Lessons learnt from Typhoons Fitow and In-Fa: implications for improving urban flood resilience in Asian Coastal Cities

Frequent typhoons significantly affect many coastal cities via intensive rainstorms, tidal surges and strong wind. Natural factors induced by human disturbance such as climate change and sea-level rise come alongside anthropogenic factors such as rapid urbanisation and land use/land cover change, leading to detrimental consequences such as urban floods. This short communication offers various lessons learnt by Ningbo municipality from two strong typhoons that hit the city directly, namely Fitow in 2013 and In-Fa in 2021. On the one hand, usage of Big Data and Social Media for better Preparation and Prevention reduced flood impacts noticeably. On the other hand, implementation of Flood Insurance sped up the Recovery processes. The successful Preparation, Response and Recovery helped Ningbo to enhance its flood resilience, and thus to reduce or avoid substantial impacts of injuries, household damages and the associated economic loss. These three key terms should be heeded in typhoon/flood governance in which various stakeholders are involved, and be incorporated into the city's long-term strategic development plans to merge with the climate actions towards the 2030s and beyond. This will be vitally important in reducing climatic hazards and improving coastal flood resilience under the future climatic uncertainties in Asian coastal cities.

Automated summary

This article discusses the lessons learned by Ningbo municipality from two strong typhoons, including the use of Big Data and Social Media to reduce flood impacts and the implementation of Flood Insurance to speed up recovery processes. Successful preparation, response, and recovery helped Ningbo enhance its flood resilience and reduce losses.