Spatio-temporal impacts of typhoon events on agriculture: Economic losses and flood control construction

Abstract

Agricultural production has high correlations with natural hazards and water resource dynamic. Extreme rainfall brought by typhoons has a profound impact on agriculture in Taiwan. How typhoons impact agricultural activities and outputs is lacking research, especially in coastal regions such as Taiwan. In this report, the impacts of typhoon on agricultural loss from 2006 to 2019 in Taiwan was measured and called attention to the role of flood control construction in sustaining agricultural activities. With the help of Data Envelopment Analysis and geographical mapping, it is found that there are spatial differences in agricultural losses caused by typhoons. The main results indicate that the efficiency scores bring a inverse U-shape trend from the year 2007 (efficiency .718) to 2019 (efficiency .708). Looking further, Tainan City, Yunlin City, Chiayi County and other plain areas are vulnerable to hazards because the efficiency scores in these counties all below than 70%. However, some areas with prominent flood control construction showed a trend of agricultural damage reduction. This paper suggests that scholars should collect relevant data in the future and pay attention to the macro relationship between regional flood control construction and agricultural damage.