Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Analysis of flash flood disaster characteristics in China from 2011 to 2015

Natural Hazards Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Cite this article

Abstract

Flash floods are one of the most disastrous natural hazards and cause serious loss of life and economic damage every year. Flooding frequently affects many regions in China, including periodically catastrophic events. An extensive compilation of the available data has been conducted across various hydroclimatological regions to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of flash floods in China. This inventory includes over 782 documented events and is the first step toward establishing an atlas of extreme flash flood occurrences in China. This paper first presents the data compilation strategy, details of the database contents, and the typical examples of first-hand analysis results. The subsequent analysis indicates that the most extreme flash floods originate mainly from small catchments over complex terrains and results in dominantly small- and medium-sized flooding events in terms of scales; however, these events, abrupt and seasonally recurrent in nature, account for a large proportion of the overall flooding-related disasters, especially disproportionately affecting elderly and youth populations. Finally, this study also recommends several immediate measures could be implemented to mitigate high impacts of deadly flash floods, although it still requires long-term significant efforts to protect human life and property in a country like China.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

References

  • Ashley ST, Ashley WS (2008) Flood fatalities in the United States. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 47(3):805–818

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barredo JI (2007) Major flood disasters in Europe: 1950–2005. Nat Hazards 42(1):125–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beniston M, Stoffel M, Hill M et al (2011) Impacts of climatic change on water and natural hazards in the Alps: can current water governance cope with future challenges? Examples from the European “ACQWA” project. Environ Sci Policy 14(7):734–743

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bosher L, Chmutina K (2017) Disaster risk reduction for the built environment. Wiley, Hoboken

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chi X, Yin Z, Wang X et al (2016) Spatiotemporal variations of precipitation extremes of China during the past 50 years (1960–2009). Theor Appl Climatol 124(3):555–564

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Creutin JD, Borga M, Gruntfest E et al (2013) A space and time framework for analyzing human anticipation of flash floods. J Hydrol 482(5):14–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferro G (2005) Assessment of major and minor events that occurred in Italy during the last century using a disaster severity scale score. Prehosp Disaster Med 20(5):316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fu C, Jiang Z, Guan Z et al (2008) Climate extremes and related disasters in China. Regional climate studies of China. Springer, Berlin, pp 313–344

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gao Y, Wang C, Zhang G et al (2007) Study on climate and environment on the outburst and classification of the flash flood. Heilongjiang Meteorol 34(3):37–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaume E, Livet M, Desbordes M et al (2004) Hydrological analysis of the river Aude, France, flash flood on 12 and 13 November 1999. J Hydrol 286(1–4):135–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Georgakakos KP, Hudlow MD (1984) Quantitative precipitation forecast techniques for use in hydrologic forecasting. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 65(11):1186–1200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gourley JJ, Hong Y, Flamig ZL et al (2013) A unified flash flood database across the United States. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 94(6):799–805

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gourley JJ, Flamig ZL, Vergara H et al (2016) The flooded locations and simulated hydrographs (FLASH) project: improving the tools for flash flood monitoring and prediction across the United States. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 98(2):361–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green C et al (2013) Flood risk management in Europe: the flood problem and interventions, vol 1. STAR-FLOOD Consortium

  • Guzzetti F, Stark CP, Salvati P (2005) Evaluation of flood and landslide risk to the population of Italy. Environ Manag 36(1):15–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He B, Li Q (2014) Exploration on presenting situation and developing tendency of mountain flood disaster prevention technology. China Water Resour 18:11–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Hong Y, Adhikari P, Gourley JJ (2013) Flash flood. In: Bobrowsky PT (ed) Encyclopedia of natural hazards. Encyclopedia of earth sciences series. Springer, Netherlands, pp 324–325

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jonkman SN, Kelman I (2005) An analysis of the causes and circumstances of flood disaster deaths. Disasters 29(1):75–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kleinen T, Petschel-Held G (2007) Integrated assessment of changes in flooding probabilities due to climate change. Clim Change 81(3):283–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miao L, Zhu F, Sun Z et al (2016) China’s land-use changes during the past 300 years: a historical perspective. Int J Environ Res Public Health 13(9):847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ren H, Zou X, Zhang P (2007) An elementary study on causing-factors of Chinese mountain torrents disaster. China Water Resour 14:18–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Špitalar M, Gourley JJ, Lutoff C et al (2014) Analysis of flash flood parameters and human impacts in the US from 2006 to 2012. J Hydrol 519:863–870

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • State Flood Control and Drought Relief Office, the Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China (2011–2015) Bulletin of flood and drought disasters in China. China Water Power Press, Beijing (in Chinese)

  • Sun D, Zhang D, Cheng X (2012) Framework of national non-structural measures for flash flood disaster prevention in China. Water 4(1):272–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China (NDRC) (2011) The small and medium-sized rivers and dam reinforcement, flash flood geological disaster prevention and comprehensive management overall planning, 4 (in Chinese)

  • Yang H, Yang D, Hu Q et al (2015) Spatial variability of the trends in climatic variables across China during 1961–2010. Theor Appl Climatol 120(3):773–783

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhai P, Sun A, Ren F et al (1999) Changes of climate extremes in China. Weather and climate extremes. Springer, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the China National Flash Flood Disaster Prevention and Control Project (126301001000150068), China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research Innovation Team Project (JZ0145B2017) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2015B28514). The authors are grateful to Manabendra Saharia for the help in translating this article. Additional thanks are given to some anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center on Flood and Drought Disaster Reduction of the MWR, Beijing, 100038, China

    Bingshun He, Qingrui Chang, Yong Tu & Qing Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, 100038, China

    Bingshun He, Qingrui Chang, Yong Tu & Qing Li

  3. Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing, 100053, China

    Xianlong Huang

  4. Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Meihong Ma

  5. State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Meihong Ma & Yang Hong

  6. College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, Jiangsu Province, China

    Ke Zhang

Authors
  1. Bingshun He
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xianlong Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Meihong Ma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Qingrui Chang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Yong Tu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Qing Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Ke Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Yang Hong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Meihong Ma or Qingrui Chang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

He, B., Huang, X., Ma, M. et al. Analysis of flash flood disaster characteristics in China from 2011 to 2015. Nat Hazards 90, 407–420 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-3052-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-3052-7

Keywords

search

Navigation