Seize the opportunity of renewal to enhance urban safety and resilience
According to a report by China Economic Daily,currently, urban development is transitioning from a phase of large-scale incremental expansion to one primarily focused on enhancing the quality and efficiency of existing assets. Urban renewal serves as a crucial lever for continuously improving urban formats, functions, and quality. The State Council recently issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for Urban Renewal," outlining six key tasks, including enhancing urban safety and resilience, which will support cities in achieving high-quality and sustainable development.
Urban safety is not only closely linked to the happiness of countless households, but also an important prerequisite for the stable development of the economy and society. With the rapid development of new urbanization, urban population, resources, and economic and social activities have become increasingly dense. Coupled with factors such as the aging of some infrastructure and buildings, safety risks have become more concentrated. At the same time, extreme weather events have occurred frequently in recent years, posing a huge test to the city's ability to resist risks. We should take urban renewal as an opportunity to comprehensively enhance urban safety resilience from both "hardware" and "software" aspects, so that cities can effectively cope with disaster impacts.
Infrastructure is crucial for the normal operation of urban systems. In recent years, urban infrastructure construction has continuously improved in terms of standards and quality, but there are still a large number of old and outdated infrastructure facilities operating under high loads for extended periods of time, lacking management and maintenance. It is important to focus on promoting the safety and resilience of urban lifelines, accelerate the renovation and upgrading of key systems such as gas, heat, water supply, drainage, bridges, and utility tunnels, and build a multi-source water supply guarantee and distributed energy system. Disaster prevention facilities serve as a "buffer" to mitigate the impact of disasters. In the process of renovation, it is necessary to coordinate the use of above-ground and underground spaces, strengthen the construction of public infrastructure that can be used for both normal and emergency purposes, and build an emergency shelter system with sufficient total capacity and reasonable layout.
Urban buildings and houses are crucial for ensuring residents live and work in peace and contentment. Some buildings, due to their early construction and low construction standards, exhibit "inherent deficiencies" in their structure. Coupled with delayed routine maintenance and occasional illegal demolition and renovation, urban old buildings face various hidden dangers such as structural issues and fire safety concerns. It is necessary to strengthen the assessment and investigation of housing safety risks, and reinforce or rebuild dangerous housing. We should comprehensively clear illegal buildings, rectify unauthorized demolition and renovation, enhance fire-fighting capabilities, and leave no "dead spots" of potential safety hazards. By implementing targeted measures for different situations, we can comprehensively improve the level of housing safety and security.
Strengthen the construction of the "software" of the safety management system, and enhance the efficiency of daily safety monitoring and risk disaster response. It is necessary to promote efficient linkage and cooperation among government departments, enterprises and institutions, social organizations, and residents, and establish a multi-party co-governance pattern where all entities work together. Integrate risk prevention and control into the urban management system, construct an urban safety risk spectrum, and improve the mechanism for regular risk and hidden danger monitoring, early warning, investigation, and rectification. Cities in different regions are prone to different natural disasters, so it is necessary to formulate more targeted contingency plans according to local conditions and scientific principles, and seize the initiative in disaster prevention.
Enhancing urban safety and resilience is closely related to the well-being of the people and the high-quality development of the economy and society. Seizing the opportunity of urban renewal, we should coordinate the relationship between urban development and safety, promote comprehensive renewal of cities from hardware facilities to software management, and build a stronger safety barrier for cities.
