China unveils five-year action plan to bolster climate resilience and geological disaster prevention

Beijing (ANTARA) - China has launched a five-year action plan to strengthen geological disaster prevention efforts nationwide for the 2026–2030 period, focusing on improving climate resilience and grassroots response capabilities, according to a document released on Tuesday.

The plan, issued by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, includes the relocation of 50,000 households from high-risk areas, the implementation of engineering projects at more than 4,200 geological disaster-prone locations, and the handling of potential safety hazards at over 6,100 sites.

The plan calls for more intensive risk surveys, monitoring, and early warning systems amid climate change, and emphasises the need to study disaster mechanisms triggered by extreme rainfall, rapid weather changes, and abrupt transitions between drought and flooding.

Over the five-year period, China plans to build an integrated national geological disaster information platform and improve coordination between national and provincial systems, leveraging big data, large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) models, and various other emerging technologies.

Due to its complex terrain, diverse geological conditions, active tectonic movements, and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, China remains highly vulnerable to geological disasters.

By the end of 2025, nearly 280,000 geological disaster-prone locations had been identified across China, threatening the safety of more than 11 million people, according to the ministry.