The Sichuan Earthquake In 2008 Environmental Sciences Essay

The Sichuan quake In 2008 Environmental Sciences EssayOn the aft(prenominal) zero(prenominal)n of the 12th of May 2008, a threatening 8.0-magnitude of seism occurred on the northwestward of Chengdu, Sichuan and Southwest of Beijing in China. The China Official stated that 69,227 stack were confirmed dead, 68,636people were in Sichuan territory and 374,176 people were injured with 18,222people were missing. The seism caused more or less 5million people homeless. An estimation of 5.36 million buildings collapsed and more than than 21 million buildings were damaged in Sichuan, Chongqing, Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi and Yunnan were part of the affected area. The total economical loss was dependd 86 billion US dollars. The most affected area like Beichuan, Dujiangyan, Wuo grand and Yingxiu were almost completely destroyed. This Sichuan earthquake is the most stunning earthquake happened in China since the Tangshan earthquake in 1976 which killed at least 240,000people.The roads, ra ilways and buildings were damaged and destroyed by countryslides and rock falls which were formed by the earthquake, the get downside created more than 34 barrier lakes which intimidated active 700,000 people at downstream to evacuate. The road access to the region of Chengdu was cut off for a number of days. The communication theory of the entire city were almost broke down. The rescue teams had to proceed to the scene for more than 3 days by foot.Several months later, the nightmare wasnt ended. The aftershocks was still continued to hit the area, some of them surpassed 6 magnitudes that caused more victims and damages unconnected.Regardless of the large death rate in this earthquake, questions and voices raised about thousands of the initial quakes victims were children buried in shoddily built schools. Even the regime institution building like hospitals, schools and fixingsies were completely collapsed in some(prenominal) different areas around Sichuan. It was questione d by the parents of children and the media, how rigorously the China has been enforced the buildings code during this century. thitherfore, the central authorities of China declared on it would use 1 trillion Renminbi (around $146.5 billion) in the coming three geezerhood to reconstruct areas ravaged after the earthquake.CONSEQUENCE OF THE quakeHealth and PollutionThe health problem in affected areas is terrible, mainly due to the lack of clean urine, resulting in victims fouling and rubbish is everywhere. In addition, fires, gas leaks and peeing pollution are the environmental problem after the Sichuan earthquake.CommunicationAll communication in Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei and other places is interrupted by the earthquake, the three provinces of public communications network infrastructure was severely damaged. Due to the sudden increased in communications, the usage of local long-distance telephone in Sichuan has risen to more than 10 times, cell phone receive rate dropped to half of the average.Sichuan Aba area of about 200 base station network paralysis Chengdu communications network is as luck would guard it normal, but network is busy, voice message is 7 times of usual and the SMS is 2 times of usual that resulting in congestion and SMS communication delay.Traffic bridle-path damaged by the earthquake which affected the aviation, Chengdu International Airport shut down immediately after the earthquake.Railways, the Baoji-Chengdu Railway and Chengdu-Kunming railway line extension and the link multiple collapsed.Highways, the earthquake caused landslides, avalanches and other secondary cataclysms which resulting the roads in the disaster areas and the infrastructure severely damaged and enormous loss.Landform and Water temblor caused the collapse of the Minjiang River and areas of adorn change that induced a large number of secondary mountain hazards, mainly landslides, debris flow, etc., in the active stage of secondary disasters after the earth quake, landslide active landslide will continue of 5-10 years, the active debris flow will continue of 10-20 years. In addition, the earthquake in Wenchuan, Beichuan and other areas formed 34 barrier lakes and the Tangjiashan Barrier Lake is the most dangerous one.EcologyThe homes of Wolong giant panda in Sichuan were destroyed by the earthquake mountain collapse, landslide, debris flow and land subsidence. Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu Province eco constitutions are damaged in large area, bare soil, rivers blocked and geomorphology changed that affected the water conservation function, soil conservation function and biodiversity forethought function to serious jeopardy.Finance and IndustryAfter the earthquake, the Agricultural Development Bank in Beichuan County branch is affected, the Shanghai Stock substitute and Shenzhen Stock Exchange are unable to contact the listed company of Sichuan and Chongqing, and decided to suspend the 66 listed companies of both countries.The damages indu stry, due to the amount insured and the insurance is low, after the earthquake, the disaster area is paid only $1.806 billion by the insurance industry.For Industry, the affected industrial enterprises in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces reached 17,923companies. The direct economic loss is $104.87 billion and other economic loss is about $83 billion.LEsson learnedThe earthquake happened in Sichuan, it took few days to grasp all the damages and number