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N VIEW OF
the increasing global urbanization and disaster
vulnerability of megacities, Meteorological Services must
meet new challenges not only from disaster risk manage-
ment, but also from human settlement and sustainable
development. This includes public security, energy supply,
environment protection, and transportation control.
With its rapid urbanization and population growth,
Shanghai, a megacity of China, has become more vulnerable
to disasters such as typhoons, severe convective weather, thick
fog, heat waves and city fires. Sometimes non-severe weather
may bring serious problems because an increasing number of
activities are more sensitive to weather and climate. For
example, a light snowfall of 1.7 millimetres caused a severe
traffic jam in Shanghai on 28 February 2005.
The Shanghai Regional Meteorological Center, China
Meteorological Administration (SRMC / CMA) recognizes the
importance and relevance of Meteorological Services in megac-
ities such as Shanghai, and aims to explore and understand
them as far as possible.
Meteorological Services in multi-hazard mitigation
Multi-agency preparedness, multi-hazard integration and
multi-phase response are three crucial factors of disaster risk
management in megacities. As 89 per cent of disasters involve
the weather, water, climate-related hazards and conditions,
Meteorological Services should play a basic but very impor-
tant role in multi-disaster risk management, especially in the
establishment of early warning systems.
Multi-agency preparedness
– This requires joint efforts from
multiple government agencies to support disaster risk manage-
ment. In Shanghai, the Emergency Response/Mitigation
Committee consists of 50 members from government agencies,
collectively equipped to deal with matters including flooding,
severe weather, earthquakes, fire, traffic accidents, chemical
New challenges to meteorological
services for human settlement and
sustainable development in megacities
Xu Tang, PhD, Director-General, Shanghai Regional Meteorological Center,
China Meteorological Administration
Seamless dissemination of multi-hazard warning information