CHINA should strengthen construction of its monitoring, forecasting and disaster-prevention system to reduce economic losses from disasters, according to a top marine official.
Song Xuejia, deputy director of the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Centre, told China Daily that in the past two years his centre had forecast the occurrence and consequences of El Nino and the appearance of tidal waves and maritime storms.
Every April, Song's centre issues a forecast on natural maritime disasters likely to affect the country in the coming year.
China has an 18,000-kilometre coastline, with a large population and rapidly developing economy based in coastal areas. These areas have suffered economic losses of up to 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) a year in the 1990s.
In the summer of 1997, Song's centre forecast that a violent typhoon would hit South China. He was even awarded a prize from the State Oceanographic Administration for his prediction. Despite this, the typhoon inflicted major damage on eastern coastal areas.
In Zhejiang Province alone, the typhoon caused more than 17 billion yuan (US$2 billion) of direct economic losses in the past few years.
Although the number of disastrous maritime storms varies from year to year, the damage wrought on coastal areas has been increasing in past decades, Song added.
There are two main reasons for this _ many coastal storm defences are not up to standard, and there are too few large defences with the ability to withstand a 1-in-50-year tidal wave.
Most of the country's coastal areas, especially delta regions, are very exposed to the ravages of tidal waves.
The exploitation of resources and economic development in coastal areas were often carried out in an unplanned manner, based solely on monetary returns, and ignoring the local ecology.
The large extent of intensive sea-water fish farming and the reclamation of land for agricultural use or construction projects in coastal areas have accelerated degradation of the environment and increased the fragility of disaster-prevention projects, Song said.
He called on local governments in coastal areas to improve management and allocate special funds to construct and renovate dams to resist tidal waves.
An effective emergency-handling system should be set up before a tidal wave hits the coast, Song added.
Song, who studied oceanography for five years in the 1980s at Tokyo University in Japan, cited overseas statistics on damage from maritime disasters, which show that countries in the early stage of economic development are relatively prone to disasters.
However, if a balance between environmental conservation and resource exploitation could be achieved in coastal areas, this situation could change, he said.
Since the founding of New China in 1949, the government has arranged for the construction of 12,000 kilometres of tidal protection dams and defences along the coasts, effectively protecting important coastal cities, and industrial and energy bases.