Lessons from Wenchuan Earthquake Disaster in China

1. Lessons from Wenchuan Earthquake Disaster in China WORKING SESSION Lessons from Mega Disasters, 10.00 to 11.30, Sunday, 15th March, 2015,Sendai ,Japan Peijun SHI State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE) Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Nature Disaster, Ministry of Education (ECND) Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management, MOC and MOE (ADREM) Beijing Normal University

2. Wenchuan Earthquake Earth-suface Rupture Map The M>=4 aftershock distribution map (up to August 9 of 2008) The destructive zone of the earthquake faultthrough the old city of Beichuan County

3. Secondary Disasters Induced by Wenchuan Earthquake • The induced geological disasters: induced by the earthquake and rainstorms, reaches 9556, including 5117 landslides, 3575 rock falls, 358 debris flows • The secondary disasters such as barrier lakes, damaged reservoirs and damaged dams: • 34 barrier lakes with different levels of danger, and the Tangjiashan Barrier Lake near the county seat of Beichuan County was of extremely severe danger; • Over 1800 damaged reservoirs in Sichuan province; • Dams in Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Gansu and Yunnan with a length of 1054km were damaged Landslide and rockfall Induced by Wenchuan Earthquake

4. Field Investigation Points

5. Heavy Rain Rock Collapse Landslides Debris Flow Barrier lakes Earthquake Wenchuan Earthquake Disaster Chains

6. Integrated emergency disaster assessment map of Wenchuan Earthquake

7. Casualties 12:00 of July 11, 2008, the Wenchuan Earthquake in Sichuan province had caused: • 69197 death toll • 18341 people missing • 374176 injured • 15.106 billion transferred and relocated • 96445 hospitalized injured people, of which 88391 people have left hospital already, and 5405 people remain in hospital • 3334 people who had been transferred to other provinces from Sichuan province • Treatments of the sick and wounded summed up to 2827552 person-times • Losses (billion RMB)：853.0

8. Response to the Wenchuan earthquake The State Council issued the Regulation on Post-Wenchuan Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction . It clarified the detailed responsibilities of government at all levels in the rehabilitation and reconstruction after the earthquake. In accord with this regulation, an expert earthquake rescue group was established to investigate and evaluate the earthquake to provide support for the formulation of plans for post-earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction. Regulation on post-Wenchuan earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction (a) and Wenchuan earthquake impact assessment map (b) Rebuilt town, Shuimo in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province

9. Response to the Wenchuan earthquake The regulation stated that the financial assistance given by the provinces or municipalities should be no less than 1% of its local fiscal revenue of the previous year. To express the country’s condolences to the victims of the Wenchuan earthquake, the State Council declared May 19–21 2008 to be National Grief Day. The response to the Wenchuan earthquake was the fastest and largest mobilization of help in Chinese history. The guarantees stated in various policies resulted in a very successful and effective rehabilitation and reconstruction process. As a result, within 3 years, the disaster-hit area recovered and even surpassed its pre-earthquake economic and social development status.

10. What commitments are expected to be achieved? China’s main achievements Lessons Recommendations

11. China’s main achievements • Established a disaster prevention and reduction regime, mechanisms and legal system • Improved monitoring, early warning, and risk assessment • Established the disaster information sharing service and a public campaign on disaster prevention and reduction • Strengthened the climate change response and disaster risk governance Strengthened the disaster preparedness

12. An atlas series on natural disasters to support national and local disaster prevention and reduction The Atlas of Natural Disasters in China (1992) supported the development of the 2000–2005 plan。 The Atlas of Natural Disaster System of China（ 2003） served the development of the plan for 2005–2010. The Atlas of Natural Disaster Risk of China（2011） was used in the development of the plan for 2011–2015。 Atlas series of natural disasters in China and World http://www.adrem.org.cn/atlas (13—19,March,2015)

13. The Chinese experience in the past 25 years illustrates the importance of three shared points: • Identification of the concept of comprehensive disaster prevention and reduction in strategies • Inclusion of goals for comprehensive disaster prevention and reduction in national plans • Actions to strengthen the technological support of comprehensive disaster prevention and reduction.

