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A comprehensive flash flood defense system in China: overview, achievements, and outlook

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A Correction to this article was published on 20 September 2019

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Abstract

The National Flash Flood Prevention Project, which mainly consists of non-structural and supplementary structural measures, has been conducted for 6 years in China. Some preliminary achievements have contributed to the prevention of flash flood in China. Based on the latest information, this article introduces China’s flash flood prevention system, primarily from the perspective of its development process, components, investment, and characteristics. To date, the system has incorporated many distinguished large-scale features such as the largest rain gauge network (approximately 0.5 million stations) in the world, massive disaster observation and preparedness networks, people-and-expert combined monitoring and forecasting data integration system, and a vast implementation area. Based on its early achievements and some typical case investigations of such flash flood prevention system, the article also discusses China’s prospects for preventing flash flood disasters in the future.

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  • 20 September 2019

    The original article needs the addition of another affiliation.

  • 20 September 2019

    The original article needs the addition of another affiliation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the China National Flash Flood Disaster Prevention and Control Project (126301001000150068) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2015B28514). The authors are grateful to Manabendra Saharia for the help in translating this article. Additional thanks are given to some anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center on Flood and Drought Disaster Reduction of the MWR, Beijing, 100038, China

    Liang Guo, Bingshun He, Qingrui Chang & Qing Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, 100038, China

    Liang Guo, Bingshun He, Qingrui Chang & Qing Li

  3. Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Meihong Ma

  4. State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Meihong Ma & Yang Hong

  5. College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, Jiangsu Province, China

    Ke Zhang

Authors
  1. Liang Guo
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  2. Bingshun He
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  3. Meihong Ma
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  4. Qingrui Chang
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  5. Qing Li
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  6. Ke Zhang
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  7. Yang Hong
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Bingshun He or Meihong Ma.

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Guo, L., He, B., Ma, M. et al. A comprehensive flash flood defense system in China: overview, achievements, and outlook. Nat Hazards 92, 727–740 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3221-3

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