Chinese public participation monitoring and warning system for geological hazards

In China, many geological hazards occurred in remote mountainous regions, and it was time-consuming to disseminate disaster information for the responsible parties to make timely judgements. Besides, only relying on professionals to monitor and manage disasters was demanding and costly. The Chinese government created a system to engage residents in the process of disaster risk management, namely 'Public Participation Monitoring and Warning' (PPMW), to disseminate timely disaster information and bring down management costs. The objective of this system was to reduce casualties with minimum cost by organizing residents to evacuate from disasters in advance. This paper introduced the PPMW system, including its structure, operation mechanism by reviewing government documents and research articles, and its implementation by a case study of a landslide at Boli village (E 101 degrees 01', N 27 degrees 29'), Yanyuan County, Sichuan Province, China on July 19(th)2018. Further, this paper analyzed the strengths and limitations of the system and discussed its future development. It had the potential to become an affordable disaster risk management tool for other countries facing similar situations to China.