14. Lessons • The synergy between central and local governments requires further improvement • The synergy between urban and rural areas should be further strengthened • The synergy between the government and public still lacks an institutional guarantee • The sectoral management and disaster risk governance still needs to be integrated

15. 2.2 Lessons learned Although China has made clear progress and gained many achievements in comprehensive disaster prevention and reduction, China also learned valuable lessons via the challenges of various natural disasters over the past 25 years. There are some areas that require strengthening and improvement to further reduce the risk of disasters. The synergy between central and local governments requires further improvement The disaster emergency management system characterized by “unified leadership, comprehensive coordination, categorized management, tiered responsibility, and jurisdiction management” should be further implemented. There exist uncoordinated goals between sectoral disaster management and integrated risk governance. A clear definition and division of responsibilities between central and local governments is yet to establish. The synergy to be further strengthened to overcome the disadvantages of dispersed disaster management functions in various sectors is needed. The coping capacity for large-scale disasters and emerging risks still remains inadequate. The synergy between urban and rural areas should be further strengthened There are obvious differences between rural and urban areas in terms of disaster monitoring and early warning systems, community preparedness, emergency response and post-disaster recovery, and reconstruction. This dual structure largely stems from low levels of disaster protection in rural areas (however, urban areas enjoy little more), and rapid urbanization. Thus, the gap between rural and urban areas in terms of disaster prevention, reduction, and relief capabilities further increases, which reduces the efficiency of disaster prevention and reduction efforts. Furthermore, it hinders the process of the urban-rural integration and leads to the low level of disaster response capabilities in urban and rural areas. Thus, the urban and rural coordination and cooperation mechanism of the comprehensive disaster prevention, reduction and relief urgently needs to be strengthened. The synergy between the government and public still lacks an institutional guarantee Although society as a whole shares a growing concern about disaster prevention, reduction, and relief, the government has not offered systematic guidance nor standardized management. Furthermore, existing policies lack overall consideration, and as a result social forces hardly play an effective role in community disaster reduction, emergency rescue, and post-disaster relief and recovery. Therefore, the system design in terms of the coordinated response of government and society requires urgent attention, especially in the areas of disaster relief donations, volunteer services, and emergency requisitions. Disaster assessment and information release requries fruhter coordination There has been signifcant imporvement in disaster monitoring and rapid assesement capcity, but disasdter informaiton relase requires furhter enhancement. A scheme is to establish to ensure rapid reporting and rapid release of disaster inforamtion. The goal is to have early-monitoring, early acknowlegement, early reporting and early relase. The strategy is to furhter improve the cosilience between scieitific assessment, government coordination and public acitivtiy in disaster prevention, mitigation and relief. Challenges Climate change uncertainties lead to greater environmental risks Global warming Increase of extreme events Environmental risks will increase Exposure and vulnerability are likely to increase Uncertainties regarding climate change and its impact Sustainable development is facing challenges from emerging risks Energy and water security are important components of resource safety Food security is foundation of economic and social safety Terrestorial ecosystem stability is the keystone of disaster prevention and reduction. Protection of coastal zone is highly linked to resource and ecological safety Challenges from globally networked disasters Distribution of Future High-temperature, Drought and Flood Risk Levels in China under Emission Scenario RCP 8.5 [19] (Red color denotes highest risk level, and light blue color denotes lowest risk level) The globalization of the influence of disasters

16. Recommendations • Promoting the integration of coping with climate change and disaster prevention and reduction • Incorporate economic development, life style, and ecosystem services to better adapt to the changing environment • Promote a green economy strategy by balancing efforts to mitigate disaster loss and enhance benefits Comprehensive disaster risk prevention paradigm under the strategy of “common world, common existence, common development”

17. Recommendations • Promoting the integration of coping with climate change and disaster prevention and Holistically improve national and regional risk governance capacity for large-scale disasters Green Economy Climate Change Carbon Sink Catastrophe Risk Increase Vegetation Economy Prevent Mitigate Extreme Climate Events • Accelerate the transition of economic growth patterns with a focus on structure adjustment supported by innovation and development in science and technology. • Establish a diversified energy security and supply chain systemto efficiently reduce the negative impacts of large-scale disaster risks. • Comprehensively improve national and local disaster risk sharing capabilities by establishing a “global large-scale disaster risk financial management system” to realize the risk diversification and sharing in the global context. Interrelations between climate change, green economy, and disaster risk

18. Recommendations • Holistically improve national and regional risk governance capacity for large-scale disasters • Accelerate the transition of economic growth patterns with a focus on structure adjustment supported by innovation and development in science and technology. • Establish a diversified energy security and supply chain systemto efficiently reduce the negative impacts of large-scale disaster risks. • Comprehensively improve national and local disaster risk sharing capabilities by establishing a “global large-scale disaster risk financial management system” to realize the risk diversification and sharing in the global context. Conceptual model of consilience for integrated large-scale disaster risk governance

19. Recommendations. • Promote the establishment of a global paradigm and an alliance for large-scale disaster risk governance • Develop a global paradigm for large-scale disaster risk governance, to coordinate present actions by the United Nations to improve sustainable development and to complete the global mechanism for coping with large-scale disaster risks. • Establish a global foundation for large-scale disaster risk,to disseminate, transfer and apply diverse science and technology as well as relevant education, to support the UN in establishing a global disaster transfer mechanism, and to promote science and technology advancement. • Establish a global network for large-scale disaster response to develop an enhanced global education and scientific platform.

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