Reducing and Transfering Risk in China's Dongting Lake Region

As of January 2006 the RMS program has changed to the Risk and Vulnerability program.

River flooding represents a major hazard in China. In 1998, flooding on the Yangste and other rivers killed an estimated 3,000 people, damaged or destroyed 18 million homes, displaced 240 million people and flooded 4.8 to 9 million hectares of crops. China’s huge Dongting Lake, which is fed by five rivers including the Yangste, is one of the most serious flood areas in China.

The Chinese government has recently taken important non-structural measures to reduce losses, including the relocation of people and crops out of the highly exposed reclaimed land, dredging the lake, and reforesting large areas of cropland upstream. Still, severe flooding can be expected, and the government would like to increase the coping capacity of the region. One possibility is to improve the institutions for sharing and spreading the losses from catastrophic floods.

Beijing Normal University (BNU) and RMS are undertaking a research project on the Dongting Lake with two objectives: The first is to estimate the flood risks in the lake region, keeping in mind changing conditions of land use and climate. The second objective is to identify (further) mitigation and loss-sharing options that are economically, socially and politically acceptable.

Similar to RMS’s project on the Tisza river in Hungary, a challenge for China is to develop a public-private system for transferring risks (insurance) and sharing losses (solidarity) that, at the same time, provides incentives for loss reduction measures. An acceptable and workable system will require knowledge of the risks and input from the stakeholders, including the residents of this area, environmental groups and other NGOs, Chinese and foreign insurers, and local/national government officials. A second challenge is to work with provincial and national governmental authorities to develop a financial portfolio that will prepare them for their post-disaster liabilities, including victim assistance and repair of damaged public infrastructure.

This project is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
The project leaders are Professor Peijun Shi from Beijing Normal University and Joanne Linnerooth-Bayer from IIASA.

For more information, contact Joanne Linnerooth-Bayer

Responsible for this page: Karolina Werner
Last updated: 02 Jan 2006