Selection of policies on typhoon and rainstorm disasters in China: A content analysis perspective

Abstract

China is a country often subjected to severe meteorological disasters. Analyzing the evolution of policies concerning the prevention and reduction of disasters is of great practical significance for the management of such natural events. We focus on typhoons and rainstorms as disaster sources and examine policy documents from two dimensions: basic policy instruments and disaster chains. Results indicate that (1) two levels of government (central and local) focus on five policy instruments; namely, they are fund and material input, infrastructure construction and management, information sharing and support, goal programming, and regulations. Other policies, however, such as engineering construction of disaster prevention, or material reserves and international cooperation, are relatively few. (2) At present, both the Central and Local governments prefer both supply-oriented policies and environment-oriented policies to focusing on demand-oriented policies. (3) As for the disaster chains, the typhoon and rainstorm disaster policies are focused on disaster defense, disaster warning, and disaster relief, neglecting disaster evaluation and post-disaster reconstruction. Finally, we put forward suggestions for perfecting the policies of disaster evaluation and post-disaster reconstruction, and point out the importance of demand-oriented policies.