Flood, drought and typhoon disasters during the last half-century in the Guangdong province, China

In this paper, we present the changing properties of losses due to occurrences of droughts, floods and typhoon disasters in the Guangdong province, a comparatively economically prosperous province in the south China. Influences of typhoon activities on droughts and floods are also analysed. Results based on extensive and thorough investigations indicate that (1) generally, Guangdong province is both humid and warm; however, in recent decades, the negative impacts of droughts seem to be enhancing, which is proved by increasing drought-induced economic loss. In this sense, considerable importance should be attached to droughts, but not solely to floods, in the Guangdong province; (2) low-lying terrain of the Guangdong province makes this region easy to be influenced by flood inundation. Moreover, highly urbanized areas are mostly located in the low-lying areas. Flood-induced loss was increasing before 1990s and is decreasing after 1990s, and this should be attributed mainly to seasonal shifts of precipitation changes and enhancing human mitigation to flood disasters; (3) typhoon activities often inflict considerable loss on the economy of the Guangdong province. Moreover, flood events in the study region are mostly the results of typhoon activities. Flash floods, strong wind and storm surge accompanying typhoon activities are the major factors intensifying the negative impacts of the typhoon disasters. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011