Snow Disaster in China - Case Study Example

Table of Contents Introduction........................................................................................................................p. 3 Explain the disaster............................................................................................................p. 4 Risk Management cycle.....................................................................................................p. 5 Risk Identification..............................................................................................................p. 4 Risk Measurement.............................................................................................................p. 5 Risk Analysis..................................................................................................................... p. 6 Risk Decision..................................................................................................................... p. 7 Risk Implementation.................................................................................................... …p. 8 Risk Monitoring........................................................................................................... ….p. 8 Policy.......................................................................................................................... …… p. 9 Risk Management Strategies....................................................................................... … p. 9 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................p. 11 References.........................................................................................................................p. 12 Figures Risk Management Cycle................................................................................................ p. 4 Risk Management Table.................................................................................................p. 6 Snow disaster in china Introduction Climatic features, geographical location and geographical structures have possibly made china vulnerable to almost all types of natural disasters. These natural disasters occur more often in china, affecting more than 200 million people every year. A disaster is defined as a rapid or unexpected event that causes damage, destruction and loss to life and property. The damage caused by disasters is immense and varies with the climate conditions, geographical location and the type of the earth surface. It is therefore a severe distraction of the operation of the society which results to extensive human, material or environmental losses which are beyond the capabilities of the affected society to deal with it using its own resources. From the recorded history, many types of natural disasters for example floods, droughts, earthquakes among others have occurred in China. The disasters threaten the life and property and the residents of China. They affect the sustainable development of the country’s economic and social development. Furthermore, they threaten China’s social stability, national security and have been also a major restriction in poverty eradication of certain rural areas (Bennett & Leo, 2000). Disaster preparedness is the key strategy that should be adopted by every country prior to the happening of the disaster. This paper will focus mainly on the risk management strategy and the disaster planning and preparedness strategies adopted by china. This study and analysis will limit its scope on the snow disaster in china which will form the background of the study. Under the government of China, there is a specialised agency in the Ministry of Civil Affairs called the National Disaster Reduction Centre (NDRC). This center is engaged in supporting decisions on various natural disasters and also providing information services. It helps in disaster management and provides technical support for China’s disaster reduction through collecting and analysising disaster information. They assess the disasters and emergency relief and analyses the disaster using advanced technologies such as satellite remote sensing (Michel, Dan & Robert, 2001). Explain the real risky case in china disaster: The 2008 Chinese winter storms affected some larger parts of southern and central china between the months of January and February. The areas were affected by heavy snows, ice and very cold temperatures. The temperatures are said to have fallen as below as 0 degrees Celsius. It affected 21 provinces, municipalities and independent regions which in when combined held 914.9 million out of a total of 1303 million population of China. The disaster caused extensive damage on properties and also disrupted the transportation for thousands of travelers. It was also responsible for approximately 129 deaths (David & Olivier, 2009). The series of very harsh winter events started in early January that year when a large cloud of cold air surrounded most parts of china. This caused much precipitation in form of heavy snow which spread to the west of the coastal areas where the temperatures was slightly below 0 °C. After the precipitation, snow fell continuously for several days which were accompanied by very cold weather conditions. Villages in the southern part of china were totally covered in thick layers of ice, blocking roads, covering structures and coating power lines for weeks. This phenomenon left so many people without power or transportation to and from southern eastern and central china (Madan K, 2009). The snow disaster in China caused widespread damage to a huge number of buildings, whose roofs collapsed and killed those who were inside. It was estimated that approximately 223,000 homes were destroyed and 862,000 others smashed. The power system was also affected by the harsh conditions. It was reported that in a place called Changzhou, which had a population of approximately 4.6 million, the entire city had no power or water for over two weeks. There was also an acute water shortage in government buildings and hospitals. The telecommunications cables and internet networks were also destroyed. Railways, airport and highways were also seriously destroyed resulting to a disruption in the entire transport sector (Flyvbjerg, B, 2006). The economy of Chinese which was at the stages of rapid growth was also