Hazards and reflection on Fangshan District extreme rainstorm of July 21, 2012, the urban mountainous region of Beijing, North China

With the rapid development of Beijing’s urbanization and civilization, its urban mountainous areas are typically exposed to multiple hazards which in turn have been threatening both livelihoods and infrastructure in the mountain regions. On the morning of July 21, 2012, an extreme rainstorm with an average precipitation of 284.2 mm struck Beijing, especially in the Fangshan District, the hilly regions of Beijing, and has resulted in severe damages. The extreme rainstorm had resulted in disaster area of 1.6 × 104 km2, the victims are approximately 190 × 104, the death toll is 79, and the economic losses reach up to 11.64 billion yuan. After presenting the type of hazards and extreme rainstorm damage, the main objective of this short communication is to show the ecological safety of the urban mountainous regions in modern cities of North China that are more vulnerable to flood hazards than any other mountain areas during the process of rapid urbanization in future decades and draw the attention and concerns of the various local governments for a better future in the urban mountain regions of China.