Abstract
Along with global warming, ever intensifying weather events have increased damages to agricultural farms and facilities. The objective of this study was to investigate the spatial distribution and regional characteristics of agricultural damages by extreme weather events. Agricultural disaster statistics provided by the National Emergency Management Agency were summed over for a 13-year period from 1998 to 2010 and used for the spatial analysis. Two indices of damage area ration and property damage per unit area were introduced to quantify regional agricultural damages. As the results, farm inundation accounted for the largest area primarily damaged by typhoons with heavy rainfalls. Most property damages to farm lands originated from farm erosion in the alpine regions by localized guerrilla rains. The two major causes of damages to greenhouse and livestock facilities were typhoon with strong wind and winter blizzards. Gangwon was the province of the largest property loss mostly from farm land erosion losses, followed by Gyeongnam, Jeonnam, and Chungnam where losses to greenhouse and livestock facilities were relatively greater. Property loss per unit area was also the greatest for the Gangwon province (4.91 M\/ha), followed by Gyongnam and Chungnam of 2.20 and 1.50 M\/ha, respectively. Unit loss for greenhouse and livestock facilities was 13.3 M\/ha, approximately 13 times greater than that for farm land (1.06 M\/ha). The study findings indicated the importance of reducing highland farm erosion and reinforcing farming facilities structures for agricultural disaster management.
