Coping with Climate Change and Reducing Disaster Risk - The Expert Seminar on "Disaster Risk Response under Climate Change" Successfully Held on the National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Day



On May 12, 2022, the 14th National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Day in China, the online expert seminar on "disaster risk response under climate change" was successfully held. In the context of global climate change, complex disasters such as COVID-19 occur frequently, further highlighting the systematization and complexity of disaster risk response in the new era. To this end, themed on "risk response under climate change", the seminar discussed the construction of disaster risk prevention and emergency response system in the new era from the perspective of systematic cognition, effective response and innovative development. It was sponsored by the Community Safety Committee of China Society of Emergency Management (CSEM), the Risk Governance Innovation Research Center of Beijing Normal University, the Emergency Management Research Base of Tsinghua University and the Urban Systems Engineering Institute of Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, and co-organized by Inner Mongolia Laoniu Charity Foundation,  Shenzhen One Foundation, the Institute of Agricultural Environment and Sustainable Development of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Beijing Geographical Society. More than 20 experts and scholars in the fields of sustainable development, geography and geology, health, water conservancy, urban planning, public management, information technology, industrial planning and social organizations attended the event.

Professor Shan Chunchang, Deputy Director of the Expert Committee of the National Disaster Reduction Commission, delivered an opening speech for the seminar. He reviewed the problems and losses caused by meteorological disasters and derived disasters, affirmed the significance of in-depth discussion on climate change, and expressed his expectation and support for the event.

Themed on "systematic cognition of disaster risk in the new era", the first session of the event was chaired by Professor Zhang Qiang, Director of the Risk Governance Innovation Research Center of Beijing Normal University and Executive Deputy Director of the Community Safety Committee of China Society of Emergency Management. The four participating experts delivered speeches from the perspectives of new characters of extreme weather and climate events caused by global warming, China's geological disaster prevention and response, epidemic response in natural disaster scenarios, and urban catastrophe risk awareness respectively. Xu Yinlong, a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Environment and Sustainable Development of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, explained the reasons for the frequent occurrence of extreme weather and climate events in the context of global warming from the perspective of energy balance. Even if the global temperature rises by 1℃, he said, the solar radiation energy accumulated in the atmosphere due to the increase of greenhouse gas concentration will be released in the form of rainstorm and high temperature, which will also lead to continuous refresh of meteorological extremes. Xu also reminded us to pay close attention to the harm of low-temperature weather in the context of global warming. Due to climate warming, the hot air mass formed by the Atlantic warm current in winter impacts the Arctic cold air mass more violently, and the cold vortex breaks down southward, resulting in the intensification of China's cold wave weather in winter and spring and continuous refresh of meteorological extremes. Liu Chuanzheng, a second-class researcher and chief scientist of the National Institute of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Emergency Management, affirmed the effectiveness of China's geological disaster prevention and control in recent years. At the same time, he pointed out the challenges of China's geological disaster prevention and control, such as insufficient implementation of the concept of safe development, lack of scientific prediction, disconnection of early warning response, and non-standard emergency response, and stressed the importance of building a multi-party partnership of "mutual support and common responsibility". Starting from the complex disaster scenario of public health events caused by natural disasters, Hao Xiaoning, Director and Researcher of the Health Security Rresearch Department of the Health Development Research Center at the National Health Commission, said that due to the superposition of natural disasters, it is easier than ever to result in large-scale fast-spreading epidemics. In terms of response, in addition to medical rescue and emergency treatment of epidemic situation, rapid post-disaster hygienic assessment and reconstruction of disease surveillance system are very important means. Wen Jiahong, a professor of the School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences of Shanghai Normal University and an expert of the Expert Committee of the National Disaster Eeduction Commission, pointed out that modern cities are complex giant systems with highly dense population and socio-economic factors, as well as areas prone to catastrophic risks. Climate change, rapid urbanization, population and economic growth and economic globalization are driving the dynamic changes of urban catastrophe risk. The power-law distribution of urban scale, population and assets and the interaction of society, technology and ecosystem lead to the chain amplification effect of urban catastrophe, which may easily cause systemic risks. Urban operation may collapse instantly. Building a resilient city is, thus, a key issue in the future.

