Preliminary analysis on beach safety accidents in mainland China’s coasts

摘要

Beaches are valuable recreational settings and coastal tourism industryhas grown very rapidly in China. However, beaches can sometimes bedangerous for swimmers. There are lots of studies on the marinehazards such as storms but unfortunately, no study has been conductedregarding the beach safety accidents occurring in mainland China’scoasts. This study presents preliminary analysis on beach safetyaccidents during the time period of 2001-2019 in mainland China’scoasts. Since there is no official database of beach safety, the data wascollected via public news reports on the Internet. We have collected619 accidents, involving 1141 persons, with 586 drowning and 74missing. More than 60% (390 of 619) of accidents occurred in FujianProvince (175), Hainan Province (117) and Shandong Province (98).Males (701) were about 4 times more likely to be in danger than theirfemale (170) counterparts. Meanwhile, we analyze the demographics ofinjured persons and the spatial-temporal distribution of beach safetyaccidents. This study is one of the first attempts to investigate dailysafety accidents on beaches in China. Increasing knowledge in this fieldcan be useful for coastal management.