Characterizing the 2020 summer floods in South China and effects on croplands

Xi Chen; Jinwei Dong; Lin Huang; Lajiao Chen; Zhichao Li; Nanshan You; Mrinal Singha; Fulu Tao

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107096

Characterizing the 2020 summer floods in South China and effects on croplands

iScience. 2023 Jun 12;26(7):107096. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107096. eCollection 2023 Jul 21.

Authors

Xi Chen¹, Jinwei Dong¹, Lin Huang¹, Lajiao Chen², Zhichao Li¹, Nanshan You¹, Mrinal Singha¹, Fulu Tao^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
² Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China.
³ College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), 00790 Helsinki, Finland.

Abstract

Floods occur more frequently in the context of climate change; however, flood monitoring capacity has not been well established. Here, we used a synergic mapping framework to characterize summer floods in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain and the effects on croplands in 2020, from both flood extent and intensity perspectives. We found that the total flood extent was 4936 km² from July to August, and for flood intensity, 1658, 1382, and 1896 km² of areas experienced triple, double, and single floods. A total of 2282 km² croplands (46% of the flooded area) were inundated mainly from Poyang and Dongting Lake Basins, containing a high ratio of moderate damage croplands (47%). The newly increased flooding extent in 2020 was 29% larger than the maximum ever-flooded extent in 2015-2019. This study is expected to provide a reference for rapid regional flood disaster assessment and serving mitigation.

Keywords: Agricultural science; Atmospheric science; Global change; Meteorology.