Selected Readings
A resilient city is one in which a city can withstand disasters on its own, mitigate disaster losses, and be able to rationally allocate resources to recover quickly from disasters. When the rainy season comes, the city can "breathe and breathe" like a sponge; In the event of a natural disaster, society can be mobilized quickly and extensively; The resumption of production and reconstruction after the disaster can efficiently restore the normal order of production and life...... These are all examples of urban resilience.
In recent years, natural disasters caused by extreme weather such as heavy rains and typhoons have caused an increase in unpredictable "black swan" risks, especially in megacities such as Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai.
May 12 is National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Day. How can we keep our lifeline infrastructure, such as communications, energy, transportation, and flood control, stable, and able to prevent and mitigate various stresses and shocks on our own, and recover from them quickly? In the process of urban construction, how can cities be made as elastic and relaxed as springs and more "resilient"? The answers to these questions are not only first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, but also small and medium-sized cities such as Guangyuan in Sichuan and Zhuji in Zhejiang.
Keywords: #应急疏散救援空间# #城市治理新系统# #"soft support" #
Number of words: 4800 words
Reading time: about 16 minutes
Extreme weather is frequent
Challenging the city's ability to respond
At the turn of spring and summer, the sun is shining in the north, and the wind and rain are rushing in the south. "South China experiences typhoons and torrential rains every year, but it is indeed rare for rainfall to be concentrated for dozens of days in the pre-flood season like this year." Zhang Wei, senior engineer of the Geological Hazard Monitoring and Emergency Department of the Guangdong Provincial Geological Environment Station, said.
Under the influence of the strong southerly airflow anomaly that continues to maintain along the coast of South China, can Shenzhen, a small and densely populated mega modern city, cope with the challenges brought about by natural disasters such as waterlogging and floods, as well as geological hazards? It is a 10-minute walk from home to the office building on Metro Line 11. This is the route of Zuo Qian's daily commute who lives in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. "In the past, when it rained heavily, I had to jump and jump to avoid the water in the potholes. Now the drainage is smooth, and the pavement is barely visible to the puddles. Zuo Qian said. Since the heavy rainfall on April 18, many departments in Shenzhen have issued reminders for many days in a row, if the housing conditions are poor or the road is in danger, citizens can go to the nearest 582 permanent emergency shelters in the city. Since 2020, Shenzhen has vigorously promoted the construction of 9 key projects for natural disaster prevention and control, and treated 123 waterlogging points, more than 70 geological disaster hidden danger points, and more than 40 subway entrances and exits jointly built with various properties with flood control hazards.
Recently, Shenzhen has carried out underground pipeline dredging projects in urban areas to prevent waterlogging. Photo courtesy of Shenzhen Bureau In July 2023, the Shenzhen Municipal Emergency Evacuation and Rescue Space Plan (2021-2035), led by the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources and the Shenzhen Municipal Emergency Management Bureau, was implemented, aiming to strengthen the functional compound and integrated utilization of urban space resources, promote the transformation of the public safety governance model to pre-prevention, and accelerate the construction of a world-class demonstration city for safety and resilience development. Wei Jie, director of the Municipal Planning Institute (Resilient City Research Office) of the Shenzhen Planning and Land Development Research Center, said that an important part of the plan is to establish a comprehensive emergency shelter system to achieve the goals of comprehensive response to multiple disasters, comprehensive utilization of multiple resources, comprehensive allocation of multiple functions, and comprehensive application of multiple populations. Spatial resources such as parks, green spaces, squares, and stadiums have been integrated and utilized, and 24 central evacuation sites and 150 ordinary long-term fixed evacuation sites have been planned and laid out, which can meet the needs of about 2.28 million medium and long-term evacuees. In practice, the construction of resilient cities cannot be "stepping on the skin of a watermelon and sliding wherever it goes". "Shenzhen's planning fully considers the city's multi-hazard compound response, breaks through the limitations of traditional single-hazard scenario assessment, and opens up a new path for improving the security resilience of megacities such as Shenzhen." Guo Kaiqian, vice