Systemic approach can help reduce flood damage

Floods cause more damage each year globally than any other natural disaster - the United Nations says 157,000 people died in floods and another 2.3 billion were affected between 1995 and 2015. The current global average annual flood loss is estimated at $104 billion, and the country incurring the highest loss is China, followed by the United States and India. And these losses do not include disruptions in global supply chains.

Floods have been a perennial problem in China, although the death toll in floods in the country has steadily declined due to construction of dams, dikes and levees, and installing of early warning systems. Still, economic costs of floods have been increasing.

This year's floods could be one of the worst in China, primarily because rainfall in the country this year has been 21 percent higher than average - the Yangtze River Basin has received 27 percent more rain than average.