Early warnings save lives in flood season

Early warning systems and rapid response efforts by the Ministry of Natural Resources have prevented the deaths of over 2,400 people in geological disasters triggered by heavy rains this year, officials said on Tuesday.

Zhang Huichang, deputy director of the ministry's geological disaster prevention division, said 15 working groups have been dispatched to supervise disaster prevention efforts in 30 provinces, regions and municipalities this flood season.

To respond to geological disaster risks, 66 ministerial-level experts were deployed to frontline areas. Over 200 ministerial-level experts also provided technical support at the grassroots level by visiting villages and households, said Qi Gan, deputy director of the China Institute of Geo-Environmental Monitoring's geological disaster coordination office.

At the community level, China has established a network comprising over 260,000 people for community-based disaster monitoring and prevention. Surveyors from natural resources departments have been working alongside local officials and community members to conduct dynamic inspections and investigations of hidden dangers and risk areas, Zhang said.

To enhance disaster prevention efforts, China has employed advanced technologies, including high-resolution remote sensing, satellite-based surface deformation monitoring, aerial and drone remote sensing, and laser-based terrain measurement. The technologies have helped identify over 270,000 geological disaster risks across the country, said Ge Daqing, head of the China Aero Geophysical Survey and Remote Sensing Center for Natural Resources' Remote Sensing Technology Research Institute.

Automated monitoring and early warning equipment has been installed at more than 50,000 risk points, generating data and warning information around the clock. The data is integrated into the national geological disaster monitoring and early warning system, enabling rapid assessment and response to major disasters nationwide, said Ma Juan, deputy director of the China Institute of Geo-Environmental Monitoring's geological disaster technical methods office.

The office's director, Zhang Mingzhi, said automated monitoring systems have issued early warnings for 68 potential disasters this year, preventing injuries or deaths for 216 people.

In the first half of this year, China recorded 2,146 geological disasters, including 1,039 landslides, 931 collapses, 117 debris flows and 59 ground collapses. Since the onset of the flood season, there have been 253 successful early warnings and forecasts of geological disasters, effectively preventing potential injuries or deaths, the geo-environmental monitoring institute reported.