China rolls out five-year action plan to boost climate resilience against geological hazards

BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- China has unveiled a five-year action plan to bolster geological disaster prevention across the country from 2026 to 2030, with a focus on strengthening climate resilience and enhancing grassroots response capabilities, according to a document released Tuesday.

The plan, issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources, includes relocating 50,000 households from high-risk areas, carrying out engineering projects at more than 4,200 sites prone to geological disasters and eliminating safety hazards at more than 6,100 sites.

It calls for intensified risk surveys, monitoring and early warning systems amid climate change, and stresses the need to study disaster mechanisms triggered by extreme rainfall, rapid weather swings and abrupt drought-flood alternations.

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 AI models and other emerging technologies.

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

By the end of 2025, nearly 280,000 geological hazard sites had been identified nationwide, endangering more than 11 million people, according to the ministry.