Annotation :::: Three cities of Ankang, Hanzhong and Shangluo in southern Shaanxi province suffer from extremely adverse geological conditions and fragile mountain stability, which can cause secondary disasters like torrential floods, landslides, and mud-rock flow. In 2010, the 11 counties worst-hit from the severest floods in a century were all located in the three cities of southern Shaanxi, with geological disasters causing huge losses of life and property to the local residents. With a rural population of 800,000, the mountain area of Baiyu cuts across the two cities of Yulin and Yanan and was listed as one of the three poorest areas in Shaanxi province. The area suffered from drought and lacked rainfall with groundwater containing a large amount of minerals like salt and alkali. Drinking this sort of groundwater for any length of time would certainly have effects on people’s health. Therefore, Shaanxi provincial government approved “The Overall Plan for Relocating and Resettling the Emigrants in Southern Shaanxi Areas (2011-2020)” and “The Plan for Relocating the Emigrants for Poverty-Alleviation Purpose in Baiyu Mountain Area (2011-2015)” in 2012. It then initiated “The Project for Relocating and Resettling the Local Residents in Southern Shaanxi Areas” and “The Project for Relocating the Emigrants for Poverty-Alleviation Purpose in Baiyu Mountain Area of Northern Shaanxi”, which involved the relocation of 2.4 million people and 392,000 people respectively. Such a large-scale relocation of migrants is not only means of improving people’s livelihood and quickening the pace of sustainable economic development, but also a scientific plan for coping with natural disasters. From 2011 onwards, Shaanxi decided to eliminate the threat of geological disasters to the local people in 10 years of time.
