Census yields raw material for disaster-relief planning

Conclusions drawn after a three-year survey provide officials with a detailed picture of areas of concern. Jiang Chenglong reports from Ruichang, Jiangxi.

If you want to be fully aware of the risks and hidden dangers related to various diseases, a full physical examination is the best course of action. But what if a country wants to figure out which parts are most susceptible to different kinds of disasters?

To assess those risks, China has carried out a comprehensive examination of hundreds of millions of objects across the country — not only things that could cause disasters or accidents, but also those that could be affected by such events.

The First National Census on the Risk of Natural Disasters, which ran from 2020 through last year, targeted 23 types of natural disasters, including forest fires, earthquakes, debris flows, typhoons, tsunamis, droughts and floods.

It also attempted to determine the effectiveness of disaster-prevention-and-response measures in a range of regions, levels of government and industries. It did this by surveying the locations of hazard-affected bodies, such as mountains and land, roads and bridges, mines and gas stations, housing and public facilities, and the vulnerable groups that live around them.

Several firsts

The census — the first of its kind in China — was designed to help prevent disasters, according to Zheng Guoguang, secretary-general of the National Disaster Reduction Commission.

It was also the first time since 1949 (the year the People’s Republic of China was founded) that 89 major historical disasters — including earthquakes, floods and forest fires — had been fully investigated.

It was the first time experts had attempted to fully grasp the basic situations of house building and public facilities nationwide via the collection of a huge amount of data, and also the first time fundamental details about flammable materials in forests across the country had been collated.

About 5 million census workers were mobilized nationwide, overcoming the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic in the past three years, said Zheng, who is also executive leader of the census task force at the State Council, China’s Cabinet.

Most of the workers came from universities, governments at all levels and third-party investigative institutes, but some were volunteers, he said. Zheng added that the team surveyed nearly 600 million buildings, more than 5 million kilometers of roads, 700,000 public service facilities and nearly 150,000 companies that manufacture or handle hazardous chemicals.

Information about the construction of those facilities — such as building structures, project quality, earthquake-resistance measures and operating procedures — was included in statistics and further analysis.

Yang Saini, a professor of disaster reduction at Beijing Normal University, said the implementation of such a large census demanded a huge number of workers and material resources nationwide, and a strong executive branch.

“There was quite a lot multisector, cross-departmental and transregional coordination, which to some extent could be only achieved in China,” said Yang, who is also deputy leader of comprehensive risk assessment at the State Council’s census task force.

Background tasks

Yang noted that China, the country most affected by natural disasters, has been shifting the focus of its emergency-response efforts from relief to prevention.

A 2020 World Bank report said that in the past few decades, China has been hit by every type of major natural disaster, barring volcanic eruptions. The frequency of such incidents has been high and they have caused significant losses, both financial and human.

Yang said that in recent years, the country has paid more attention to disaster prevention than ever before, compared with relief and rescue work.

“However, we didn’t have sufficient data about specific industries — especially those related to housing and combustible materials in forests — to integrate various data and undertake a comprehensive analysis of disaster risks,” she said, adding that the survey was designed to provide a picture of the fundamental state of the country.

In 2018, President Xi Jinping decided to launch the census at a meeting specifically arranged to discuss improvements to the nation’s disaster-prevention-and-response abilities. Two years later, the State Council officially started the census by releasing details, including the schedule, funding sources and objects to be surveyed.

The nationwide investigation has now concluded. “Our investigations have given us a basic awareness of the risks and hidden dangers of natural disasters across the country and the ability to counter such events in key areas. That has laid a solid foundation for disaster-risk assessment and regional planning in the coming years,” Zheng said.

Application of results

“The purpose of the census is the application of results that will benefit various regions,” Zheng said, adding that the survey would help improve the country’s comprehensive capacity to withstand natural disasters.

Yang said regional government leaders need to know their area’s comprehensive disaster risk and the possible human and financial costs, irrespective of whether they are caused by earthquakes, floods or other factors. Thus, government leaders can lower the risk and improve urban planning in line with risk assessments based on data gleaned from specific industries during the census, she added.

Xu Yi, head of disaster reduction at the Beijing Emergency Management Bureau, said data related to property, housing and vulnerable individuals would play an important role in assessing the potential human and financial costs of earthquakes, and as part of the planning for reconstruction efforts in the wake of a disaster.

By utilizing the census’ highly integrated national data, the capital has launched two rounds of “comprehensive assessments and inspections of the risk-prevention-and-control capacity of key regions and facilities”, including the power grid, the Olympic Park and the Beijing Universal Resort, he said.

The bureau issued a comprehensive evaluation report on the risk of natural disasters in the areas used for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, based on census data, and delivered a number of safety-guarantee suggestions to the organizing committee.

Zheng said that in addition to specific events, the government is exploring how to apply the housing data disaster-risk assessments obtained from the census to the renovation of old residential buildings and dilapidated rural housing nationwide.

Authorities that oversee water resources are attempting to improve local flood-reduction-and-response systems, based on information gleaned from the census, he added.

Meanwhile, a growing number of cities are entering census data in their online emergency-response platforms, he said.

Zheng added that policymakers in Nan’an city, Fujian province, are able to use their own platform to check the situation regarding hazardous enterprises, disaster-relief teams, material reserves and disaster-avoidance locations across the city.