The Three Gorges Dam in central China’s Hubei province opens three spillways to discharge
floodwater, allowing the passage of the first flood of China’s Yangtze River this year, Sept. 7, 2021(Photo by Zheng Jiayu/People’s Daily Online)
China has constantly improved its ability to safeguard against floods and droughts by applying
new technologies to water conservancy projects, including data-based automatic hydrological
monitoring, forecasting and warning systems that help governments evacuate residents in time to
avoid risks.
In recent years, China’s Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) has vigorously promoted the
construction of smart water conservancy projects, boosting in-depth integration of 5G, the Internet
of Things (IoT), big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies in flood control
and drought relief, river basin management, and management of water conservancy projects.
The Huaihe River Commission of the MWR recently simulated water regulation and coordination
measures at various water conservancy projects in rain of different intensities using digital maps.
Before that, the commission used laser radar installed on helicopters to collect accurate data on the
watercourses of the Huaihe River, one of China’s major waterways running through the country’s
eastern regions, and scan important flood control facilities on the river, including the
Wangjiaba hydrological station and the Linhuaigang Flood Control Project.
Digital scenarios created based on natural geological conditions, historical data, and water
conservancy models of rivers and with digital twin technology can help with flood forecasting and
flood control plan formulation, supporting drainage basins of rivers in carrying out flood
forecasting, early warning, drill, and making disaster prevention and relief plans, said Liu Zhiyu,
deputy director of the information center of the MWR.
China has more than 98,000 reservoirs, over 100,000 sluices, and 9.31 million water supply
projects distributed across rural areas. The use of new technologies can effectively enhance the
country’s management of water conservancy projects.
“The tap water network of Shanghe county runs for over 2,100 kilometers, and many parts of it
are underground pipelines. It used to be troubled by frequent leakage and unstable hydraulic
pressure,” said Li Zhao, director of the water supply service center of Shanghe county, Jinan city,
east China’s Shandong province.
With 948 water meters installed on water mains of villages, 146,000 smart water meters, and
monitor cameras fixed at 183 spots, problems in the management and maintenance of the water
network have been effectively solved.
“Every household has a smart ultrasonic water meter that can transmit data remotely through 4G
network. The cameras can automatically monitor reservoirs, waterworks and pipelines,” said Li,
adding that people can now check information about their water quality, consumption, and bills
and report problems about water supply via mobile phone.
A digital platform for flood control and disaster reduction has played an important role in bracing
east China’s Zhejiang province for Typhoon In-Fa, known in China as Yanhua, which made
landfall in Zhejiang province on July 25.
In an effort to formulate plans as soon as possible for tasks such as eliminating risks and
reinforcing the seawalls stretching 2,014 kilometers, preventing waterlogging in coastal cities, and
relocating residents that might be affected to safer areas, staff members of the bureau of water
resources of Zhejiang province were still working in the small hours of July 24.
As icons of coastlines, rivers, and reservoirs flickered and figures representing precipitation, water
level, and water flow changed, risk prompts, warnings and forecasts of risks, such as gaps in
seawalls and mountain torrents, were sent out frequently by the digital platform.
“Based on data collected by hydrological stations and calculations and analyses conducted by
smart platforms, we can take targeted measures to deal with problems. In the past, we could only
work out one plan during an entire morning, while now we can make more than 50 plans a day,”
said Chen Zhigang, an official with the flood and drought disaster prevention department of the
bureau of water resources of Zhejiang province.
Since the start of this year’s flood season, departments of water resources at all levels in China
have been closely monitoring the rain situation across the country. Through a mountain flood
disaster monitoring and early warning system, they have accumulatively sent more than 31 million
early warning text messages to people in charge of flood control and 740 million messages to
residents living in areas threatened by potential hazards, effectively safeguarding the safety of
people’s life and property.
As of August 15, 3,103 large and medium-sized reservoirs in the country had stored 78.6 billion
cubic meters of floodwater, avoiding flooding for 936 townships and about 820,000 hectares of
farmland and relocation of 6.5 million people.
