Planners descend on Mentougou for recovery work

More than 100 planners from universities, architectural institutes and government bodies went to Mentougou district, one of the areas worst-hit by the recent torrential rains in Beijing, to help with post-disaster planning and collect firsthand data for scientific reconstruction in recent days.

Due to the impact of Typhoon Doksuri, Beijing suffered heavy damage during the strong rainfall earlier this month.

Mentougou, located in a mountainous area in western Beijing and one of the most severely affected districts, has entered the post-disaster recovery and reconstruction stage.

Starting on Aug 11, departments in the Mentougou district government, as well as 16 planning teams from the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, Beijing University of Architecture, Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning& Design Institute Co and others, sent more than 100 planners to 178 villages in Mentougou.

Xu Zexiang, a planner from Peking University's Planning and Design Institute, has been working in Dingjiatan village, which is located by the Yongding River.

The rainfall caused great damage to the village and many houses were washed away.

After entering the village with maps in hand, the planners divided into several groups and proceeded to survey severely hit areas.

They assessed and recorded the damage to each household. "The investigation will also cover the damage in public service and transportation infrastructure, the extent of flooding in the surrounding rivers and nearby geological hazards," Xu said.

After mapping the collapsed and destroyed houses, all the data will be collected and analyzed.

They also held discussions with local authorities of towns and subdistricts to understand the overall extent of the disaster and give preliminary plans for post-disaster reconstruction, as well as suggestions regarding resettlement and the restoration of production and daily life.

Zhang Gang, head of the planning department of the Mentougou branch of the Beijing Planning and Natural Resources Commission, said plans for phased post-disaster reconstruction should be formed by the end of this year.

"The reconstruction plans involve many key issues such as public service, transportation infrastructure, village reconstruction, site selection and flood control," he said.

The work will involve field exploration, satellite aerial photography and geographic surveying to gather and summarize information on the damage to residential buildings, roads, municipal facilities, river basin construction space and ecological space in the affected areas.

Based on the damage assessments, the risk prevention and control for the geological hazards in the area will be analyzed, and a comprehensive data map created.

In recent days, the working group has conducted research in 17 villages and communities in Mentougou. So far, the group has inspected over 1,000 damaged houses over 100 square kilometers across these villages and communities.