Project led by Prof. Zhu Honghu receives First Prize of Jiangsu Provincial Science and Techno...

Project led by Prof. Zhu Honghu receives First Prize of Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award

The Jiangsu Provincial People's Government recently announced the recipients of the 2024 Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Awards. Led by Professor Zhu Honghu from the School of Earth Sciences and Engineering at Nanjing University, the project titled "Key Technologies and Applications for Intelligent Sensing and Early Warning of Disasters in Complex Urban Geological Environments" was awarded the First Prize of the Science and Technology Progress Award.

As urbanization continues to accelerate in China, densely concentrated populations and intensive underground space development have made urban geological conditions increasingly complex. Combined with extreme climate events and high-intensity engineering activities, geohazards such as landslides, collapses, and ground subsidence have occurred more frequently, posing serious risks to urban safety.

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Key Research and Development Program, the project team tackled key geohazard management challenges, from multi-source environmental sensing to predictive warning and collaborative risk mitigation. In the past few years, the team developed proprietary equipment and methodologies, securing independent intellectual property rights, and engineered an integrated intelligent sensing and early warning system for complex urban geological environments. This system enables the early detection, warning, and mitigation of potential geohazards.

The project is now at the internationally forefront of the field and has been implemented in major engineering projects across China and abroad. Its application has contributed to disaster prevention and resilient urban development in key cities throughout the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions, delivering significant economic, social, and environmental benefits.