affected. According to BBC, the civil affairs ministry estimated that the costs to the country’s economy were initially around 54 billion but this cost rose to 80 billion immediately after winter began. Insurance companies across the whole China received many cases. Analysts also argued that there was an enormous loss of crops including vegetables and fruits which resulted to a substantial inflation of food prices. The inflation rates rose to around 7.1% higher than the previous year. Moreover, productivity levels in most of the industries were affected for example aluminum and steel. Other sectors affected included auto sales, airlines and hotels (Bennett & Leo, 2000). Explain the real case by EACH stage: Management of risk involves an ideal process of prioritization. Risk with greater probability of occurrence and greater loss is handled first than the risk with lower probability of occurrence and lower loss. The process of balancing between risk with higher loss and higher probability of occurrence and risk with low loss and low probability of occurrence is a very difficult process in practice (Madan K, 2009). Risk management cycle diagram is used to demonstrate risk management stages as below: Figure: 1 the risk management cycle Source: Adapted from Ayling (2009) Risk Identification: Risk in China arises from natural events that take place due natural dynamic environment. Periodic changes on natural condition create external forces which when triggered, cause problems. The process of risk identification in China starts from problem itself or the source of the problem. The targets of disaster risk management in China are making analysis on the source of risk and ascertain the source of risk if it is internal or external. Analysis also helps to established whether the risk relates to identified treat. When the problem or source of the problem is known investigation on events can easily be undertaken. The methods use in china to identify snow disaster varies according to industry practice, culture and compliance. China disaster management establishes templates that identify problem, source, or events. Among the common risk identification methods use in china are; objective base risk identification, scenario-base risk identification, taxonomy-base risk identification, common risk checking, and risk charting. Events that are perceived to be partially or completely endanger achieving an objective is identify as risk (Kyoji & Paolo, 2008). The main reason of change in climate in china and across the world is a result of emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The report also issued by Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang that many industry in china, deforestation and overgrazing are the major route cause of snow disaster in china (Ying Wang, 2007) 2. Risk measurement: This is the second step on the risk management cycle. Once the snow disaster is identify the department of china government which responsible for snow disaster management are required to release detail information on the measurement. The common method that department use to measure the frequency and severity is probability which gives standard deviation in given period that disasters occurs (Harrington 2004. P47-49). The department also uses qualitative and quantitative approaches to measure snow disaster. Quantitative is concern with the severity and associated financial terms. Qualitative on the other hand is concern with frequency at which risk occurs (Williams, et al 1998). This approaches quantities and qualitative related to the Ice snow disaster in China, the snow disaster in China caused widespread damage to a huge number of buildings, whose roofs collapsed and killed those who were inside. It was estimated that approximately 223,000 homes were destroyed and 862,000 others smashed. The power system was also affected by the harsh conditions. It was reported that in a place called Changzhou, which had a population of approximately 4.6 million, the entire city had no power or water for over two weeks. There was also an acute water shortage in government buildings and hospitals. The telecommunications cables and Internet networks were also destroyed. Railways, airport (just one day 216 flights were delayed and 19 flights were canceled), and highways were also seriously destroyed resulting to a disruption in the entire transport sector (Flyvbjerg, B, 2006). Also there were human losses 129 were died, moreover, the economy of Chinese which was at the stages of rapid growth was also affected. According to BBC, the civil affairs ministry estimated that the costs to the country’s economy were initially around 54 billion but this cost rose to 80 billion immediately after winters began. Also Snow disasters in Southwest China appear to be occurring with greater frequency, severity and duration period. The major disaster that kills thousand of yak and many nomads in Tibet and Qinghai took place in 1995-1996 and 1997-1998 and this is associated to global climate change (William & World Meteorological, 2003). 3. Risk analysis: Four approaches are used to analyze snow risk in china. The risk can be avoided, retain, transferred or control. Since the risk is cause by nature and seasonally occurs, the measure which has proved to be successful is avoiding disaster prone areas during the snow seasons. Therefore, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), in fact, the natural disaster difficult to avoided. In this case if the Chinese government imposes strict rules for the manufacture to reduce the pollutions. Severity Frequency (probability) High Low High Avoid Transfer Low Control Retain Moreover, organisations, communities and government of China might retain the risk if it not natural disaster, the Chinese government has good experiences in the disaster and now they have improved the controlling of risk by setting a new technology, for example, setting local weather information in many places, such as trains, bus and roads, loudspeakers with modern means of communication, such as electronic display screen, telephones, automatic alarming devices, mobile pones SMS messages and TV and radio broadcast. (Chen Zhenlin, 2010). And also Chain has Ministry of Civil Affairs called the National Disaster Reduction Centre (NDRC), to control and reduce the natural disaster. Transferring risk to insurance companies has received much compensation cross the countries (Bennett & Leo, 2000). 