Extreme weather events a challenge to city management

Henan floods show more must be done to address growing meteorological crises

Zhengzhou, the capital of Central China's Henan province, is regarded as one of the star cities in China, having transformed from an unremarkable railway hub into a modern metropolis over the past decade. This is why the heavy loss of life the city suffered during the deadly floods in the province in late July was especially shocking.

The city, home to 12 million people, accounted for the lion's share of the total death toll in the province during the severe rainstorms. Yet Zhengzhou, whose population and GDP have increased nearly threefold over the past 10 years - its GDP hit more than 1.2 trillion yuan ($186.2 billion) - has rapidly modernized its infrastructure and has been a pioneer in its efforts to be a sponge city and smart city, which should have made it better able to respond to the heavy rainfall.

However, the tragedy in Zhengzhou showed that unless advanced technologies and modern city planning are effectively integrated with an efficient and agile urban management system, subways, tunnels, underground parking lots and other modern urban infrastructure can become deathtraps in minutes in an extreme weather event.

Investigation underway

The central authorities are still carrying out an investigation into how the various local governments performed during the deadly floods in the province, which claimed 302 lives and left 50 missing.

But other cities must not just wait for the results; they should heed the lessons of Zhengzhou. The city's problematic response to the flash flood showed that as the skylines of Chinese cities soar higher and the built-up areas sprawl out to hold more residents - about 300 million rural residents have moved to the country's cities over the past three decades - the building of the underground spaces, the overconcentration of the population and the busy traffic system and large-scale industrial bases are all making cities more vulnerable to the tests of extreme weather events than ever before.

The dramatic increase in the rainfall in the north of the country over recent years - statistics show the rainfall in Henan has risen for 10 years in a row for instance - can be attributed to climate change, which is increasing the frequency and severity of deluges such as the one that caused so much heartache in Henan. That's why meteorologists and emergency response experts are urging the authorities to attach more significance to the prevention and control of floods in the north of the country while not relaxing their vigilance to the typhoons, droughts and tornadoes that are intensifying in the south.

Particularly, it has been suggested that the flow regulation function of the Three Gorges Dam in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, should be better harnessed to prevent and control floods and resist droughts in the areas down river.

At the same time the integrity of the dam needs to be carefully monitored, as the largest hydropower station in the world was designed and built before climate change and extreme weather events became such clear and pressing challenges.