Characters and objecti ve assessment of disasters caused by typhoons in China.

The characters of casualty, damaged or collapsed house, inundated farmland area, and direct economic loss caused by tropical cyclones (TC) in China during 1980- 2004 are analyzed based on the typhoon disaster loss data compiled by Shanghai T yphoon Institute and National Meteorological Center. Considering direct economic loss and the influence of society development, an Advanced Typhoon Disaster Ind ex (ATDI) for objective assessment of disaster degrees is developed. Based on th e ATDIs of all tropical cyclones, the disasters are divided into four categorie s: gentle, moderate, heavy, and severe. It is found that on average 7.2 TCs caus ed remarkable damages in China each year. The annual damage increases with incre asing casualty (the death toll dropped dramatically), damaged or collapsed house , inundated farmland, and direct economic loss, although the number of TCs causi ng disasters has dropped in China during 1980-2004. The average yearly growth ra tes of the damaged or collapsed house, inundated farmland, and direct economic l oss are 1.33×10 3 rooms, 2.28×104 hm 2, and 1.46 billion RMB, respectively . As far as single TC is concerned, those average growth rates are 581.4 rooms p er TC, 880.0 hm 2 per TC and 33 million RMB per TC, respectively. Based on the ATDI, the damage caused by TCs more severe in the mid 1990's with the severest ( gentlest) damage occurring in 1996 (1998) from 1980 to 2004.