Disaster Management in China

China is among the countries that are most seriously affected by natural disasters of many types: floods, droughts and meteorological, seismic, geological, maritime and ecological disasters, as well as forest and grassland fires. As noted by National Disaster Reduction Council, due to its geographical location and meteorological conditions, more than 70 percent of cities and 50 percent of the population are located in areas that are often afflicted with major meteorological, geological, and maritime disasters. This book discusses and answers question about how the history Chinese disaster management and Chinese institutional networks in both natural disasters and social (man-made) disaster. By using a qualitative approach, study on disaster management in China at least found three important things; first, Chinese society still believes and uses old traditional perspective that natural disasters in China are regarded Act of God, strongly related to theory of Mandate of Heaven; second, although China faces variety complexof disasters, the government and society have institutional and capacity building in disaster management which covers disaster preparedness, field responses forrescue, mitigation and relief actions, and disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction; third, in China, Government are the top leader and decision-makers for any disaster incident. Any decisions must be taken by Central Government and followed by local governmnet and the entire community. If there are any NGOs involved in disaster relief, they must have secured license from the central government.

Book of the Disaster Management in China isa research report carried out by Asia Pacific Division, Research Center for Regional Resources, lndonesian Institute of Science, PSDR-LIPI 2010. This book describes the history of disaster management in China and also the current emergency preparedness practices and institutional networking on disaster management with earthquake and flood emergency response as an example in China. It is good to be read for practitioneror academia.