Smart Communities to Reduce Earthquake Damage: A Case Study in Xinheyuan, China

Earthquakes are the primary natural hazard in China and the casualties and property losses caused by earthquakes are severe [1,2,3]. As China's level of urbanisation increases, the number of people living in cities will grow. In many urban areas, communities face unresolved seismic safety issues. Improving the seismic resistance of buildings is the most effective way to solve these safety concerns. However, for economic reasons, this will take many years to be widely implemented because the costs of improving the earthquake resistance of all buildings are prohibitive. Other methods such as early warning systems, which are an effective means of preventing and reducing earthquake damage, can be used as important supplementary measures, and have been widely used all over the world [4,5,6,7,8]. The construction of smart cities is gradually being carried out in large and small cities in China, but most focus on aspects such as security, fire-fighting and community service [9,10,11,12,13]. The existing system is basically consisting of front-end sensor, data acquisition, data analysis and data application platform. There are very few reports on communities that feature systems to prevent and mitigate earthquake damage, as well as including other functions such as environmental monitoring.

Disaster prevention and mitigation within communities in China and elsewhere has long been a research focus. For example, Japan has improved the ability of its communities to prevent and mitigate earthquake damage through new network technologies, real-time disaster monitoring and early warning technology, earthquake isolation techniques, emergency drills and emergency medical rescue drills. Japan is a world-leader in the development of disaster prevention and mitigation systems within its communities [14,15]. Indonesia also uses IT and GIS technology to manage urban disasters and it is building smart cities [15]. Australia has defined disaster-tolerant communities in its national disaster prevention strategy, which clearly state the characteristics of disaster prevention and mitigation in these communities. These characteristics include: awareness among community residents of the risks that may affect them, housing that has better resistance to natural disasters and a good organisational structure within the community [16]. Duft (2012) proposed the use of social media for community disaster prevention and mitigation [17]. Guan et al. (2008) studied the mechanisms of disaster prevention and mitigation in urban communities in China, and proposed basic institutions to improve resilience [18]. Zhang (2012) identified that adequate resource allocation and management optimisation were the most important elements for successful disaster prevention and reduction in communities [19]. In China, the National Disaster Reduction Center has formulated the approaches that are required for community disaster prevention, including day-to-day protection and actions during and after the occurrence of earthquakes. General Secretary Xi Jinping has clearly indicated that disaster prevention, mitigation and relief is an important manifestation of the leadership ability of the ruling party.

The construction of smart communities can play a vital role in disaster reduction. Smart phones are an effective way to use big data to enhance a smart community's crisis response and disaster resistance capacity [20]. The ‘Smart Service’, one of four major projects in the Science and Technology Innovation Projects of the China Earthquake Administration, is a ‘cloud + terminal’ smart service system for providing damage prevention and reduction information in the event of an earthquake [21]. The construction of a smart community to improve seismic safety is a useful exploration of the ‘Smart Service’ concept. China's Earthquake Intensity Quick Report and Earthquake Early Warning Project will be officially put into operation in 2022, by which time the entire system for earthquake early warning information will have been rolled out to major projects and people across the country. The introduction of smart earthquake warning services in urban communities is imminent.

It is evident that the construction of communities that are resilient to earthquake damage has long been an important research focus. However, there is little research on how to use modern scientific and technological methods and mature technologies to create smart communities to reduce the damage caused by earthquakes. This paper used the first earthquake disaster mitigation smart community in Hubei province—the Xinheyuan Earthquake Prevention and Disaster Mitigation Smart Community (Xinheyuan Smart Community) in Wuhan—as a case study. The design and functional implementation of earthquake disaster reduction measures were explored. These will provide a reference for the construction of other smart communities in the future.

The Xinheyuan district is located in Jinghe Street, Dongxihu District, Wuhan, and was completed in 2016. Reducing damage from earthquakes is at the forefront of work in the Earthquake Office of the Dongxihu District in Hubei province. In 2018, the Earthquake Office of Dongxihu District selected Xinheyuan as a demonstration site to build the first smart community in Hubei Province featuring earthquake damage prevention and disaster reduction systems. The project aimed to allow residents in the community to use smart technology to obtain information on earthquake preparedness and enhance disaster resilience. The preliminary work of this project focused on identifying the desired functions and performance requirements through surveys and communication with the construction company and community residents. The results are shown below.

An earthquake of magnitude 4.9 occurred in Yingcheng, Hubei, on 26 December 2019. The epicentre was 76.11 km away from the Xinheyuan Smart Community, as shown in Table 1. The system recorded the impact of the earthquake on the high-rise building. Figure 5 shows the acceleration time-history curve of structural unit of Xinheyuan during the earthquake. The system performed a risk assessment to determine the structural safety of the building, and showed the structure safety assessment report via the platform. The PGA of ground floor is 1.526 gal, and that of the top floor is 4.264 gal. The ratio of PGA (top/ground) is approximately equal to 3. We can see amplification effect as the height of the building.

Fig. 5

This case of emergency response during the 4.9-magnitude earthquake of Yingcheng, Hubei shows that the smart community emergency response system researched in this paper has important theoretical significance and practical value.

China is an earthquake-prone country, and community safety during and after earthquakes needs to be a high priority. The prevention and mitigation of earthquake damage through smart communities can improve the lifestyle quality of the community. Smart communities are an effective means to implement disaster prevention and mitigation. With the development of the Internet of Things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and advanced technology, the smart community will soon become part of people's daily lives.

This paper used the Xinheyuan Smart Community as a case study to describe the system design, functions and construction process. This is the first smart community system for preventing and reducing earthquake damage in Hubei province. The system played an important role in disseminating information regarding the magnitude 4.9 earthquake in Yingcheng, Hubei province on 26 December 2019. The response of the community provides a reference for the system construction standards and engineering for other smart communities for preventing and reducing earthquake damage.

The number of smart communities able to mitigate and reduce damage from earthquakes will increase as people's living standards improve, but the correct development process must be encouraged. And the front-end sensor needs to be various to satisfy multiple needs. The project needs to be continuously improved and updated based on new technologies and new community needs. Smart communities for earthquake and disaster management should also be combined with security and health information to establish a unified management platform to integrate data and better serve urban residents.