Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, Shandong 264003, PR China; Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, Shandong 264003, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China; Ocean College, Yantai University, Yantai, 264005, PR China.
Sci Total Environ. 2019 Mar 20;657:103-107. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.409. Epub 2018 Nov 28.
China has a long history of building hard engineered coastal defences for storm protection, which enables us to examine the economic effects of the hard engineering to mitigate storm damage. Examining historical storm impacts between 1989 and 2016, a significant negative relationship exists between the relative economic damages (i.e., TD/GDP) by storm and the length of existing hard engineering within the storm swath. This indicates that hard engineered defences play a critical role in storm mitigation. We estimated that the storm protection value provided by hard engineered defences in China is CNY 3.18 million/km [US$0.50 million/km] on average, with a median of CNY 1.69 million/km [US $0.27 million]. They provide an annual economic value of CNY 6.04 billion on average. Despite their great contribution to reduce total economic damages from storms, hard engineered defences are not as efficient as coastal wetlands. Coastal wetlands are more cost effective based on comparison from China and USA. This study highlights the need for the Chinese government to transfer focus from prevailing hard engineered defences to ecosystem-based measure or the combination of both measures to prevent storm damage in the future.
中国在建造用于风暴防护的硬质海岸工程方面有着悠久的历史，这使我们能够检验硬质工程在减轻风暴破坏方面的经济影响。通过考察 1989 年至 2016 年期间的历史风暴影响，发现风暴造成的相对经济损失（即 TD/GDP）与风暴路径内现有硬质工程的长度之间存在显著的负相关关系。这表明硬质工程防护措施在风暴缓解方面发挥了关键作用。我们估计，中国硬质工程防护措施提供的风暴防护价值平均为 318 万元/公里（0.5 万美元/公里），中位数为 169 万元/公里（0.27 万美元）。它们平均每年提供 60.4 亿元的经济价值。尽管硬质工程防护措施在减少风暴造成的总经济损失方面做出了巨大贡献，但它们的效率不如沿海湿地。从中国和美国的比较来看，沿海湿地的成本效益更高。本研究强调了中国政府需要将重点从现有的硬质工程防护措施转移到基于生态系统的措施或两者的结合，以防止未来的风暴破坏。