of casualty involved. All telecommunication was cut off, roads and bridges were destroyed by earthquake. Rescue team required to proceed to the affected area by climbing up mountains and track rivers by foot which caused a serious delay for the first response of the disaster. In this disaster, more than 90 % of casualties were killed by collapsed buildings. Most damaged buildings could not apply the shock of the earthquake, stock-still up the organisation institution building. It obviously showed that the building code may not be upon standard or the enforcement action did not strictly comply by the local organisation. Introducing minimum safety standards for new building construction discount largely reduce the riskiness from future earthquakes. In particular, improvements in the design and construction of reinforced concrete frame buildings with brick infill, in order to reduce the increase in risk. Furthermore, the urban intend in earthquake-prone regions can be improved by strengthen the buildings amaze more differcuit to collapse when they are shivered by earthquakes.In view of the damages were too large for local government to cope with and medical cooperation was not effective enough to rescue the casualties in the golden time. As such, the urgency Response Plans should be recognized that for the first several hours after an earthquake, the first response is going to come from the local communities. Hence, training programs involving local volunteers are important to reduce the life loss fro m an earthquake.An aggressive planning and training in schools should be carried out by children knowe what to do when the shaking began. Drills should be undertaken to test the emergency response plans and keep them current with keep to changing conditions. Governmental institutions and civil society organizations should accept policies and develop programs for pro-active preparedness and mitigation instead of being concerns by response only. Awareness programs, pr impressionive actions and long term mitigation policies will result in more responsible and capable institutions, more engaged communities and a more aware civil society. urban risk reduction essential be viewed as a partnership between the government and its citizenship.Lack of systematical rescue procedures were also noted in this disaster. A Government Logistic Centre should be established, in order to gather all the resources, supporting from Nation Wide Agency, Medical Supporting Team and uncoerced Rescue team fr om other country. However, the Government disaster plan should be developed to identify the resources that can respond to disaster immediately. These resources include both the humane potential as well as the availability of heavy equipment, which hindered the immediate intervention of search and rescue on affected areas.Perform basic calculations to estimate the usurpation of the Sichuan earthquakeTop 10 most important Earthquake (seismic activity) disasters for the period 1900 to 2010CountryDateNo Total AffectedChina P Rep, Earthquake (ground shaking)12/05/200845976596India, Earthquake (ground shaking)21/08/198820003766India, Earthquake (ground shaking)26/01/20016321812Pakistan, Earthquake (ground shaking)8/10/20055128000China P Rep, Earthquake (ground shaking)3/02/19965077795Guatemala, Earthquake (ground shaking)4/02/19764993000Haiti, Earthquake (ground shaking)12/01/20103700000Peru, Earthquake (ground shaking)31/05/19703216240Indonesia, Earthquake (ground shaking)27/05/2006317 7923China P Rep, Earthquake (ground shaking)1/11/19993020004Source EM-DAT The OFDA/CRED International accident Database www.em-dat.net Universit Catholique de Louvain Brussels BelgiumEarthquake depends on what kind it is lossd by the district, if the earthquake occurred in sparsely populated areas which loss of life and property with little or no. However, if the earthquake occurred is a modern city, there will result in lives and property great loss. In addition to the economic value of material damage, the earthquake should be considered as a result of direct and indirect economic consequences, such as urban and rural migration, production interruption, health and other tender services temporary to provide normally.We can be observed from above table, the Sichuan earthquake have brought the huge implications for loss of life and property. The number of total affected in the Sichuan earthquake are 45976596 which impact large than other countries.Comparison with raw(a) disast er in Eastern Asia in 2008DatesGeoDisasterNumbers outEndLocationTypeKilledTotal AffectedEst. Damage (US$ Million)00/11/200800/00/2009China -Henan, Anhui, ShanxiDrought3700000234.29425/05/200825/05/2008China Qingzhou, SichuanEarthquake (ground shaking)835100026/12/200826/12/2008China -Yunnan provinceEarthquake (ground shaking)9501906/10/200806/10/2008China -Near Ningzhong, YangiEarthquake (ground shaking)3075430/08/200830/08/2008China -Miyi, Lihui , PanzhihuaEarthquake (ground shaking)40100058949221/08/200821/08/2008China -Yingjiang (Yunnan province)Earthquake (ground shaking)616005/08/200805/08/2008China -Sichuan provinceEarthquake (ground shaking)41352912/05/200812/05/2008China -Wenchuan country, WencguaEarthquake (ground shaking)87476459765968500014/02/200818/02/2008China -Yunnan provinceExtreme winter conditions1610/01/200805/02/2008China -Zhejiang, Sichuan, AnhuiExtreme winter conditions129770000002110007/07/200807/07/2008China -Hubei, Yunnan provinces common swamp193000000102 10/10/200816/10/2008China -Hainan IslandGeneral Flood35000031/10/200804/11/2008China -Yunnan, Guangxi provincesGeneral Flood674110002907/08/200811/08/2008China -Jinghong (Yunan province)General Flood208100004202/05/200805/05/2008China -Dangyang, ShayangGeneral Flood37800001907/06/200822/06/2008China -Jiangxi, GuangxiGeneral Flood1761600000220027/05/200805/06/2008China -Guizhou, Hubei, GuangxiGeneral Flood6453816608/07/200808/07/2008China -Long en villageLandslide1508/09/200808/09/2008China -Taoshi, near LinfenLandslide2773513/06/200813/06/2008China -Luliang (Shanxi provinceLandslide1914/03/200814/03/2008China -Near Huocheng CountyLandslide1203/06/200803/06/2008China -Zhoukou (Henan province)Local storm101002317/04/200819/04/2008China -XinjiangLocal storm73328/09/200828/09/2008China -Ningle, Fuzhou, Putian equatorial cyclone24/09/200825/09/2008China -Near Maoming, YanjiangTropical cyclone1282422/08/200823/08/2008China -Canton, ShenzhenTropical cyclone49000005808/08/200811/08/2008Chin a -Leizhou PeninsulaTropical cyclone420008028/07/200808/08/2008China -Yuexi, JinzhaiTropical cyclone1930067324/06/200827/06/2008China -Sichuan, GuandongTropical cyclone1434000017519/04/200819/04/2008China -Shenzhen, HainanTropical cyclone252740004925/09/200825/09/2008Hong Kong (China)Tropical cyclone5822/09/200822/09/2008Hong Kong (China)Tropical cyclone21120.3805/08/200805/08/2008Hong Kong (China)Tropical cyclone3723/07/200824/07/2008Japan -HachinoheEarthquake (ground shaking)147011014/06/200814/06/2008Japan -Iwate, Miyazaki, MiyagiEarthquake (ground shaking2344816728/07/200829/07/2008Japan -Kobe , KanazawaGeneral Flood55000304/05/200804/05/2008Korea -BoryeongStorm surge/coastal Flood101301/05/200810/09/2008Mongolia -Ulaanbaatar, SukhbaatarViral Infectious Diseases315116/09/200816/09/2008Taiwan NantouTropical cyclone5228/09/200828/09/2008Taiwan Ilan countyTropical cyclone30609023/09/200823/09/2008Taiwan (China)Tropical cyclone118/07/200819/07/2008Taiwan -Stratit, YilanTropical cy clone2681627/07/200827/07/2008Taiwan Nantou countyTropical cyclone210Source EM-DAT The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database www.em-dat.net Universit Catholique de Louvain Brussels BelgiumComparison with the number of killed from natural disaster in China in 2008Source EM-DAT The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database www.em-dat.net Universit Catholique de Louvain Brussels BelgiumThe above chart is shown as the number of 87564 killed people from natural disaster in China. The earthquake was largest number of killed people than other natural disaster. Departments should focus on research institute in the future to prevent the recurrence of earthquakes. Reducing earthquake disasters on human life and property loss and damage caused.Comparison with estimate damage ($US million) from natural disaster in Eastern Asia in 2008Source EM-DAT The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database www.em-dat.net Universit Catholique de Louvain Brussels BelgiumIn economic losses, natura l disasters occurred in China remote more than other countries. Thus, the result has been impact on the economy to slow down the development of Chinas development.Estimation the impact of the earthquakeThe Sichuan earthquake led at minimum 5million people missing housing. The estimate impact of economics might be as high as 11million. Uncountable of agriculture were also damaged with 12.5 million animals and birds. In the Sichuan province a lot of pigs who died from out of the total number of 60 million. Catastrophe modeling firm air worldwide announced official evaluates of bought insurance amount about losses at US$1 billion in the earthquake, estimated total destroy over US$20 billion. There are including the values Chengdu, Sichuan Provinces capital city of 4.5million people, worth US$115billion, and having only a small part included by insurance.Multi-layered urban systemLBHAISSENEFastSlowSpeed of changeSpaceNarrowVastHA Human ActivitiesLB Land-use and build environmentIS InfraStructureSE Social EnvironmentNE Natural EnvironmentYe Yaoxian 2008, Earthquake Disaster ComparatologyCity is a multi-layered system that includes other vanadium levels of Natural Environment, Social Environment, InfraStructure, Land-use and Built environment, Human Activities. The above chart could estimate for urban speed of change to prevent unbalance between human activities and natural environment. Urban earthquake disaster is the earthquake struck the city of all these systems, so that the citys multi-level system of quality and functional decline. It is making the city the most open and potential dysfunction. A city could not stand the test of earthquake destruction. It depends on every level and all levels of interaction with suitable the methods and functions. China must harmonious development and sustainable management of our cities to economic afford the impact of the earthquake.Earthquake disaster is huge accident. The contributing factors of the earthquake disa ster and characterized mainly the sideline fourLow frequency for occurrence of earthquakeDisastrous earthquake in the same place where may take a hundred years or even centuries. Living in the earthquake risk residents, a life may not meet case of strong earthquake, or even generations also cannot feel by the cruel and powerful in the earthquake. Therefore, people undergo a seismic zone earthquake in the blood of the lesson ofttimes forgotten.Destruction of large areas by earthquake disasterEarthquake on the built environment, social environment and the natural environment will have major(ip) damage and impact. The damage will not