From August 16th to 21st, 2009, a ten-people investigation team consisting of Professor Shi Peijun, director of the ESPRE Lab, and associate professors Wang Ming, Yu Deyong, Zhang Chao and others from the Integrated Risk Management Institute conducts investigation and interviews in Hunan Province for issues of integrated catastrophe prevention, pilot programs of agricultural insurance, and catastrophe insurance, etc. The team has come to Hunan Province to perform practical investigation and research tracking studies for successive three years.
The team first visits the Civil Affairs Department of Hunan Province, and holds an informal discussion with relative principals of the Civil Affairs Department and the Financial Department on the pilot program of agricultural insurance under financial support of the Hunan provincial government. From the introduction of the two departments, the team summarizes both experiences gained from the program and existing problems, and holds an in-depth discussion on the coordination between catastrophe insurance and disaster recovery and relief works.
The Insurance Regulatory Bureau of Hunan Province then organizes a discussion meeting between the investigation team and relative leaders and experts from the Insurance Regulatory Bureau, PICC Hunan Branch Company, and Hunan Branch of China United Insurance Holding Company. All participants have an in-depth discussion on the progress of the pilot program of agricultural insurance, especially the issues of method of premium collection, object of insurance, and risk covered.
The next stop of the investigation team is Water Conservation Department of Hunan Province, where the team meets relative leaders from the Water Conservation Department, Hydrographical Bureau, and Dongting Lake Engineering Supervision Bureau. The discussion mainly focus on the problems of the flood prevention and discharge capacity, local water quality variation and water and soil losses in Dongting Lake, Xiangjiang River and Sishui River basins. Attendees also exchange their views on some key problems such as standard of flood prevention in the river basins and coordinated development of cities along the rivers, and influences of the Three Gorges Dam over the flood prevention capacity of these river basins.
The investigation team also visits the Changsha Hydrologic Station to learn about the currently-applied observation method of hydrologic data, and discuss on how to enable correct understanding and use of the observation data.
In Chenzhou, the municipal Party committee organizes a meeting between the team and relative departments of the government and several insurance companies. In the meeting, the investigation team hears the progress report of Chenzhou's rural housing insurance works, and deeply discuss about the catastrophe insurance of our country by combining the ongoing agricultural insurance program. At the same time, the team hears the report on recovery of Chenzhou’s forests after the 2008 snow disaster, and warmly discusses on the forest recovery works, and the pilot program of forest insurance to be launched soon.
To support the investigation, master student Zhou Meiqin leads a team to conduct investigation on peasant families in Hunan Province, and doctor students He Fei and Du Juan lead the data collection works in Dongting Lake, and Xiangjiang River basins.