Digital seismological observation network, a largest earthquake prevention and disaster

preparedness project that has consumed a budget worth RMB 2.28 billion in the country,

has recently passed an approval check. The event marks China's escalated status in

earthquake prevention and disaster preparedness.

Launched in June 2004, the project is made up of 6 components, or three networks and

three systems, including a precursor network, a digital earthquake measuring network, a

digital strong earthquake network, a fault detecting system, an earthquake emergency

commanding system, and an earthquake information system. The implementation of the

project has filled up the blanks in seismic watch, with an enhanced and digitized

observation capability, and a data sharing platform.

According to a briefing, digital process is the core of the project, with a real time data

sharing network for monitoring, prediction, and disaster preparedness. It has greatly

enhanced the density of earthquake watch stations in the country, and optimized their

distributions, with 0.4 precursor earthquake, 0.88 earthquake, and 1.2 strong earthquakes

for per 10,000 square kilometer, 95% of the monitoring equipment being digitized, a

shortened quick report time from 30 minutes to 10 minutes, and an improved lower limit

magnitude from 4.5 to 2.5.