The Great 2008 Chinese ice storm, its socioeconomic-ecological impact, and sustainability lessons learned

Journal Article · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/2010BAMS2857.1· OSTI ID:1015027

Zhou, Dr. Benzhi ^[1]; Gu, Lianhong ^[2]; Ding, Yihui ^[3]; Wu, Zhongmin ^[1]; Shao, Lan ^[4]; An, Yanfei ^[1]; Cao, Yonghui ^[1]; Duan, Aiguo ^[1]; Kong, Weijian ^[1]; Li, Changzhu ^[5]; Li, Zhengcai ^[1]; Sun, Honggang ^[1]; Wang, Shengkun ^[1]; Wang, Xiaoming ^[1]; Wang, Xu ^[1]; Yang, Xiaosheng ^[1]; Yu, Mukui ^[1]; Zeng, Bingshan ^[1]

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1. Chinese Academy of Forestry
2. ORNL
3. National Climate Center, China
4. China National Forestry Industry Association
5. Hunan Academy of Forestry, China

. Extreme events often expose vulnerabilities of socioeconomic infrastructures and point to directions of much-needed policy change. Integrated impact assessment of such events can lead to finding of sustainability principles. Southern and central China has for decades been undergoing a breakneck pace of socioeconomic development. In early 2008, a massive ice storm struck this region, immobilizing millions of people. The storm was a consequence of sustained convergence between tropical maritime and continental polar air masses, caused by an anomalously stable atmospheric general circulation pattern in both low and high latitudes. Successive waves of freezing rain occurred during a month period, coating southern and central China with a layer of ice 50 to 160mm in thickness. We conducted an integrated impact assessment of this event to determine whether and how the context of socioeconomic and human-disturbed natural systems may affect the transition of natural events into human disasters. We found: 1) without contingency plans, advanced technologies dependent on interrelated energy supplies can create worse problems during extreme events, 2) the weakest link in disaster response lies between science and decision making, 3) biodiversity is a form of long-term insurance for sustainable forestry against extreme events, 4) sustainable extraction of non-timber goods and services is essential to risk planning for extreme events in forest resources use, 5) extreme events can cause food shortage directly by destroying crops and indirectly by disrupting food distribution channels, 6) concentrated economic development increases societal vulnerability to extreme events, and 7) formalized institutional mechanisms are needed to ensure that unexpected opportunities to learn lessons from weather disasters are not lost in distracting circumstances.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: SC USDOE - Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1015027
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 92; ISSN 0003-0007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CHINA
COATINGS
CONVERGENCE
CROPS
DECISION MAKING
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ENERGY SUPPLIES
FOOD
FORESTRY
FORESTS
FREEZING
GOODS AND SERVICES
INSURANCE
RAIN
SHORTAGES
SPECIES DIVERSITY
STORMS
THICKNESS
VULNERABILITY
WEATHER