Zhejiang firms use high-tech for early natural disaster warnings in Sichuan
Preventing and reducing disasters is the goal of the "pairing assistance" team from Hangzhou working in Daocheng County of the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
The county is situated in a seismically active region and has seen natural disasters for many years. Both the local economy and the well-being of the populace have been affected.
The Hangzhou government and businesses are using technology to help the region improve geological warnings and reduce the chances of disasters.
A High-Plateau CT project that the Daocheng Natural Resources Bureau and the Yuhang District of Hangzhou initiated supports regional efforts to prevent disasters.
"Hangzhou and Daocheng both accelerated the engineering bidding process and allocating money in an effort to complete the CT project before the flood season," said Shen Hua, vice director of Daocheng County, who was sent from Yuhang District.
The bid winner, Hangzhou Ruhr Co, undertook a geological survey and scoured the area for probable danger points before developing a database and warning system.
The company's devices cover 148 potential danger points with 507 automatic investigators, 148 early warning broadcasts, 40 satellite navigation devices, 53 sludge ultrasonic level meters, 149 rain gauges, 65 crack gauges and 34 inclinometers. A "CT scanner," made up of all the devices, encircles the county.
However, setting up the gadgets was just the beginning. The Ruhr surveillance system is the umbrella under which all the acquired data is gathered.

Daocheng County in the southwest of Sichuan Province is renowned for its breathtaking scenery.
The company uses satellite navigation, drones and high-resolution remote sensing satellite picture data to analyze rainfall, cracks, sludge level and angle of inclination. It also uses cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies.
The algorithmic models process the information that has been gathered and categorize threats into four categories: low, medium, high and extremely high. Real-time warning alerts are sent out depending on the level of threat.
Ruan Jianmin, co-founder of Ruhr, stated that while error alerts are permitted, missing warnings are prohibited.
"Local inspectors will be sent to the location to verify the situation once the algorithm identifies a certain type of threat. Alerts will be sent to local departments for possible evacuation efforts," Ruan said.
The High-Plateau CT project is Sichuan Province's first geological warning system to be integrated into the Geological Cloud Platform of the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Shen said the project was the outcome of cooperation between the provinces of Zhejiang and Sichuan.
"We draw experience from each other and advance together. In the future, Zhejiang will offer more economic support and enhanced industrial cooperation with Sichuan," Shen said.

A solar panel pole stands at a danger point for warning broadcasting.
For years, the Zhejiang government has backed the so-called "sweet potato economy mode," encouraging Zhejiang enterprises to carve out market areas across China. More and more Zhejiang businesses are expanding like sprawling sweet potatoes.
Ruhr is one of the "sweet potato" businesses. It has established operations in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the provinces of Guizhou, Anhui and Shanxi. Its disaster prevention system has issued more than 20 alerts, saving 1,500 lives and millions of dollars in losses.
These businesses work with Zhejiang departments to help impoverished areas enhance their social development.
Zhejiang has introduced progressive ideas and helped to boost the local economy in the impoverished regions by primarily implementing social welfare projects and lowering the number of the poor ever since the central government launched a "pairing assistance" program to aid poor regions in the 1990s. It has dispatched talent and industrial resources to boost living conditions and promote people's wellness in those regions.
For Hangzhou, the pairing assistance for Garze and Guangyuan City in Sichuan Province began in 2021. The first senior high school in Kangding County, in Garze, opened in October, marking a watershed moment in local education. Over 1,900 students will be able to continue their education and attend universities. Local teachers from Hangzhou have been dispatched to implement innovative teaching concepts.
Hangzhou has also helped the local farming business by constructing large-scale pig, chicken, and mushroom farms. On the other hand, Sichuan's juicy fruits and fresh vegetables have been delivered to Hangzhou supermarkets.
