Abstract: According to historical flood disaster data and social economic data in Jiangsu Province from 1984 to 2011, we analyzed the characteristics of disaster exposure from aspects of disaster area, population exposed to disaster, and crop exposed to disaster. Also we analyzed the disaster vulnerability from aspects of population vulnerability, crop vulnerability and economic vulnerability. Results show that from 1984 to 2011, the annual average area exposed to disaster was 28 000 km², population exposed to disaster 2.275 million people, and crop exposed to disaster 4484.3 km² in Jiangsu Province. The disaster area and population exposure showed a trend of increasing, and crop exposure showed a trend of decreasing after increasing. The areas with the highest exposure were mainly distributed along the Yangtze River and Huaihe River Basin and in the coastal counties (cities, regions). The annual average population vulnerability, crop vulnerability and economic vulnerability was 0.05%, 35.3%, and 0.63%, respectively. Population vulnerability was low and showed a decreasing trend, whereas crop vulnerability showed an increasing trend, and economic vulnerability decreased after increasing first.

Key words: flood disaster, vulnerability, exposure, spatial-temporal change, Jiangsu Province