Brief communication: Rethinking the 1998 China floods to prepare for a nonstationary future

Abstract

A mega-flood in 1998 caused tremendous losses in China and triggered major policy adjustments in floodrisk management. This paper aims to retrospectively examine these policy adjustments and discuss how China should adapt to newly emerging flood challenges.We show that China suffers annually from floods despite large-scale investments and policy adjustments. Rapid urbanization and climate change will exacerbate future flood risk in China, with cascading impacts on other countries through global trade networks. Therefore, novel flood-risk management approaches are required, such as a risk-based urban planning and coordinated water governance systems with public participation, in addition to traditional structural protection.