The Study On Natural Disasters In The Yellow River Delta In The Republic Of China Period(1912-1937)

As one of three deltas in China, the Yellow River Delta is developed at the latest. During the Republic of China period, natural disasters happened frequently in the Yel low River Delta, and consisted of not one but many different types, such as flood, dro ught, plague of locusts, disease, tide, frost, hail and another sudden calamitous, beside s some trend disasters like as land salinization and desertification. There are continuit y, concurrency and synchronizing with trend disasters on the disasters in the Yellow R iver Delta.Frequent natural disasters have a close relation with the fragile natural and social environment in the Yellow River Delta area. Meanwhile, disasters damage nature and society. Natural disasters not only threaten the people’s lives and properties in the Yel low River Delta region, but also let agricultural economy develop slowly, agricultural population lose, rural social disorder, agricultural ecological environment change repe atedly. So fragile social and ecological environment are shaped in the region, and it sh ows regional feature such as "desert land and poor people" during the Republic of Chi na.Since1912, mechanism for responding to disasters in the Yellow River Delta ha d transformed from traditional famine policy to modern disaster reduction and relief, with the social development and technological advancement. Firstly, on disasters relie f, relief agencies were increasingly specialized, relief items were diversified, and relie f activities became socialization. Secondly, on the disasters prevention and mitigation, all kinds of disaster prevention and reduction were springing up on the Yellow River Delta region, such as river engineering, hydraulic engineering, siphon and field engin eering, disaster monitoring and etc. It provides historical reference for the governance of disasters about Yellow River Delta area in the contemporary era.