Evaluation and Optimization of Flood and Typhoon Disaster Prevention Emergency Response Plans in East China

Against the backdrop of global climate change, flood disasters triggered by typhoons endanger people’s lives and properties as well as public safety in coastal areas. Effective prevention becomes a highly significant link in a flood and typhoon prevention emergency response plan system. This paper systematically evaluated and refined the system, with proposed preventive measures and determined priorities. It constructed a multi-dimensional evaluation indicator system, covering 16 key indicators involving plan formulation and implementation. Emergency response plans were evaluated by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE), and the mutual influence mechanism among the indicators were analyzed by Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM). A chain-type collaborative mechanism was then constructed to determine the priorities of the optimization measures for the emergency response plan system. With Zhejiang Province as the study area, Hangzhou as an example at the municipal level and Chun’an at the county level, this paper investigated the deficiencies in the emergency response plans at the three administrative levels. The results show that, plans show a decreasing tendency from the provincial to the municipal and finally the county levels (exactly from 4.198 to 3.998 to 3.870 points/5 points), and the most important evaluation indicators are the integrity of plan formulation, the response ability of professionals and the current situation of education and training. But problems are found existing in the integrity of plan formulation, emergency resource cost and emergency response speed. Based on the proposed chain-type collaborative mechanism, specific optimization suggestions mainly focus on how to prioritize personnel training, optimize resource costs and coordinate the work of multiple institutions. The findings are expected to provide guidance for the flood and typhoon prevention emergency response plan system in Zhejiang Province as well as similar areas facing the challenges of climate change disasters.