Case study on Presented to – Ar.

Deeksha Sharma
Yellow River flood, Presented by – Mishul Gupta
China   75186008
B.Arch , 7th sem.
Location
River channel 4
• Country = China
• States = Qinghai, Sichuan, 3
Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia,
Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan,
Shandon
Delta
• Length = 5,464 km (3,395 mi) 2 wetlands
• Source= Bayan Har
Mountains
Dongping
Lake
• Mouth = Bohai Sea 1

Zhengzhou
Mengjin Kaifeng
wetlands
wetlands wetlands
Introduction Survey
N Site three
Lijin
• The 1931 China floods or the 1931 Yellow River floods Lijin

were a series of devastating floods that occurred in the

Republic of China.
Zibo
• The floods are generally considered the deadliest natural Luokou Jinan
disaster ever recorded, and almost certainly the deadliest of Liaocheng
,
Tai an
the 20th century Estimates of the total death toll range Aishan
Sunkou
from 145,000 to between 3.7 million and 4 million. Dongping
Dongping Lake

Dam
Xiaolangdi Gaocun
Sanmenxia River
Qinyang Kaifeng
Huayuankou
Hydrological station
Luoyang
Sanmenxia Zhengzhou City
Lake

Plan

1931 yellow river flood

Respond of citizen during flood 1931 yellow river flood (aerial view)
Causes of disaster
• 1928- 1930 China go through bad drought.
• 1930 winter experience huge snow storms & extremely
heavy rain in spring melted remaining snow and added
more water in the rivers.
• 1931 China hit by 7 strong cyclones(pacific ocean
hurricanes ) in July alone.
• China went through wars & political in-stability ,
government in-charge monitoring the river not able to their
task, as result = Yellow River Flooded Area, 1938-1947

1. Land near the river was overused.

2. Dykes & dams were built in-correctly.
3. Forest & wetland were destroyed.
• The cause of the floods is the large amount of fine-grained
loess carried by the river from the Loess Plateau, which is
continuously deposited along the bottom of its channel.

Yellow River Flooded Area

Chinese Nationalist troops walking
through Yellow River floodwaters.
Impact of disaster
• The floods covered and destroyed thousands of square kilometers of farmland.
• Thousands of villages were inundated, and several million villagers were forced
from their homes and made refugees.
• An unknown number of Japanese soldiers were killed by the flood.
• In 1887 The flood brought death to 900 thousand people (according to other
reports, about two million people drowned and starved to death).
Yellow river flood 1931
• Many villages were buried under a layer of silt, about seven million people were
left homeless, thousands of people were missing.

Yellow river flood 1931 impact

Yellow river flood 1931
Previous history of similar disaster
• The deadliest was a 1332–33 flood that killed 7 million people.
• Close behind is the 1887 flood, which killed anywhere from 900,000 to 2 million
people.
• 1931 flood (part of a massive number of floods that year) that killed 1–4 million
people.
• 1938 Yellow River Flood was came in early stage of the Second Sino-Japanese War
in an attempt 400,000 - 900,000 people killed & 3 million refugees and thousands
Aerial view of flooded area
of villages were inundated or destroyed.

Rescue of people during flood Aerial view of flooded area

Japanese artillery bombarding banks of Yellow River.

Hazards (primary, secondary & tertiary)
Primary
• Soil loss (soil was covered in silt).
• Fresh water shortage, due to flooding.
• Sedimentation and water pollution are the major problems affecting the sustainable
development of the Yellow River basin.
• (Epidemics of diseases, famines, and cases of cannibalism ).
• Secondary
• By 1889, Half a million people have died of cholera. People during flood

Yellow river flood 1931 Aerial view of flood area People during flood
Vulnerability
• Aquaculture is also practiced in some areas along the Yellow River.
• It is called the “Mother River” because it is the breadwinner of
millions of people and it gives new life to the fields.
• After all, each ton of loess contains considerable amounts of
nitrogen, phosphorus, and calcium.
• The Yellow River is one of the world’s muddiest rivers.
• Industry and manufacturing made up 70% of the discharge into the Yellow river flood
river with households accounting for 23% and just over 6% coming
from other sources.

Civilization near yellow river Yellow river Civilization near yellow river
Capacity of the district administration to combat the disaster
During and After
During
• Throughout the war, the Nationalist government refused to take responsibility for the disasters caused by
the Yellow River’s intentional diversion.
• Instead, the Nationalists claimed that Japanese bombing of the dikes had caused the floods, presenting
the disaster as another example of Japanese atrocities against Chinese civilians.

After
• Recovery from the disaster did not come until after 1945, when large-scale external assistance from the
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), which launched redevelopment
programs in war-damaged areas of China in conjunction with Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration (CNRRA). Nationalist soldier directing laborers working on dikes.
• In 1946 and 1947, tens of thousands of laborers supervised by UNRRA-CNRRA returned the river to its
pre-1938 course.
• UNRRA-CNRRA offered material support to refugees who returned to their homes in Henan’s flooded
area.

Yellow River flood refugees.

Thank you !
References
• https://www.scribd.com/document/315762028
• https://www.scribd.com/document/404352831
• https://www.scribd.com/document/476519544
• https://www.scribd.com/document/363632978
• The Yellow River Flood 1887 | How China Has Survived This Natural Disaster? (naturalworldisasters.com)
• Yellow River flood, 1938-47 | DisasterHistory.org
• www.google.com