An early warning system for weather disasters, a key part of
China's meteorological strategic research program, will be
ambitiously upgraded this year.
The system includes six major efforts: calamity monitoring,
forecasting, early warning, information processing, public
broadcasting, disaster assessment, emergency response and
decision-making, officials said.
Based on overall assessments of calamities, the China
Meteorological Administration (CMA) and its agencies throughout the
country will help local authorities to work out precautionary
schemes to fight extreme weather conditions and mitigate possible
damage caused.
"Every year, the average direct economic loss caused by
catastrophic disasters, particularly, typhoon, destructive gales,
rainstorm and consequent geological hazards like mud flows,
accounts for 3-6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product,"
Qin Dahe, CMA's top official, told a national conference which
ended on Friday.
Qin pledged to upgrade weather forecasting and climate
prediction for such disasters to help mitigate the losses they may
cause.
"What we are going to do is to keep an eye on such calamities in
an all-around way and issue early warnings for the public and the
decision-makers," Qin said.
Meteorological authorities will build the warning system through
using super-computer-based data-collecting and information
processing channels, satellites and a national weather radar
network.
Over the past years, China has installed 74 sets of the world's
advanced Doppler weather radar with 87 percent put into
operation.
This year, 30 other new devices of the same type are scheduled
to be in place with a satellite launched later last year expected
to start its operations following full orbital testing.
"Weather forecasters will be able to watch the weather and
climate changes 24 hours a day with the help of such a system when
all things ready for operation," Zhang Guocai, director of CMA's
Department of Forecasting Services and Disaster Mitigation, said on
Friday in Beijing.
He was confident that, by then, weather forecasting can be made
as detailed as possible for the public to know when and where
disasters like typhoons, floods and gales, are to happen.
"This year, we will introduce a color-coded weather warning
system nationwide to issue information about extreme weather
conditions including typhoons, rainstorms, heat and cold waves,
fog, sandstorms, lightning storms, gales, hailstorms, snowstorms
and road icing," Zhang said.
The warnings will be issued alongside images and words in
Chinese and English and broadcast on TV, radio and in text messages
to people via mobile phones along with other possible means of mass
distribution like electronic billboards in downtown areas and
freeways.
"It will help people prepare for and avoid the harm of bad
weather and enable decision-makers to know about impending
calamities as early as possible," he said.
"People in areas of risk can be saved with consequent damages
mitigated with warnings issued 3 hours ahead of upcoming
disasters," Zhang added.
(China Daily January 22, 2005)