China is one of the countries that have been continuously experiencing negative impacts by typhoons. Typhoons cause severe damage annually, not only to the regional economy, but they are also responsible for frequent human casualties. This research comprehensively assesses the impact of typhoons across China by using the geographical information system based on time series data between 1980 and 2012. Results indicate that typhoons affected 61 % of the total landmass of China during this timeframe with a total affected area of approximately 5.91 million km². In addition, some coastal regions of south-east China experienced nearly 300 typhoon landfalls. The key entities of this study that are used to assess typhoon risk across China include population, gross domestic production, road networks and land use. As a result, the vulnerabilities of each entity in the typhoon-affected region of China were calculated before leading to the regional typhoon risk indexes. Based on the range of typhoon risk indexes, the typhoon-affected areas in China were zoned into four regions with different levels of typhoon risk. This research will facilitate decision-making by policy makers on the mitigation of typhoon risks.

Many small businesses suffer from inadequate management skills which can lead to poor business performance and unsustainable businesses. Research to date has focused on traditional skills such as communication, time management and people skills, yet critically many business managers have no systems thinking skills. This paper presents a framework targeted at delivering systems thinking skills to managers of small businesses utilizing some key characteristic of small business managers. The design is also based on a systems analysis and guided by both adult learning theory and teaching theory. The quality of a training framework depends on the quality of the content design and the right training delivery methods. The systems thinking skills training framework structured systems thinking knowledge into three modules in order to meet the needs of different levels of managers. The framework advocates blended training delivery methods and it also presents possible pitfalls based on training experiences. Additionally, the framework incorporates a continuous improvement process for ongoing systemic improvement.