On January 12th, the sixth session of the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Lecture Series was held. Academician Prof. Lu Xilin, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at the College of Civil Engineering of Tongji University, was invited to deliver a special lecture. Ni Hong, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Song Hansong, leader of the discipline inspection and supervision group stationed in the Ministry and member of the Party Leadership Group, and Jiang Xiaoqun, the chief engineer of the Ministry, attended. The session was chaired by Wang Hui, a member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Minister.

Academician Lu Xilin presented real-life cases and detailed data analysis to introduce the impacts of earthquake disasters. He shared the current state of seismic resilience and disaster reduction technologies. He also explained the challenges associated with the seismic safety comfort of TOD complexes, and the prospects for the development and application of AI technology in the field of disaster prevention and reduction, highlighting the technological needs and innovative challenges in urban disaster prevention and reduction.

Wang Hui pointed out that seismic disaster prevention and reduction in architectural engineering are directly related to the safety of people's lives and property. It is essential to implement the important guidelines by General Secretary Xi Jinping on disaster prevention, reduction, and relief. Furthermore, the cability of the society in earthquake disaster prevention and reduction must be enhanced to ensure new development patterns with a new safety framework. The "Regulations on Seismic Management of Construction Projects" must be effectively implemented, specifying seismic resilience requirements, measures for new construction, expansion projects, standardizing the seismic assessment, reinforcement, maintenance of existing buildings, and strengthening the seismic resilience of rural houses. There is a need to advance the construction of a comprehensive risk database for natural disasters in the housing and urban-rural construction industry, enhance data updating, and timely assessment of the risk and hidden dangers. Active promotion of seismic isolation and mitigation technology in houses, widespread dissemination of basic knowledge in earthquake disaster prevention and mitigation, and enhancement of skills in prevention and response are crucial to raise the public's awareness of earthquake disaster prevention.

This session of the lecture series was held in a hybrid format of on-site and video conferencing. Relevant colleagues from various departments and bureaus of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, all directly subordinate units, and the provincial-level housing and urban-rural construction departments participated.

Source: China Construction News

Editor: Yang Zihan