Shangluo, Shaanxi, China is located at the heart of the Qinling Mountains. Behind its favorable climate and ecological conditions, it is also confronted with major challenge of disaster prevention and mitigation.

Facing disaster prevention challenges behind the favorable climate conditions

As a matter of fact, the entire area of Shangluo is situated at the heart of the Qinling Mountains. Within its territory, gullies crisscross and valleys and ridges alternate. Its unique geographical location and landform structure have formed a three-dimensional mountainous climate with noticeable vertical differences.

Owing to the instability of the monsoon climate, meteorological disasters such as rainstorm, drought, hail, frost and continuous overcast and rainy weather occur frequently.

ZHAO Shifa, a senior engineer with Shangluo Municipal Meteorological Service (hereinafter referred to as the Service), introduced that the distribution of heavy precipitation in time and space here was exceedingly uneven, triggering a sharp increase in precipitation in some areas and causing rainstorm.

When rainstorm falls on the complex terrain of the Qinling Mountains, affected by the rainstorm, the rainwater, carrying dead branches, fallen leaves, soil, stones and other debris on the mountain surface, rapidly gathers from the top to the bottom, forming small barrier lakes, bring along “exponential” influence.

The main functions of the Platform Source: The Department

Exploring the application of three-in-one Platform in a science-based manner

The losses caused by meteorological disasters in Shangluo account for more than 70% of those caused by natural disasters on an annual basis, posing grave threats to the lives and property of the people.

In recent years, Shangluo has been improving its work mechanism led by meteorological warnings. With the optimization of “13161” progressive meteorological service mechanism and “call and response” mechanism, how to make departmental collaboration more efficient, and command and dispatch more timely becomes the key to addressing disaster prevention problems.

In 2022, Shangluo Municipal Government issued the "Double 2+5 Model" work plan for flood control, improving the disaster prevention and mitigation mechanism led by meteorological warnings, and further transforming flood control and disaster relief from being passive to being active and from emergency response to regular state.

In 2023, the Government proposed to establish a municipal and county-level "3-in-1" disaster prevention and mitigation command platform (hereinafter referred to as the Platform) integrating meteorological services, emergency flood control, and primary level comprehensive management with "man-to-man marking" and "prevention, emergency response, and evacuation" mechanisms.

The Platform will be built upon existing meteorological early warning systems at both municipal and county levels, ensuring prompt science-based decision-making within the shortest forecasting time duration. It aims to timely organize prevention, emergency response, and evacuation measures to safeguard the lives and property of the people.

In response, the Service has taken Shangzhou District as a demonstration to build the Platform, developed a comprehensive command and dispatch system for disaster prevention and mitigation and a model of urban flooding, and achieved a "one-map" display of meteorological disaster prevention and mitigation operation command.

The Platform Source: The Department

The Platform integrates operational systems and data from departments such as meteorology, emergency response and flood control, urban management, natural resources, water conservancy, hydrology, and transportation, realizing the integrated application and information sharing of 350 types of data from 10 departments.

When major extreme weather processes happen during the flood season, after receiving the forecast and warning from the meteorological department, the Government leaders will use the Platform to conduct joint weather consultations with various departments. By integrating data from multiple departments and presenting them in one map on the Platform, they can assess disaster-prone areas and deploy flood control and disaster relief efforts in the shortest possible time.

Wider application at both the county and municipal levels, assisting more precise disaster prevention

Since the Platform was promoted at both the county and municipal levels in Shangluo in 2023, the transformation has been made from each department working independently to a disaster prevention synergy formed led by meteorological forecasting and early warning. The Platform has been widely applied and achieved positive results.

In July 2024, Shangluo was raged by multiple rounds of heavy rain in a row. The cumulative rainfall was huge and the hourly rainfall was intense. Moreover, due to the combined effects of water inflow from the upper reaches and heavy rainfall, many rivers surged, and water levels of some rivers exceeded the warning level, gravely threatening the lives and safety of the people.

In response to the severe weather, based on the weather consultation and analysis of departments such as meteorology, emergency management, and water conservancy, and in combination with the key areas delineated by the Platform, the Shangluo Municipal Government organized the evacuation of the residents along the coast in advance. From July 17 to 7:00 on July 22, 2024, a total of 10,743 households and 20,807 people were evacuated twice.

Shangzhou District Meteorological Office, on the basis of the existing 50 regional meteorological monitoring stations, has connected the data of 59 flood control office rainfall stations through the Platform.

The monitoring grid density has been reduced from the original 7.4 kilometers to 5.1 kilometers, effectively reducing the monitoring blind spots. The Platform has successfully integrated data resources from multiple departments, vigorously underpinning science-based decision-making in flood control and disaster relief work.

The Platform has been applied in Shangzhou District. Source: Shangzhou District Meteorological Office

The Platform has played a crucial role in disaster prevention and mitigation during the flood season through the integration of multi-departmental data and the "one-map" emergency command.

Since 2022, the Platform has organized a total of 729,000 targeted evacuations, effectively avoiding casualties and property losses triggered by disasters.

In future, the Platform will develop towards "N in one", integrating more departmental data, simulating application scenarios like urban flooding, achieving comprehensive big data analysis and "one map" command, giving full play to the role of the "13161" progressive meteorological service mechanism, building the first line of defense for meteorological disaster prevention and mitigation, and effectively mitigating the risks of meteorological disasters.

Planned by/Editor: LIU Shuqiao