To the People’s Governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government:

　　To strengthen urban geological safety risk prevention and control, effectively prevent and resolutely curb the occurrence of serious and extremely serious geological safety accidents, robustly safeguard the lives and property of the people, and enhance the level of modern urban governance, with the approval of the State Council, the following matters are hereby notified:

　　 I. Attach great importance to urban geological safety risks. All regions and relevant departments must adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and comprehensively, accurately, and thoroughly apply the new development philosophy. They should raise their political awareness, take the holistic national security outlook as the guiding principle, put the people at the center, and strike a balance between development and security. Special attention must be paid to geological safety risks in urban infrastructure projects and resource development, among other areas. Upholding the principles of prioritizing safety, addressing both symptoms and root causes, implementing systematic management, and adopting coordinated policies, they should strengthen risk prevention and control systems and capacity building, make every effort to enhance urban safety, effectively prevent and resolutely curb the occurrence of serious and extremely serious accidents, and create a livable environment that ensures peace of mind, prosperity, and well-being for the people.

　　 II. Strengthen urban geological baseline surveys. Focusing primarily on prefecture-level and above cities, accelerate the implementation of urban geological baseline surveys within urban development boundaries. Local people’s governments shall coordinate relevant departments to carry out urban geological surveys, making full use of remote sensing, geophysical methods, IoT‑based sensing, and ground‑based digital surveying techniques. Centered on urban geological safety, underground space resources, and environmental geological issues, and aligned with the needs of urban development and deep‑earth resource exploitation, they should systematically collate existing geological data from departments such as natural resources, housing and urban–rural development, water administration, and emergency management, subject them to standardized and digital processing, and establish a big‑data sharing platform for urban geology. With… Geological safety issues such as karst subsidence, mining-induced subsidence, and loess collapsibility. Focusing on key areas, conduct specialized investigations at a scale of no less than 1:10,000 to delineate the relevant geological conditions and the distribution of potential hazards within the zone affected by urban infrastructure development. Building on these specialized surveys, carry out hazard assessments and risk zoning, classify risk levels, and produce a comprehensive “single-map” representation of urban geological safety risks.

　　 III. Strengthen the regulation and control of territorial space planning. Leverage the pioneering role of geological survey work in territorial spatial planning. During the preparation and revision of urban territorial spatial plans, fully utilize the findings of geological hazard risk surveys to conduct risk assessments, delineate geological hazard risk zones based on the assessment results, and rationally allocate various types of construction land. The siting of new construction land should avoid areas with extremely high and high geological hazard risks; where avoidance is not feasible, measures must be implemented to eliminate or mitigate these risks. In built-up urban areas, appropriate spatial arrangements for disaster prevention and mitigation should be put in place to minimize the impact of geological hazards on the ground surface. When conducting regional assessments in development zones, industrial parks, new districts, and other suitable areas, strengthen geological hazard susceptibility assessments, and, upon land allocation, provide the assessment results to the land‑use entities to ensure they adopt the necessary disaster prevention and mitigation measures, thereby reducing safety risks at the source.

　　 IV. Strictly enforce relevant laws and standards on geological safety in urban construction projects. Housing and urban–rural development authorities at all levels, together with other relevant departments, shall strengthen the supervision and management of construction project quality in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Relevant entities must strictly comply with pertinent laws, regulations, and mandatory standards for engineering construction, and, taking into account the specific characteristics of each project and drawing on local experience, carry out urban engineering geological investigations, design, construction, and supervision activities. The project owner shall take the lead in organizing and implementing management tasks, ensuring that the necessary conditions and resources are in place. The investigation agency shall submit truthful, accurate investigation reports that meet statutory requirements, analyze and clearly identify geotechnical risks arising from geological conditions, and propose appropriate technical preventive measures; where necessary, it should also recommend specialized investigations. The design agency shall formulate targeted design measures based on the investigation report and, in light of the project owner’s evolving input on site conditions, adjust and optimize the design accordingly. The construction contractor shall organize construction strictly in accordance with the engineering design drawings and construction technical standards, enhance identification and ongoing monitoring of geological risks, and promptly implement tailored corrective measures upon detecting any discrepancies between actual site conditions and the documented geological data. The supervisory agency is responsible for reviewing construction plans and overseeing the contractor’s implementation of geological risk‑control measures in compliance with both the design specifications and the approved construction plan.

