A Chinese-English atlas on natural disasters in China, the first of its kind in the country, has been published by the Science Publishing House in Beijing.  

The "Systematic Atlas of Natural Disasters in China" contains 400 maps and 50 charts with information on the formation, general features and regional distribution of major natural disasters which have taken place across the country in the past 500 years.

It was compiled by the Center for Research on Natural Disaster Risks and Insurance attached to Beijing Normal University. The Center was jointly established by the university and the Swiss Reinsurance Co. in 1999.

"The atlas was completed on the basis of a database on calamities, developed by a key research lab at the Department of Environmental Evolution and Education in Natural Disasters of Beijing Normal University," said a spokesman for the center at a function specially organized in Beijing Friday to mark the publication of the atlas.

The atlas will be a great help for insurance companies to develop practical policies against natural disaster risks, the spokesman noted.

(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2004)