Disaster risks and response strategies in process of urbanization in China

This paper overviews the Chinese urbanization process, especially in light of the national new-urbanization plan released by the Chinese government in 2014. Over the past three decades, the economic opportunities in urban centers of China have accelerated the urbanization process, mainly as a consequence of rural to urban migrations. The new urbanization plan hopes to increase the proportion of urban population in the next decade, and it is projected that 80% of the Chinese population will reside in urban areas by 2050.

However, this process is faced with certain systemic risks due to disasters. A changing climate, increasing risk due to inter-connectivity of complex urban lifelines and weaknesses in disaster management complicate the disaster risk reduction efforts in urban areas of China. It is recommended that the urbanization process should move forward with an urban management theory integrated with disaster risk, vertical and horizontal integration of responsibilities, utilizing Big Earth Data and new emerging technologies, and supporting risk reduction by employing financial tools to confront disaster risk and, finally, efforts to improve international and regional cooperation.

This paper is a contribution to the 2019 edition of the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR 2019).

To cite this paper: 

Chen, F.; Guo, H. Disaster risks and response strategies in process of urbanization in China. Contributing Paper to GAR 2019