‖and―human being harmonious with nature‖. Under the domination of theseconcepts, ancient flood risk management policy transferred from engineeringmeasures to non-engineering measures.From a practical perspective, after experiencing the flood risk management phaseof―project governance‖,―strengthen management‖and―system construction‖, Chinahas formed a well-established flood risk management rules (or practices), including:flood disaster risk management administration system with the unified leadership of the central government, up and down hierarchical management, and sectorresponsibility system; flood risk management mechanisms with flood control system,prevention and early warning mechanisms and emergency response mechanisms andcompensation mechanism; flood risk management legal system with―flood ControlLaw of the People’s Republic of China‖and―flood Control and Regulations of thePeople’s Republic of China‖as well as all the modern flood risk managementtechniques.This paper uses three methods to evaluate the performance of flood riskmanagement system, including index analysis, empirical analysis and case analysis.Firstly, the paper designs an index used to assess the performance of the floodrisk management system. The Flood Risk Management Index, FRMI, proposed in thispaper, brings together a group of indicators that measure flood risk managementperformance and effectiveness. The FRMI is constructed by quantifying four publicpolicies, each of which had six indicators. Flood risk identification index is a measureof individual perceptions, of how those perceptions are understood by society as awhole, and the objective assessment of flood risk. Flood risk reduction index involvesflood disaster prevention and mitigation measures. Flood disaster management indexinvolves measures of flood disaster response and recovery. Flood governance andfinancial protection index measures the degree of flood risk managementinstitutionalization and flood risk transfer.Secondly, the paper uses the Harrod-Domar model of economic growth toconduct an empirical analysis on the performance of flood risk management system.Taking into account the composition of elements and their related indicators of theflood disaster risk management are too complicated, and the entire evaluation processis essentially a large survey project, therefore, the paper uses the Harrod-Domarmodel of economic growth as a basic framework to analyze the performance of theflood disaster management system, by comparing the economic growth situationbetween the floods occurred and did not occur. The study found out that from1990to 2010, the potential economic growth rate in no-flood year is lower than the actualeconomic growth rate, except1998. In other words, the occurrence of floods willresult in real economic growth in China higher than the potential economic growthrate in the period without disaster. Therefore, we can infer that at least in part thanksto the good performance of flood disaster management system, even suffering floodyear after year, our country still achieve economic growth in the short term.Thirdly, the paper makes a comparative analysis of the performance of flood riskmanagement system in1998and2010. Although the flood in1998and2010are thelargest one the1990s and2010s respectively, the result estimated by Harrod-Domarmodel is quite different, the former flood risk management performance is negative,but the latter is positive. A further research found that the difference between floodcontrol mechanisms and compensation mechanism is the direct cause.This paper provides useful policy recommendation for improve the flood riskmanagement system by considering both the excellent international experience andthe actual situation in China.By examining the flood disaster management system in typical countries andregions, such as the United States, Japan and the EU, exploring the specific practices,the legal system, and a variety of flood management mechanism building in terms offlood risk management system in these countries or regions, the paper concluded thata successful flood risk management system should include a unified disastermanagement administrative system, a comprehensive disaster management legalsystem, full use of non-engineering measures to manage flood risk and matureemergency response to sudden floods.Finally, the paper gives policy recommendations to improve flood riskmanagement system in China. In the following period, China should adhere to thecomprehensive disaster reduction principle, the government and the marketcombining principle and "carrot and stick" principle, and optimize the flood disasterrisk management institutions, mechanisms and legal to further improve the existing flood risk management system and its performance, including the establishment floodadministrative management system, flood engineering defense mechanism, floodcontrol and emergency management mechanism, and flood risk transfer mechanisms.On this basis, we should establish the flood catastrophe risk insurance system in termsof China’s financial and insurance market development level, and strengthen the roleof insurance in flood risk transfer, including developing a long-term flood insurancepolicy, encouraging flood reinsurance, and fully using new technology in capitalmarket to achieve multi-level risk transfer, is the future which flood risk managementendeavors, so as to weaken the temporary impact of major floods on the nationalfinances.There are four main innovation points in this dissertation. Firstly, it souts out theconcept of flood risk, flood risk management and flood risk management instutionsystematically for the time, straightens out the relationship between floodmanagement and flood risk management and defines flood risk management systemdefinitely. Secondly, it reviews the history and present situation of flood riskmanagement system in China comprehensively and systematically, and summarizesthe three stages and the four aspects of flood risk management system in a high-level.Thirdly, it brings―Risk Management Index‖which is an international frontierapproach used to measure the performance of natural disaster risk management in thefield of flood risk management, and builds The Flood Risk Management Index (FRMI)initiately. Fourthly, it introduces the―Harrod–Domar model‖by comparing theeconomic growth situation between the floods occurred and did not occur, andquantitates the flood risk management system‘s performance successfully.In the future, this dissertation should be improved in the aspect of The FloodRisk Management Index (FRMI) and get more detailed performance of all part offlood risk management proceed.