The risk of geological disasters has increased with the arrival of the flood season and frequent occurrence of severe weather such as storms and strong winds. In order to further grasp the dynamics of the potential geological hazard points in the jurisdiction and to strengthen the prevention of and the response to such hazards endangering the safety of the Yangtze River navigation, recently, the Yichang Municipal Maritime Safety Bureau, together with the Yichang Municipal Navigation Bureau, the Yichang Municipal Communication Administration Bureau, the Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology Institute of Hubei Geological Bureau, and Zigui County Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, formed an exploration team, and invited representatives from shipping company to jointly survey the hidden geological hazard points in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.

　　The exploration team went upstream from the Jiuwanxi Stream to check the unstable rock masses that may affect shipping safety in the Guizhou section of the Yangtze River channel, rechecked the locations, volume and status of unstable rocks and employed drones to observe, shoot and record them in preparation for the further improvement of the basic data base of geological disasters and strengthening of the early warning and monitoring. The shipping company has currently provided training and publicity to its vessels and crew members based on the navigation notice against geological hazards, and kept on sending very high frequency voice alarming to ships sailing through the Badong and Guizhou sections of the Yangtze River channel. The team analyzed the potential impact of geological hazards on shipping safety and proposed preventive measures. (Reporter/Chen Fei, Correspondents/Wang Qian and Jiang Long).