China has recently completed a national survey on natural disaster risks and collected billions of data sets that will provide crucial information for enhancing disaster readiness, said an official at a press conference Wednesday. 

Zheng Guoguang, secretary general of the National Disaster Reduction Committee and director of the Leadership Group Office of the State Council's First National Survey of Comprehensive Natural Disaster Risks, speaks at a press conference in Beijing on Feb. 15, 2023. [Photo by Liu Jian/China SCIO]

Zheng Guoguang, secretary general of the National Disaster Reduction Committee, said the data they have acquired through nationwide investigation include factors that lead to major natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, as well as data relating to the country's disaster-relief capabilities.

Zheng, who also heads the Leadership Group Office of the State Council's First National Survey of Comprehensive Natural Disaster Risks, said the survey additionally gathered information about major disasters since the founding of People's Republic of China in 1949 including earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and fires, as well as data about hidden dangers of natural disasters.

The survey, which lasted three years from 2020 to 2022, was intended at figuring out hidden hazards across the country and getting a clear picture of the ability for key regions to respond to natural disasters, so that governments at all levels can make informed disaster-control decisions.

Nearly 5 million technical personnel from research institutes, government agencies, enterprises, institutes of higher learning, and third-party organizations, as well as community workers and volunteers carried out the survey.

The State Council and other central and local authorities are now working on a national database for natural disasters that will provide information for risk assessment as well as disaster prevention and control efforts, Zheng said.