Themed on "effective response to disaster risks in the new era", the second session was chaired by Zhong Kaibin, a professor of the Emergency Management Training Center of the Central Party School (National School of Administration) and Deputy Secretary General of China Society of Emergency Management. Six experts from different fields exchanged ideas from the perspectives of system construction, social forces' participation and market mechanism. Yang Kun, Deputy Director and Senior Engineer of the Flood Control and Drought Relief Engineering Technology Research Center of the Ministry of Water Resources and the Disaster Reduction Center of the Chinese Academy of Water Resources and Hydropower, pointed out that China has a large flood threatening area which highly overlaps with the economic and social layout, coupled with the rapid economic and social development and the prominent contradiction between people and water and land, which determines that China is a country with particularly serious flood disasters. At present, China has built a flood control engineering system for the main stream of large rivers, covering key hubs, river embankments, flood storage and detention areas, and a relatively complete non-engineering system of organization and command, laws and regulations, monitoring, forecasting and early warning, and team materials. It has also promoted the construction of intelligent flood control and digital watershed, and improved the accuracy and pertinence of the forecast, early warning and preview plan. The current social demand for security, however, continues to rise, global climate change has brought adverse effects, and the response to catastrophic floods is also facing many challenges. Zhai Guofang, Professor of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Nanjing University and Director of the Research Center for Urban Security Development stressed that the current spatial response to the uncertainty of urban development is insufficient and it is necessary to emphasize the resilient response to urban disaster risk. Resilient city is a concept of the whole process, all directions and all kinds of disasters. It is a design to deal with disaster risks based on the overall development needs of the city. The planning stage is very important. In the construction of a resilient city, we need to consider disaster risk, level, elements, main body and the whole process. Professor Li Jing, Chairman of the Beijing Geographical Society, Member of the Expert Committee of the National Disaster Reduction Commission, and Deputy Director of the Community Safety Committee of the Chinese Society of Emergency Management pointed out that the current demands for multi-hazard, whole process, and multi-factor three-dimensional monitoring capabilities require the support of various aerospace technologies, satellites, the Internet of things and artificial intelligence, which are widely used in forest fire control, ore emergency, landslides, water operations, typhoon emergency response, etc. To respond to the COVID-19, we also need to accelerate the unmanned development of the emergency system urgently. Zhang Hua, a senior engineer of the School of National Security and Emergency Management at Beijing Normal University introduced the results and application of comprehensive risk survey and assessment zoning of natural disasters. The first national comprehensive risk survey of natural disasters focused on the investigation of six major types of disasters, namely, earthquake,  geological disaster, meteorological disaster, flood and drought disaster, marine disaster, forest and grass fire, as well as the information investigation of disaster bearing bodies, such as housing, municipal facilities, transportation facilities and public service facilities, and carried out the comprehensive disaster reduction capacity assessment, historical disaster assessment, key hidden danger assessment, comprehensive risk zoning and prevention zoning in pilot areas, achieving a number of systematic investigation and evaluation results, including about 100 technical specification results. In terms of application of achievements, he gave five suggestions: first,  provide scientific basis for improving natural disaster prevention and control capacity at all levels; second, support emergency response to major natural disasters; third, lay out normal and abnormal natural disaster risk monitoring and early warning, formulation and management of emergency plans; fourth, support regional layout and functional zoning of social and economic development; fifth, support scientific and technological innovation on natural disaster risk management. Zhang Liming, Deputy Secretary General of the Community Safety Committee of the Chinese Society of Emergency Management proposed that community disaster prevention and reduction should keep pace with the times. We should carry out digital intelligence upgrading, promote the development from "brand creation" to "capacity building", and accelerate digital, intelligent and normalized community disaster prevention and reduction in the form of inclusive services. Comprehensive disaster reduction community 2.0 should have the new features such as digital intelligence risk assessment, dynamic disaster risk map, dynamic troubleshooting and management, targeted intelligent plan, targeted short-term and imminent warning, and community-based interactive education, and can effectively protect the community security for 7*24 hours. Li Hong, Secretary General of Shenzhen One Foundation, summarized and reviewed the main contents and practice scenarios of social forces such as social rescue teams, foundations and social service institutions participating in pre-disaster, in-disaster and post-disaster response, affirmed the flexibility, initiative and timeliness of social organizations' participation, and proposed that social forces still need to be improved in terms of political and social cooperation mechanism, standards and qualification recognition, professional and technical capabilities, etc.

