Abstract:

Floods are a natural phenomenon.The frequency of flooding disasters will increase if there is an imbalance between people and the land.Agricultural floods occur because of the interaction between natural and socio-economic factors.The vulnerability and adaptability of the disaster-affected bodies affect the vulnerability of agricultural floods.As a critical agricultural city and population gathering area in the western part of the Guanzhong area,Shaanxi Province,China,the landform types of Baoji City in the area are complex and diverse.Owing to the inter-annual and seasonal fluctuations in the East Asian summer monsoon,the flood disasters in Baoji City are frequent and serious,and the damage caused by flood disasters is second only to drought disasters.Therefore,it is critical to conduct a risk assessment and zoning research of agricultural floods.Based on the precipitation data in 2014 and the socio-economic statistics in 2015,this study initially discussed with the vulnerability and adaptability factors and selected 12 subindexes,including annual precipitation.We constructed the index system and evaluation model for the vulnerability assessment of agricultural flood disasters in Baoji City and determined the weight by using a mean-variance weighting method.The vulnerability of agricultural flood disasters in the study area was comprehensively evaluated and zoned using ArcGIS 10.2 technology from the perspective of a county scale.Results show the following:(1) The high-vulnerability area is concentrated in the districts and counties with high annual precipitation and the large proportion of cultivated land in Daishan County and Jintai District.(2) Highly adaptable areas include economically developed areas such as Weibin District and Jintai District.(3) High-vulnerability areas are Taibai County and Qianyang County.The higher vulnerability areas are Jixian,Linyou,Daishan,and Fufeng,the mediumfragile areas are the Chencang District and Fengxiang County,and the lowvulnerability areas are the Jintai District,Weibin District,Meixian County,and Feng County.Overall,the highfragility areas of agricultural floods in Baoji City are concentrated in the northeastern part of the county.Agricultural floods are generally manifested in areas such as the Weihe River and Qianhe River,the mountain river catchment areas,channel coasts,and closed low-lying basins.The Baoji Municipal government and relevant departments should formulate the necessary disaster prevention and mitigation measures to reduce agricultural flood damage based on the characteristics of the cultivated environment,economic development level,population distribution pattern,and land-use structure of each district and county.Among them,ecological disaster reduction is a practical and effective measure to cope with flood disasters.The zoning results are consistent with the disaster situation in Baoji City,which could provide a reliable reference for the comprehensive management of regional agricultural floods.As there are few studies on flood disasters in small and medium-scale areas with complex topographical conditions of the past,this study is aimed at Baoji City,a mesoscale area with complex topographical and geomorphological conditions in a typical monsoon climate zone.We analyzed and evaluated the vulnerability of local agricultural flood disasters and proposed countermeasures.We believe that the occurrence of agricultural floods in small-scale regional areas is characterized by locality,suddenness,uncertainty,and difficulty in forecasting.The early warning,forecasting,and monitoring are of great practical significance for reducing the vulnerability and mitigating the actual damage.

Key words: agricultural')">

agricultural, flood disaster, vulnerability, assessment and zoning, county scale, Baoji City