Mapping China: Urbanisation - 7 Urban Disasters and Crisis Management: Crisis Management

The SARS outbreak in 2003 urged the development of a sophisticated management regulation in China. The Public Health Emergency Response Regulations was issued immediately after the incident. The National Law of Public Emergency Response was passed in 2007. But it was not until the Wenchuan earthquake that city managers realised that urban crisis management ought to be a daily practice instead of spontaneous reactions to fatal disasters.

Though legislation was achieved in 2007, a regularised, comprehensive emergency management institution is still under construction. The national law categorised disasters according to their causes and degrees of damage, but a sophisticated detection system has not been addressed. The detection system would require a massive collection and processing of data that could evaluate the emergency status of the event beforehand.

Efficiency in allocating resources is a key to prompt emergency response. To break the bureaucratic barrier, an independent administrative body needs to be functioning on a daily basis. For example, in Shanghai the Coordination Office for Emergency Response was set up and authorised power to supervise other departments on occasions of emergency, including the police offices, the civil defence departments, the transportation authority, the electricity control authority and the petro management authority as well as other similar entities.

Public relations is yet another concern of the authorities after disastrous incidents. China’s media policy has caused some problems with public credibility when it comes to information transparency. This is a potential threat to effective emergency response. After all, public awareness is the key to risk reduction and crisis management.