Characteristics of Lightning Casualties and Vulnerability Evaluation Regionalization in China

According to the data of lightning disasters from 1997 to 2010 and lightning observation by TRMM satellite, feature of national injuries and deaths from lightning is analyzed and the results indicate that lightning causes 460 deaths and 425 injuries every year on average. The mortality rate is 0.36 per million people and 0.48 per ten thousand square kilometers every year. Three indexes about lightning casualties reports, the number of lightning fatalities per ten thousand square kilometers and the number of lightning fatalities per million people have good correlation. Lightning-related casualties have increased for the period of 1997—2007 and then begin to decrease since 2008. Casualties anomaly percent is positive in the year of 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, with the maximum value in 2007, when the ratio is 78% more than normal years.In order to reveal the vulnerability of lightning which lead to injuries and deaths in different region, R-cluster analysis is used for sifting the 8 indexes affected by vulnerability evaluation. Lightning density, casualties frequency, population, and region areas are selected as variables. Comparability measures of each sample are calculated by using Euclidean distance, and then the method of Q-cluster is used to analyze and calculate these date. Finally the results of 6 different kinds of risk zones of lightning that lead to injuries and deaths in China are given. Guangdong and Hainan pertain to vulnerability evaluation extreme high areas. In these areas, the comprehensive vulnerability evaluation of cluster reaches up to 5.017, where both the average density of lightning and personnel casualty rate is the highest in the six categories. In the opposite, the northwest and northeast of China are areas with the lowest vulnerability. Finally, Ward’s method of Q-cluster is adopted to explain and testify the result of cluster, showing the cluster solution is not only stable but also reliable. The result of the classification is appropriate, and preferably reflects regional vulnerability characteristics of lightning-caused casualties.