president of Shenzhen Urban Public Safety Technology Research Institute, said. The continent is one of the countries with the worst natural disasters in the world. In May 2024, the Communiqué of the First National Comprehensive Risk Survey of Natural Disasters showed that by the end of December 2023, a total of 132,000 landslide hazard points, 82,000 collapse hazard points, and 33,000 debris flow hazard points had been registered across the country. The area of extremely high-risk areas for geological disasters in China is 356,000 square kilometers, 833,000 square kilometers of high-risk areas, and 925,000 square kilometers of medium-risk areas, accounting for 3.7%, 8.7% and 9.6% of the country's land area respectively. Taleb, the author of Black Swan, writes in his book: "Black swans always fly out where people don't expect them. "In recent years, with the increase of extreme climate events, the "black swan" risk of urban governance has intensified, and the construction of resilient cities has become a powerful means to deal with "black swan events" - when the rainy season comes, cities can "breathe and breathe" like a sponge; In the event of a natural disaster, society can be mobilized quickly and extensively; Resumption of production and reconstruction after the disaster, and restore normal production and life order as soon as possible...... The International Coalition for Resilient Cities has put forward four aspects of the concept of resilient cities: first, technological resilience, which means that a city's lifeline infrastructure such as communications, energy, water supply and drainage, transportation, flood control, and epidemic prevention must be resilient enough to cope with unexpected risks; The second is economic resilience, that is, when the external economic situation changes drastically, or the supply of certain raw materials is suspended, the city has the resilience to deal with it, and can still operate freely; The third is social resilience, when a major event (or disaster) comes, the urban society and people can remain calm and not panic or magnify the danger; Fourth, the resilience of the government, which can serve the citizens and lead the people to fight disasters under any circumstances, and maintain normal functional operation and social order. From "disaster resistance" to "disaster resistance", it is the requirement of the times for the construction of resilient cities to improve urban flexibility, safety and ensure sustainable development. Once a disaster occurs, how to rationally allocate resources to restore life and production order faster? After the catastrophic flood in the Haihe River basin on February 7, 2023, Beijing has launched a comprehensive recovery and reconstruction project, combining reconstruction work with the construction of resilient cities with the general idea of "basic recovery in one year, comprehensive improvement in three years, and long-term sustainable development".
After the "23.7" catastrophic flood in the Haihe River basin, geological technicians carried out a sudden geological disaster investigation in the upper reaches of the Juma River in Fangshan District. Courtesy of Beijing Institute of Geological SurveyIn February 2024, the "Beijing Resilient City Space Special Plan (2022-2035)" was approved, proposing that the central urban area should focus on strengthening the construction of urban safety facilities, strengthening the safe operation of the lifeline system, and ensuring the normal operation of basic functions in the city during disasters. In May 2024, the "Shijingshan District Safe and Resilient City (Unit) Special Plan" was completed as the city's first district-level resilient city plan, and a total of 9 communities with 5 resilience units, including the community in the north district of Kouxili, were selected as the first batch of demonstration models for the construction of safe and resilient communities. On May 6, at the temporary office of Shidu Town Government in Fangshan District, Beijing, the relevant person in charge of the Fangshan Branch of the Beijing Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Commission introduced the measures to promote the resilience of mountain towns: on the one hand, it is a systematic plan to build a disaster prevention spatial pattern of "two belts and three corridors, three clusters and multiple points, stable and connected ditches, and organic radiation of villages"; On the other hand, it is a hierarchical research, which will work with the responsible teachers and public welfare teams to form a multi-level research system for post-disaster recovery and reconstruction that coordinates the overall situation and is implementation-oriented.
Resilience & Technology
Build a new system of urban governance
Improving urban resilience requires flexibility in all aspects of a city's lifeline and flexibility in the face of sudden disasters. Wang Naiyu, director of the Center for Resilient Cities at Zhejiang University, believes that the impact and destruction of any key weak node in a city can cause a complete collapse like dominoes.
