Economic benefit assessment of the geo-hazard monitoring and warning engineering system in the Three Gorges Reservoir area: a case study of the landslide in Zigui

The completion and operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir in China have increased the frequency of geo-hazards and dangers in the area. To monitor and to warn of geo-hazards effectively, the Chinese government has invested billions of funds for constructing a monitoring and warning engineering system. Similar to other social infrastructure investments, a reasonable assessment of investment returns is necessary. Therefore, this study proposes an economic benefit assessment model, which considers both the expected and the actual values. The economic benefit of the geo-hazard monitoring and warning engineering in the Three Gorges Reservoir areas is evaluated. Based on the engineering characteristics, the model reasonably defines the frontier of the input and output and adds the casualties and the losses of ecological environment into the economic benefit evaluation index system. A case study on the Zhangjiawan landslide in Guojiaba Town, Zigui County, was conducted. The evaluation results show that (1) land has the largest benefit in direct reductional loss (total of 56.7 %), while the largest indirect reductional losses of the hazard-bearing bodies are in agricultural production and ecological environment (total of 97.6 %); (2) the costs-to-expected return ratio of landslide monitoring and warning engineering is 1:280, whereas the cost-to-actual benefit ratio is 1:30; (3) the accumulation of relevant information and the public knowledge of geological disasters should be strengthened.