During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in response to the various
intensities of the disasters, different mitigation measures were
adopted, included relief in kind, production of money lending and
some donation relief provided by government. In addition, largescale
coastal engineering became the major disaster prevention
measure. The building and maintenance of the seawalls, between
1041 and 1883, the Fangong Dike (Fig. 2)were repaired for 55 times,
after it was built in the early 11th century, most of these being
carried out in the 16e19th centuries (Ling, 2002). As a result of
continuous coastal accretion, a large number of saltworks production
units were scattered in the tidal flats to the east of the Fangong
Dike, which became too far away from the low water shoreline and
is difficult to protect the salt making against the typhoon events. To
deal with this situation, the governments and salt workers created
a large of Tide-mounds (i.e., small elevated platforms or mounds in
the intertidal zone, to be used as a refuge place when an inundation
disaster occurred), and enact the regular maintenance system. It
was a cheap, unique engineering way of protecting the workers,
and was proved to be highly effective (Zhang, 1983).