4- Risk Decision: Emergency management in china uses heterogeneous type information store in different computers, data type platform and so on to make decision. Immediate and effective decision making requires cross-disciplinary collaborations in the integrated data sources. Disaster management in china has widely incorporated OR, MCDM and computer science to make effective decision on conflicting domain in emergency management (William & World Meteorological, 2003). The Chinese government and social organizations in China have tried to come up with strategies for mitigating future natural disasters. The government has stated that restoring transportation, power supply and the normal livelihood of people are the first priorities in the relief work. The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) has provided donations of food stuffs, medicines, clothes and tents to the victims of the disaster (Michel, Dan & Robert, 2001). In addition, other countries globally have offered monetary assistance to finance the relief program. Relief teams have been dispatched to the most affected area to support in combating the snow disaster. There are several challenges faced in the process of transport of food supplies and other relief assistance to the highly affected areas. In light of these strategies the RCSC has collected cash to send to the local Red Cross branches to enhance relief supply locally (Bennett & Leo, 2000). 5. Risk Implementation To mitigate on natural disaster china has adopted national policy that strengthen and promote natural information gathering, management capabilities and prevention. Chinese government has also committed substantial resources for the national capability development and has made considerable advance in prevention, monitoring and management of natural disaster. Commission and ministries under the leadership of CNCIDNDR organize and formulate national disaster management strategies. It also drafted and adopted national policy that report on natural disaster management. International technical assistance programme has been proposed to support China in its disaster management efforts through information, expertise, and technical transfer. (William & World Meteorological, 2003). 6. Risk Monitoring and warning; China government has come up with a professional technical department called bar that take charge of disaster preparedness, mitigation and prevention. Over the recent past Chinese government has allocated enough money towards natural disaster monitoring and warning system construction. Government establishes meteorological disaster monitoring and forecast system to monitor and provide information on disaster dynamic development for emergency decision making. The china government also have plan in place to launch optical satellites before 2014 for the environmental disaster forecast and monitoring (Kyoji S & Paolo C, 2008). 7. Risk policy; China government came up a number of policies that aim to manage risk. Among the policies which are priorities are: Development of rational disaster risk management plan which will focus on deployment, coordination and mobilization of national resources. This policy also appeals for international assistance on financial matters. Preparation of disaster risk management plan at local, district or at provincial level. Develop and train community level disaster response team. Target the initial effort on the risk management of snow. Focus on the capacity building of the government officers and personnel of associate agencies from community level. (David & Olivier2009). Risk Management Strategy: Government and organization have goals and objectives to achieve and in order to do so ,they stick on a long run strategic plans, which help both of them to make the formation of the management function.(Williams et al 1998.pp26-27). Indeed, many countries have been facing many disasters regarding to the climate change, however many countries have taken this issue seriously and they trying to reduce the disasters damaging. Chinese government has developed many strategies to avoid disasters risk: on of the strategies is that Chinese government starting to educate the student in schools to improve the people knowledge with the disaster. Because the investment in human resources may have lastly value then other technical measures to reduce the risk. On the other hand, Chinese government starting to develop the technology such as weather screen in many places and create programmes in mobile phones to avoid the disasters. Conclusion; On the basis of tradition disaster management and reduction in china has started risk management framework and primarily form a related professional field in the best interest of public security. It has also further legislated emergence law that boost legal system construction disaster risk disaster management. The first organization that carries out research on disaster prevention called china disaster prevention was first established in china. It was later name risk analysis special committee. Many researches on natural disaster have been conducted by various universities in china which include engineering hazards, economic risk, disaster management and crisis management. Compared to international however, china is facing an austere and significant challenge but also very good opportunity (Michael et al, 200). References: Bennett W. & Leo M, 2000, Risk management: approaches for fixed income markets, Texas, John Wiley and Sons David & Olivier M, 2009, Catastrophe risk financing in developing countries: principles for Public intervention, World Bank Publications, New York. Flyvbjerg, B, 2006, ""From Nobel Prize to Project Management: Getting Risks Right." Project Management Journal, vol. 37, Beijing. Kyoji S & Paolo C, 2008, Landslides: disaster risk reduction, Beijing. Madan K, 2009, Natural and Anthropogenic Disasters: Vulnerability, Preparedness and Mitigation, Springer, London. Michel C, Dan G, & Robert M, 2001, Risk management, McGraw-Hill, New York. Michael F et al, 2005, Risk management: challenge and opportunity, Singapore. Stephen F & Richard M, 2002, Risk management: the state of the art, Springer, California. 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