　　 V. Strengthen the management and control of geological safety risks associated with the exploration and development of urban geothermal resources, groundwater, and other resources. Natural resource and water administration authorities at all levels shall, in light of the local occurrence characteristics of geothermal and groundwater resources and the prevailing geological conditions, strengthen oversight and management of exploration and development activities related to these resources in urban areas, and promptly issue preventive measures for potential geological safety risks. In both built-up urban areas and densely populated or heavily built-up zones outside such areas, when conducting exploration for geothermal, groundwater, and other resources, the responsible entities—including exploration contractors and mining right holders—shall systematically collect data on site-specific geotechnical properties, groundwater conditions, karst features, loess collapsibility, mined-out voids, shallow gas occurrences, and the distribution of underground infrastructure, among other geological risk factors. Furthermore, they must carry out comprehensive geophysical surveys of deep subsurface strata relevant to the exploration, identifying potential hazards such as ground subsidence, ground settlement, and sudden water‑soil inflows that could compromise urban safety. Exploration designs must be prepared in accordance with applicable technical standards, undergo expert review to ensure construction safety, and be subject to rigorous quality and safety management throughout the implementation phase. Based on the specific geological conditions, targeted preventive measures should be adopted to mitigate geological safety risks and prevent disasters such as ground collapses, ground subsidence, and water‑soil surges.

　　 VI. Strengthen the routine monitoring and management of urban geological safety risks. Local people’s governments shall organize relevant departments to establish and improve a coordinated mechanism for geological safety risk assessment, decision-making evaluation, and risk control, and to refine and implement the management responsibilities of all parties. They shall conduct baseline surveys of urban underground public spaces, integrate monitoring data, geophysical exploration data, historical subsidence records, and other information, and, in accordance with the relevant regulations on comprehensive urban safety risk monitoring and early warning, set up a monitoring‑early warning‑control platform that incorporates multi‑source data. This platform will enable dynamic data updates, collaborative data sharing, and real-time monitoring, while strengthening interoperability with related platforms and systems to establish a multi‑dimensional, multi‑parameter monitoring network. Such measures will provide scientific guidance for early warning of ground subsidence and for addressing underground infrastructure defects, particularly leaks and damage to underground pipelines, thereby enhancing overall early‑warning capabilities. Furthermore, dynamic monitoring of groundwater and geothermal resource development shall be strengthened, with monitoring results integrated into the early‑warning, monitoring, and control platform. Finally, the emergency response and rescue coordination mechanism for sudden geological safety incidents shall be improved, and relevant emergency response efforts shall be effectively organized.

　　 VII. Improve the standards related to urban engineering geological investigation, geological hazard prevention and control, and resource exploration and development. Strengthen the implementation of existing standards—including those for urban–rural planning and engineering geological investigations, industrial and civil construction geological surveys, urban geological mapping, geological hazard risk assessments, land subsidence monitoring, and supervision of geological hazard prevention and control projects—and promote the application of new technologies and methodologies, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of urban geological safety risk prevention and control. Expedite the revision and improvement of provisions in current standards—such as those for geothermal resource exploration, shallow‑layer geothermal energy exploration and evaluation, and geothermal drilling techniques—that fail to meet the requirements of urban geological safety risk prevention and control. Accelerate the development and revision of relevant standards, including those for karst collapse investigations, geothermal reinjection, and dynamic monitoring of geothermal resources, while reinforcing the enforcement of green exploration practices and fully accounting for the impacts of engineering construction and resource exploration and development on the urban geological environment and associated safety risks.

　　All provincial-level people’s governments must strengthen organizational leadership, ensure that city-level people’s governments assume their primary responsibility, formulate detailed implementation plans, and earnestly carry out all measures and tasks, so as to guarantee the effective implementation of all arrangements and requirements for enhancing urban geological safety risk prevention and control.

Ministry of Natural Resources Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development

Ministry of Water Resources Ministry of Emergency Management

January 23, 2024