only directly affect a countrys vast area, and may spread to the country, and even the world. Therefore, a comprehensive defense team of this area of the disaster damage, not only requires enormous human and material resources, but also need a scientific decision support.High dubiousness to predict future earthquakeWe cannot accurately predict future ear thquake time, location and magnitude of the three elements. Nowadays, we are in order to use the limited human and material resources to deal with a lot of uncertainty in the disaster that is almost impossible obviously.Strong interaction with natural and social factorEarthquake disaster is not only a natural phenomenon. There have also social, economic and environmental phenomena. Earthquake disaster will be the system with multi-level interaction. If the earthquake occurred in the undeveloped areas, although unexpected that but it will not form a disaster However, if in a modern planetary metropolis, the world will be affected and impact. Different countries, from government to private plans are developed and adopted various measures to mitigate natural disasters, developed and underdeveloped countries start and finish a lot of assistance cooperation projects.Human factors involved in Sichuan earthquakeSocial and Political FactorAfter the earthquake, the Chinese government was quickly response to the earthquake that should be appreciation but its school construction scandal. The central government evaluates where over 7,000 not suitable engineered schoolrooms toppled in the earthquake. Chinese residents have since developed a catch phrase tofu-dregs schoolhouses to fake materials with the quantity of structure of building which killed a lot of school children. It is because Chinas the policy of one-child, many families lost their only child while schools in the area of collapsed in the earthquake. Therefore, local officials in Sichuan province have cancelled the limit for families that only child was either killed or fatally injured in the disaster.Uneven urban development in China, especially Sichuan where were resulted in city marginalized. Sichuan public transport facilities are crude. There was difficult to access from the rescue terms. The problem has become serious in Chinas rich and poor. The well urban political planning is very important.Human vulnerabilityAfter the quake, donations from China and around the world were constantly. How many of the real victims could reach the help directly. It is because Chinas corruption problem is serious. Builders purchase building materials in the corruption or taking their commission. The result was produced tofu-dregs schoolhouses to reduce the quality of these inferior constructions.Sichuan Earthquake (Yr 2008) implicationSichuan earthquake is a disaster for two reasons it is both an exceptional seismic event in itself, and exceeded the human abilities in the Sichuan province to encounter it. The combination of those two elements explains why this earthquake is a major disaster, with great losses. Regarding the casualties, the Sichuan earthquake is the second most important natural disaster in the world in 2008 (the first is the Nargis typhoon in Burma). But if we take into accounting the affected population and the economic losses, Wenchuan earthquake ranks first.The earthquake was indeed particularly devastating. The regions high vulnerability is one of the reasons for these dreadful damages, but it is not the only explanation. We can quickly name some of the earthquakes characteristics which explain the importance of damages. Ground motion observations from the earthquake indicate a long duration of ground shaking-over 100 seconds in most areas, and in rare cases as high as a few hundred seconds. The long duration of ground motion is a challenging issue in earthquake applied science because of its continuous impact, accumulating the damaging effects and compounding the development of fractures within engineering structures. As seismic waves travel through the ground, they produce both vertical and plane ground shaking effects, which have different structural impacts that must be accounted for in building design (Risk Management Solution, Stanford University). The vertical component of the Wenchuan earthquake was particularly important, increasing the damages to buildings. The surface ruptures were also exceptional and caused lots of damage (Xiwei Xu et al).There are also economic and social damage. A number of buildings and infrastructures have been destroyed or damaged. This had a significant impact on the local economy and on peoples sustentation conditions. According to the Integrated Risk Governance purport Report (Peijun Shi et al, China) the earthquake damaged the following infrastructures 24 express ways, 163 national and provincial highways, 7 important railways and 3 smaller ones, 22 airports (among them Chengdu airport). The electric carity, communication, radio, television and water conservation infrastructures were also damaged, so were some cultural relics. 6 counties and 125 cities lacked electricity. More than 30 000communication stations, 1 096 radio and television stations, 2473 major reservoirs, 822 electric stations, 1 105 dykes and 20 769 pipes were damaged. Roads were cut, so the access to some areas beca me difficult. These damages caused a degradation of the living conditions of a part of the population. For example, the damages to water pipes had consequences for 10.5 million people. The losses also concerned industry and agriculture. 