Science and technology support the "skyline" of urban development, and also consolidate the "horizon" of people's cities. In the construction of resilient cities, people, things, information, and time constitute the dynamic and organic intelligent life system of megacities. According to the relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources, in recent years, Shanghai has been working the refinement of urban management and operation, increasing investment in smart infrastructure, vigorously developing digitalization and artificial intelligence, and accelerating the construction and upgrading of hardware facilities, so that urban safety, emergency response capabilities, and governance efficiency have been continuously improved, and risk prevention capabilities have been enhanced. At the same time, we should adopt the method of hierarchical and classified management and control of urban safety risks, formulate risk management lists, compile blue books for risk early warning, deepen the investigation and management of hidden dangers, and establish and improve the urban emergency management system. Since its completion and operation in 2019, the Beijing Geological Disaster Monitoring and Early Warning System has used big data, Internet of Things, remote sensing, GIS, Beidou and other technologies, combined with 477 important sudden geological disaster hidden danger points in 10 mountainous areas, laid out 1,889 sets of professional equipment, and built 8 modules such as data management, dynamic display, and early warning analysis, so as to realize the dynamic management and precise prevention and control of monitoring points. "At present, Beijing has realized the early warning of geological disasters and meteorological risks to towns and townships, the early warning of collapse disasters along roads to road sections, and the early warning of debris flow disasters to ditches." Nan Yun, director of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Control of Beijing Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, introduced. Where are the waterlogging prone areas? Where should I evacuate in case of flooding? Which transfer route is the safest? In order to prevent problems before they occur, the Beijing Municipal Planning and Self-Commission has also established an urban waterlogging simulation model based on digital twin technology, focusing on the functional core area of the capital, inverting the location, area and depth of waterlogging accumulation, drawing a waterlogging risk map in the core area, and sharing the data with emergency response, water conservancy and other departments before the annual flood. In 2023, the "Guiding Opinions of Shenzhen on Promoting the Modernization of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control System and Prevention and Control Capacity to Build a Safe and Resilient City" was promulgated, and a list of 74 key tasks for disaster prevention, mitigation and relief was put forward in the whole chain system, so as to improve the level of urban safety and resilience by combining long-term and short-term and treating both the symptoms and the root causes. Relying on the "Shenzhen Emergency Push-to-Talk" App, which was launched in 2020, the city's 41,000 "three prevention" (flood control, drought prevention, and typhoon prevention) responsible persons are managed with one click. The construction of resilient cities is not a "separate proposition" for the governance of megacities, but a "growth task" faced by all cities in the process of urbanization. In November 2023, Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province, was among the first batch of cities selected for the United Nations "Building Resilient Cities 2030" in China. This small southwest city is located at the intersection of Longmen Mountain, Micang Mountain and other mountainous areas, with high slopes and deep valleys, which is a relatively serious area of geological disasters in Sichuan Province. Over the years, Guangyuan City has established cross-district joint prevention and control, "30123" early warning and response mechanism, etc., to achieve joint risk prevention, early warning and control, and response linkage, and enhance the "resilience" and "resilience" of the city to deal with land disaster risks. In March 2024, the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction Programme (UNDRR) announced the list of "World Resilience Demonstration Cities", and Zhuji City in Zhejiang Province became the first city in China to receive this honor. In recent years, Zhuji has compiled urban planning and construction development plans such as sponge city and national forest city to provide strong support for urban development and resilience building. According to the plan, the city will continue to strengthen the construction of urban infrastructure, ecological civilization, and smart governance system, and improve the city's ability to resist natural disasters, adapt to climate change, and ensure people's livelihood and well-being.
Public & Community
The "soft support" of resilient cities
With scientifically planned land spatial layout and "hard resources" such as blank space for emergency land, the construction of resilient cities also needs to strengthen the mobilization capacity of community organizations and enhance the public's awareness and ability to prevent and reduce disasters. As the "last mile" of urban governance, the community has become an important platform for the public to participate in the construction of resilient cities.
