"In the new era, hydropower development work should adhere to the people-centered approach, fully consider its emergency response capabilities from the design and research stage, integrate hydropower engineering construction into the national emergency response system, and become an important support for enhancing emergency capabilities, building a people's livelihood project that benefits the people and future generations". At the3rd Hydropower Development and Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Science Popularization Forum held on May 12,DeputyDirector of the Flood Control and Drought Relief Department of the Ministry of Emergency Management, Peng Minrui, stated.

This year's May 12 marks the 16th National Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Day, with the theme "Everyone Talks About Safety, Everyone Knows How to Respond to Emergencies-Focus on Enhancing Grassroots Disaster Prevention and Avoidance Capabilities", and May 11 to 17 is the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Publicity Week. The Office of the National Disaster Reduction Committee requires all regions to do a solid job in various aspects of national disaster prevention and mitigation, create a good social atmosphere for participation in disaster prevention and mitigation, and consolidate the people's defense line against disasters.

In recent years, extreme weather has become more frequent, and the role of hydropower projects in the national disaster prevention and mitigation system and emergency capability enhancement will become more prominent. The dam failures that occurred in Kenya and Brazil this year also remind the hydropower industry to pay high attention to the safety of hydropower projects. Focusing on the construction of emergency response systems and capabilities has become a common consensus among hydropower developers and builders.

Strengthening Hydropower Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Capabilities Throughout the Process

"Most of the hydropower resources to be developed in the future are located in the disaster-prone areas of Southwest China. It is essential to advance hydropower development scientifically, reasonably, and prudently. We must strengthen disaster response and prevention throughout the entire process of survey design, construction, and operation management to fully utilize the benefits of hydropower projects while mitigating potential harms", said Zhao Quansheng, Chief Engineer of the ChinaRenewable Energy EngineeringInstitute, at the forum.

Through the hard work of several generations of hydropower professionals, China's installed hydropower capacity has now reached 420GW, playing a crucial role in ensuring flood control, water supply, ecological, and energy security. As vital infrastructure for flood control and clean power supply, the safe operation of hydropower projects and their full role in disaster prevention and mitigation is critical to national security and overall development.

"CSHEwill focus on the significant demands of natural disaster early warning, prevention, and emergency response for the country and the industry. We will increase efforts in technological innovation, actively promote related special plans, scientific research, and demonstration projects", stated Zheng Sheng'an, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of the China SocietyforHydropower Engineering.

It is understood that the China SocietyforHydropower Engineering will leverage its expertise and targeted advantages in disaster prevention and mitigation public awareness campaigns. It will conduct in-depth understanding and analysis of potential geological and meteorological disasters in hydropower projects, summarize typical cases, formulate targeted publicity strategies, and enhance the disaster prevention and mitigation science popularization capabilities within the hydropower industry.

PreventingSystemicRisks inRiverBasins isCrucial

"We must adhere to bottom-line thinking and prevent systemic risks in river basins," emphasized Peng Minrui at the forum". Thecascadedevelopment of hydropower in river basins has created a complex system of hydropower dams. It is important to pay great attention to systemic risks in the basin, focusing on the overall basin, targeting the relationship between main and tributary streams, as well as upstream and downstream dam groups. From the perspective of basin system safety, we should strengthen interconnection, sharing, and multi-party coordination to jointly prevent and control significant systemic disaster risks, firmly maintaining the bottom line of disaster prevention and mitigation safety".

Thecascadedevelopment pattern of hydropower in China's river basins has been basically formed. "The next step is to fully utilize the storage and flood control functions ofcascadereservoirs through joint operation and scheduling of basin reservoir groups to effectively control the impact of natural disasters such as ,floods" analyzed Zhao Quansheng.

"Relying on the Mountain Flood Disaster Monitoring, Early Warning, and Prevention Sub-center of the National Energy Administration's Hydropower Engineering Technology Research Center, our institute focuses on technologies for mountain flood disaster monitoring and early warning, rainwater and dam safety monitoring and early warning, geological disaster monitoring and early warning, and project risk elimination and reinforcement", introduced Zhu Guojin,Chairman of PowerChina BeijingEngineering Corporation Limited.