China's meteorological authorities are working on new plans to deal with extreme weather emergencies such as floods, droughts, typhoons, sandstorms and climate changes.

The plan is expected to include timely weather forecasting, prediction of climate changes and relevant damage assessments of weather-related disasters on the national economy, a leading meteorological official said on Friday in Beijing.

Addressing a national conference, Qin Dahe, top official at the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), was confident that "the solution can help decision-makers manage and mitigate damages caused by abnormal weather or climate changes.

This, he said is "one of CMA's schemes to be carried out this year as a key strategy."

Direct damaged caused by weather-related disasters has risen to 6 percent of China's total annual gross domestic product, statistics show.

Over the past year, CMA has worked hard to improve forecast accuracy for rainstorms, typhoons and sandstorms.

Such catastrophes have left wrecked havoc with regional economies, experts say.

The national geological disaster forecast system prevented nearly 30,000 people from being killed or injured in geological disasters in 2003, said Qin.

He said the meteorological departments forecast more than 500 cases of geological disasters such as landslides and mud avalanches across the country.

The forecast helped prevent deaths and injuries in 697 geological disasters, and avoiding an estimated loss of over 400 million yuan (US$48.2 million).

This year, the administration will focus on reducing damages by tracking any catastrophic weather phenomena, Qin promised.

In urban areas, Qin urged meteorological authorities to program 72-hour weather forecast and broadcast them through local TV channels, offering the public more weather information.

In rural areas, weather services may help farmers increase grain output and thus ensure China's food production, restructure agriculture, and improve the planning of farming activities in line with local climate conditions.

Meanwhile, countermeasures will also be offered for farmers to protect regional agriculture under extreme climate changes and aid needy families.

Relying on powerful computers and a digital radar network, a new comprehensive meteorological system is scheduled to perform remote measurements and remote sensing automatically and continuously in Beijing and Qingdao, two host cities of the 2008 summer Olympics.

Qin hopes such a system can greatly enhance the monitoring content and improve forecast accuracy for the first world leading sport event to be held in China.

Special weather forecast services will also benefit the nation's key construction projects, significant social events, regional economic growth as well as urbanization, traffic and oceanic development.

"To rehabilitate fragile ecosystems in some areas of the country, particularly western China, more cross-region cloud seeding operations for rainfall will be launched as a way to alleviate scarcity of water and improve environment there," Qin said.

(China Daily January 10, 2004)