"Part of the slope covering cloth near Tongxinyuan Community is blown away and damaged by wind and rain, will there be a risk of landslide? Riding an electric car by, panicking. "On May 3, after seeing the citizens' messages on the community platform, the staff of Changling Community, Liantang Street, Luohu District, immediately reported and went to the scene with the disaster technicians." Netizens reflected the traffic rescue project of the No. 9 slope landslide of the nuclear dragon line. At present, the slope is stable as a whole, the drainage is smooth, and there are no cracks and looseness. The relevant person in charge of the Luohu Administration of the Shenzhen Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau introduced. Cuihu Community, Jihua Street, Longgang District, Shenzhen, has also set up a "slope ledger" in the daily inspection to focus on the disposal of geological hazards. According to the relevant person in charge of the Shenzhen Bureau, in 2007, Shenzhen launched the creation of a national comprehensive disaster reduction demonstration community, and achieved full coverage by the end of 2023. 677 communities in the city have successfully established Shenzhen Comprehensive Disaster Reduction Communities, with a 100% compliance rate; 175 communities have successfully established national comprehensive disaster reduction demonstration communities. Futian District, Shenzhen, has built various monitoring and early warning systems such as video surveillance of geological disasters, deep-eye, visual comprehensive platform and high-altitude eagle eye. In the next step, Shenzhen's comprehensive disaster reduction demonstration community will have version 2.0 - "Resilient Community" to continuously improve the comprehensive disaster prevention and mitigation capacity of the grassroots level. In 2018, Shanghai began to use the "two networks" of "one network for all" and "one network for unified management" as the "bull's nose" to drive the modernization of the city's governance system and governance capacity, and to promote the innovation of governance models, the reshaping of governance methods, and the reconstruction of governance systems with intelligence as a breakthrough. After several years of development and improvement, Shanghai is now promoting the reform and reconstruction of the urban governance model and system with the help of the "One Network Unified Management" project. For example, it is necessary to establish a digital sign system for urban operation to realize the intelligent perception of urban operation risks, assist the decision-making of urban management entities in a digital way, and realize the empowerment of multi-level governance subjects from the city to the community, so as to achieve the goal of urban resilience governance and reshape urban resilience. According to the relevant person in charge of the Urban Transport Planning Department of the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government, in recent years, Shanghai has continued to use new technologies such as digital twins to give the city more "smart cognition", "smart analysis" and "smart research and judgment" capabilities. At present, digital twin technology has been used in many scenarios in Shanghai's urban governance, which can accurately capture the cracks in infrastructure such as bridges, viaducts, and tunnels, as well as the real-time situation of every manhole cover, fire hydrant, and detector, and continuously improve the efficiency of urban operation management and emergency handling. According to the relevant person in charge of the Beijing Municipal Planning and Self-Commission, the construction of a resilient community life circle of neighborhood autonomy and mutual assistance is one of the key contents of the "Shijingshan District Safe and Resilient City (Unit) Special Plan". "For example, in the resilience unit of the model mouth Xili, the focus is on planning flood interception ditches, setting up rainwater storage tanks, and remediating potential disaster points to carry out safety risk management; building community resilience centers and emergency evacuation systems, etc. The person in charge said. Shidu Town, Fangshan District, Beijing, was severely affected by the "23.7" flood in the Haihe River basin, and in the post-disaster reconstruction, the district for the first time integrated the concept of "safety emergency hut" into the new public service facility project after the disaster. According to the relevant person in charge of the Fangshan Branch of the Beijing Municipal Planning and Self-Commission, "the 'hut' is usually a community service center, which can provide regional power supply, water supply, heating, communication and other guarantees in case of emergency. The stock of emergency supplies can meet the basic needs of 200 people for at least two weeks, and it is a veritable 'ark of life'. "The entire village of Yanhekou Village, Mentougou District, Beijing, which was also affected by flooding, was relocated and resettled. In the post-disaster reconstruction, Mentougou District has strengthened the application of digital means, artificial intelligence, and Internet technology in emergency command, urban management, and the construction of important facilities, and promoted the integration of safe and resilient city construction and smart city construction. During this year's "May Day" holiday, the villagers of Yanhekou Village laid floor tiles for their new homes: "Recently, the weather has been good, ventilate the new furniture, disperse the smell, and move in two months." ”
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Source: China Natural Resources News
Author: Chen Chen, Feng Jiankui, Duan JinpingText Editor: Chen ChenNew Media Editor: Liu Chuan
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