Changes of Population, Built-up Land, and Cropland Exposure to Natural Hazards in China from 1995 to 2015

Yimin Chen; Wei Xie; Xiaocong Xu

doi:10.1007/s13753-019-00242-0

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Article Navigation > International Journal of Disaster Risk Science > 2019 > 10(4): 557-572

Yimin Chen, Wei Xie, Xiaocong Xu. Changes of Population, Built-up Land, and Cropland Exposure to Natural Hazards in China from 1995 to 2015[J]. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2019, 10(4): 557-572. doi: 10.1007/s13753-019-00242-0

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Yimin Chen, Wei Xie, Xiaocong Xu. Changes of Population, Built-up Land, and Cropland Exposure to Natural Hazards in China from 1995 to 2015[J]. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 2019, 10(4): 557-572. doi: 10.1007/s13753-019-00242-0

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Changes of Population, Built-up Land, and Cropland Exposure to Natural Hazards in China from 1995 to 2015

doi: 10.1007/s13753-019-00242-0

Yimin Chen^1,2,
Wei Xie^1,2,
Xiaocong Xu^{1,2
,
,}

1 School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China;
2 Guangdong Key Laboratory for Urbanization and Geosimulation, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China

Funds:

We sincerely thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions. This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0604401), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41871306 and 41601420), the Key National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41531176), and the research fund from Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Spatial Smart Sensing and Service.

Available Online: 2021-04-26

Abstract

Abstract

By using the latest China population grid and land-use data, we assess the changing exposure of China's population and land uses to the hazards of storm surges, droughts, earthquakes, floods, and landslides from 1995 to 2015. We found that the single-hazard areas and the multihazard areas covered 43% and 26% of China's territory, respectively. Population grew faster in the hazard-prone areas than in the non-hazard areas. Built-up area expanded more rapidly in the areas prone to earthquakes and landslides. Cropland changed rapidly in many hazard-prone areas. The hazard-prone areas affected by floods featured the highest cropland loss rates, while the areas prone to earthquakes and landslides featured the highest cropland growth rates. We detected areas with significant exposure changes by using hot spot analysis. It was found that population and built-up land in the Pearl River Basin were increasingly exposed to storm surges, floods, and landslides. The Haihe River Basin and Huaihe River Basin also showed a consistent increase of population and built-up land exposure to droughts and earthquakes. These findings can provide a foundation for the design and implementation of protection and adaptation strategies to improve the resilience of Chinese society to natural hazards.
- China,
- Exposure to natural hazards,
- Population change,
- Built-up land,
- Cropland

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