By countesy of LI Hui
LU Yongxiang
(CAS President)
A
147
Vol.22 No.3 2008
major fact revealed by
the Sichuan earthquake
is that natural disasters
(NDs) have become a formidable
challenge that human beings across
the world have to face today. The
new millennium has witnessed the
frequent occurrence of devastating
CAS President LU Yongxiang (3rd from left in front) makes a report
on CAS work in the quake resuce operation to State Councilor LIU
catastrophes, leading to massive
Yandong (2nd from right).
death tolls and property damages,
and causing tremendous anguish to society.
This catastrophic earthquake once again highlights the urgent need to make effective
preparations to fight against NDs and to reduce their effects. China is one of the countries
most vulnerable to various natural calamities: earthquakes, floods, typhoons, droughts, wind
and hail, thunderstorms, extreme heat, sandstorms, geological disasters, storm surges, harmful
algal blooms, wildfires, insect pests and plant disease. They are widespread and frequent, many
of them are costly and deadly. More than 70% of China’s cities and over half of its population
are subject to the threat of major NDs. In each of the past 15 years, the average number of
cases in which people fall victim to NDs in China is as high as 300 million, with three million
collapsed houses and eight million people moved to emergency houses, resulting in direct
economic loss up to 200 billion yuan (or $29 billion). In recent years, in particular, the 1998
Yangtze River flood, the 2003 SARS outbreak, the 2006 extreme drought in Chongqing, the
2008 South China snow disaster as well as the 12 March Sichuan earthquake, have had severe
impacts upon people’s lives and economic and social development.
The earthquake once again alerts us that, although unable to totally get rid of these
adversities, we are capable of improving the situation by upgrading systems of earlywarning, prevention, reduction and post-disaster reconstruction on the basis of deepening our
understandings of Mother Nature by S&T innovation and cooperation. In this regard, Chinese
S&T community shoulder an indispensable responsibility to render S&T backup to this
endeavor, highlighting the notion of “scientific outlook on development”.
We should provide scientific knowledge for the prevention and mitigation of natural
catastrophes. In order to render novel scientific concepts and theories for the forecast and
precaution of the disasters, exploration should be made into natural laws and the patterns
Disaster Prevention and Mitigation
Thoughts on major natural
disaster
BCAS
of interactions between man and nature. They include: studies of China’s eco-environment,
natural disasters and global climate change; behaviors of the earth system and interactions
between its spheres; relationship between human and nature, and the sustained management
of the eco-system and ecological health; the internal structure, the composition of matter,
and the geo-dynamic process and the interactions between the lithosphere and deep layers of
our planet; the spatial patterns and evolvement mechanism of the earth’s surface system; and
the characteristics of human activities and their environmental impacts. Studies should be
conducted to find out the distinctive origin, development and evolvement traces of different
types of disasters, for instance, those of abrupt or gradual occurrence, and those caused by
the environment. Priority should be given to devastating NDs with widespread effects, like
earthquakes, debris flows, tsunamis, typhoons, floods, soil erosion, droughts and malignant
epidemicss.
Studies will also be carried out on relations between various disasters, between disaster
and eco-system, and between disaster and economic/social development. These research
activities aimed at providing better forecast and precaution programs to policy makers.
Stronger technological support should be provided for preventing and mitigating
NDs through S&T innovation. The development of various new technologies, methods
and equipment is needed to deal with different types of disasters. Efforts should be made
to enhance ND monitoring and forecasting. By integrating remote-sensing, geological
information, positioning and IT technologies, we strive to develop key technologies for disaster
prevention and control and to set up compressive monitoring systems, so as to instantly detect
abnormal behaviors and changes of nature and keep track of their development. Regarding
disaster prediction and forecasting, priority should be placed on the development of new
technologies and approaches to address major climate, geological and biological calamities.
Endeavors should be made to improve our capacities in this regard by developing new
forecasting models, disaster simulation and countermeasure studies.
In addition, efforts should be stepped up to carry out application research and technology
development for disaster prevention and mitigation, to develop related equipment and products
using technologies of information, biology, space, energy and materials. As far as post-disaster
reconstruction is concerned, researchers should work out a systematic solution combining
variant scientific disciplines like natural science, technology, psychology, sociology, and
management science. Research should also be carried out to establish disaster assessment
methodologies, hazard assessment systems, as well as decision support systems for hazard
reduction, so as to effectively provide support to disaster-hit areas in infectious diseases
prevention, psychological treatment and local environment restoration.
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