Climate change contributing to risk of marine disasters, warn forecasters

BEIJING - China will face an increasing risk of marine disasters during the next 10 years, the country's top marine environmental forecasters said as they called for improvements to the nation's warning systems.

"Partly because of global climate change, marine disasters have become more frequent in the world and have killed more than 300,000 people during the past 10 years," said Yu Fujiang, deputy director of the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (NMEFC).

Related readings:  Tropical storm Haima hits S China  China embraces first tropical storm this year  Rain, floods continue to batter S China

"It was lucky that China was not hit by a catastrophic marine disaster during that period but the country is very likely to face increasing risks during the next 10 years."

Yu said his predication was based on analyzing data from the past 60 years.

Marine disasters - including storm surges, extreme waves, sea ice and red tides - have hit China's coastal areas hard in the past.

In 2008, a severe storm surge triggered by Typhoon Hagupit swept over South China's Guangdong province, killing 26 people and inflicting a direct economic loss of tens of billions of yuan.

"The country may suffer greater losses in the future if it fails to take timely steps because most coastal areas now are stronger economically," he said.

Major coastal cities, including Shanghai, Fuzhou, and Guangzhou, are in areas that could be impacted by storm surges, Yu noted.

"Also, six nuclear power plants and more than 200 big chemical enterprises are now in service along the coastal areas," he said. "The impact could be severe and long-lasting if they were damaged in a marine disaster."

By 2010, the country had 106 monitoring stations watching out for potential marine disasters, a sharp increase from the 66 it had in 2005, NMEFC statistics showed.

"But China is still lagging behind in comparison to some developed countries," Yu said, noting that Japan now has more than 170 such stations.

He said China plans to establish another 89 monitoring stations during the next five years.

From July to September, disastrous storm surges are likely to occur three to four times in China, greatly affecting the country's southeast coastal areas, NMEFC forecasters said on Wednesday.

Also, 13 or 14 disastrous waves triggered by typhoons are likely to hit China during the same period, mainly affecting the East China Sea, Taiwan Straits and South China Sea, they said.

Dong Jianxi, a leading forecaster at NMEFC, said the institute plans to provide specific early warnings about such events to nuclear power plants and major chemical enterprises.