17826 companies were affected and 5645 major industrial companies stopped production. In Sichuan and Gansu, 137000 hectares of crops and 486 000 hectares of forest were destroyed. Of course, the most important damage for peoples living conditions was the collapse of buildings. 15,106 million people have been displaced, essentially because of this reason (but also in order to dodge secondary disasters, such as lakes which were formed after the earthquake and could overflow, or such as landslides). Six months after the disaster, there were still 5 million people who lived in temporary houses or even in tents. The amount of these losses is huge. The economic losses reached 845,136 billion Yuan in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi (with 771,717 billion Yuan onl y for Sichuan).Apart from the lossess on economic and society, and it was corroding in the school buildings scandal. The Chinese central government estimates that over 7,000 poor engineered school rooms were collapsed in the earthquake., and such constructions that killed so many school children.Emergency ResponseNumbers of rescue personnel where have brigades from the Peoples Liberation Army going into action within 24 hours. However, Rescue efforts were very difficult from the beginning, owing to the difficult environment situation and the extensive damage to the basic public facilities. All roads delivery to Wenchuan Xian (Sichuan) had been stopped and rescuer should access to Wenchuan and this parameter on foot. In the days and weeks that followed, outside resources and personnel were delivered to the disaster zone.Reconstruction and Long Term Recovery EffortsThe China State Council support for the Sichuan re-construction, the most pressing issue is to relief millions of person s as many of them still losing their home and most keep going to stay in temporary shelters of one kind or others. The rudimentary Government of China is giving the pressure and using resources to built up the new housing when the coming of Winter.The earthquake a shock which raises sensation about risk managementThe earthquake is also some kind of a test to the top management of PRC Governments reaction and abilities in general, and shock which raises awareness for the risk / emergency management system in particular.The growing importance attached to the principle of responsibility, the PRC Governments supervision of help are elements which can win a new importance in the future Chinese policy.ConclusionThe Sichuan (Wenchuan) earthquake is a large-scale disaster which struck the Sichuan province, and more particularly its underdeveloped western part. Sichuan is one of the numerous Chinese provinces where earthquake risk is high China is a country marked by natural disasters in general and earthquakes in particular. The disaster was a trial for the Chinese government and its administration, which both already had to deal with the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, at the end of the Cultural Revolution when China was far less developed than it is today. The management of the Wenchuan earthquake seems to be a rupture because of its efficiency and of the open attitude of the government, and of the multiplicity of actors who took part in relief work. In spite of difficulties, the solidarity outburst which occurred was unprecedented in the country. The time of crisis was followed by recovery, then rebuilding. This last moment was an opportunity to initiate new dynamics taking into account antiseismic norms in a more efficient way, better urban planning, programmes which integrate struggle against poverty, and also creating symbols and memorial places of the disaster. But dynamics related to this event do not only concern affected areas the event generated a broader r ise of awareness about risk issues, and had repercussions at a national scale. As a matter of fact, there are a growing number of reflections and measures about risk and disaster management in the whole administration at a national level, but also at local officials, who fear the possibility of occurrence of a disaster in their own region. In any way, risk and disaster management appears like an important issue in land planning, and cannot be separated from economic and social development questions.The analysis of the Wenchuan earthquake can be a first approach to larger inquiries about natural disasters in China and their management for two reasons. First, it was a major disaster, which has already become a reference. Thus, its analysis can be a model to compare other events. Then, the earthquake triggered an unprecedented reaction how are these dynamics going to take? This study focuses on seismic disasters, particularly on one event, whose size was exceptional.It aroused reactio ns and a rise of awareness which are also exceptional. China is marked by lots of disasters, which are usually less important and less spectacular. Making a list of common points and differences in the management of these different phenomena could be interesting. All of them are not national events like the Wenchuan earthquake was. Is the relative discretion of smaller disasters an obstacle for their taking into account by authorities and actors of land settlement?The Wenchuan disaster revealed many things about society and the government in China because it is an exceptional situation, a deviation from the norm. The media have built a detail memory about natural disasters, by showing the most sensational , elements or those whose description and visualization are the easiest so they have creat