Themed on "innovative development of emergency management system in the new era", the third session was presided over by Researcher Zhu Wei, Director of Urban Systems Engineering Research Institute of Beijing Academy of Science and Technology. Researcher Gao Xiaoping, former executive vice president of the Chinese Society of Administrative Management, delivered a speech titled "modernization of emergency management system". The international government emergency management systems can, he believes, be divided into four categories: First, set up a department for the unified management, that is, to a large extent, the integration of the government's emergency management functions, belonging to the first square array. Second, set up institutions under the department for management: under the condition of not integrating the emergency management functions of the department, set up a secondary emergency management coordination organization in the powerful department, belonging to the second square array. Third, classified management: based on the classification of emergencies, the corresponding government department is responsible for the management, belonging to the third square array. Fourth, integrate into normal management, i.e. merge emergency management functions with normal management, belonging to the fourth phalanx. At present, China has entered the first phalanx from the second phalanx, but the degree of integration of government emergency management functions still needs to be enhanced. In the future, we should "make progress while maintaining stability, and expand capacity" in the reform of emergency management administrative system. It is suggested to establish a more comprehensive and authoritative coordination system, improve the emergency responsibility system of government departments, further deepen the reform of decentralization, management and service, promote performance evaluation, and establish an expert consultation system. Professor Zhang Haibo, Deputy Dean of the School of Government Management of Nanjing University, talked about the path of improving the efficiency of government emergency management. The efficiency of emergency management is, he believes, a positive result of the joint action of the objectives, structure and process of emergency management. In China's practice, the efficiency of emergency management is mainly generated by three mechanisms: the "safety first" in objectives, the "integration and diversity" in structure and the "plan adaptation" in process. Sun Yi, a member of Social Value Innovation Research Center of Tencent Research Institute gave examples of Internet enterprises using information technology innovation advantages to cope with disaster risks, such as "life-saving documents" in Henan flood response and social emergency open platform, relying on the full scene contact of the C-end and the digital technology service capability of the B-end products. Sun proposed to give full play to the social value of enterprises and promote social innovation by relying on digital technology. Zhao Pengfei, Deputy Secretary General of the National Emergency Industry Alliance, analyzed the current market scale of China's emergency industry. From a regional perspective, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region ranks in the forefront of the national market; in terms of categories, affected by the epidemic, the demand for fire protection and medical and health care has shown a rapid growth trend, and breakthroughs have been made in these two areas. As for the innovation of emergency industrial chain, he suggested that we should pay attention to the leading industries and central enterprises, especially the enterprises in the military industry. On the one hand, we should conduct technology transformation and provide technical support for leading enterprises to form key points of technological innovation in the industrial chain. At the same time, policy support should be provided in order to achieve innovation in the chain supplement, chain strengthening and technology transformation and integration. An Yaqiang, Secretary General of Inner Mongolia Laoniu Charity Foundation, pointed out that in recent years, social issues have become increasingly diversified and complex, and professional collaboration is the basis for maximizing efficiency. Taking the "research and pilot project of natural disaster response strategies in the context of climate change" as an example, he analyzed the innovative path and practical mechanism of the foundation's participation from the perspective of climate change. Ma Tianhao, Deputy Secretary General of the Western China Talent Development Foundation, shared the ten-year exploration experience of the Yili Ark Project from the perspective of disaster prevention and mitigation education. For the sake of children's safety under disaster risk, the project has established Yili Ark Safety Ecological school, developed the evaluation index system of Yili Ark hologram campus safety, mobilized the enthusiasm of schools, teachers, children and parents, and formed a child safety education and protection mechanism with the participation of the whole society.

At the closing ceremony, Professor Peng Zongchao, Party Secretary of the School of Public Administration of Tsinghua University, Director of the Emergency Management Research Base, and Director of the Community Safety Committee of the Chinese Society of Emergency Management, delivered a concluding speech. First of all, he thanked all the experts for their presence and wonderful speeches. The seminar, he believes, had a clear theme and content and conducted a comprehensive discussion on cognitive response, system construction and innovative development of risk by the government, industry, social organizations and the public from the perspectives of rural areas, communities and children, which is of great reference significance to the innovation and development of China's emergency response system.

Written by: Tong Xinran

Reviewed by: Peng Zongchao, Zhang Qiang