The 3rd Urban Lifeline Safety Academic Forum Held in Nanjing

Group Photo: 3rd Urban Lifeline Safety Forum & 2025 Annual Meeting

On December 20, 2025, the 3rd Urban Lifeline Safety Academic Forum was successfully held in Nanjing. The forum was jointly organized by the China Association for Engineering Construction Standardization (CAECSE), Southeast University, China Communications Services Corporation Limited, ZTE Corporation, andUrban Lifeline (journal).

Leaders and experts attending the event included Cai Chengjun, Vice President and Executive Deputy Secretary-General of CAECSE; Guo Tong, Dean of the School of Civil Engineering at Southeast University; Yin Peng, Senior Manager of China Communications Services; as well as the Chair, Vice Chairs, and other members of the Urban Lifeline Engineering Safety Professional Committee of CAECSE. More than 100 experts and representatives from universities, government agencies, enterprises, and related institutions participated in the forum.

The opening ceremony was chaired by Professor Wu Jing from Southeast University, Chair of the Urban Lifeline Engineering Safety Professional Committee of CAECSE. Cai Chengjun and Guo Tong delivered opening remarks.

In his speech, Cai Chengjun congratulated the organizers on the successful convening of the forum. He noted that China’s urbanization has entered a new stage of high-quality development, which places unprecedented demands on the safety, resilience, and intelligent management of urban infrastructure. Since the establishment of the Urban Lifeline Engineering Safety Professional Committee in 2023—initiated by Southeast University—the committee has made a strong start and achieved initial results through the joint efforts of its members and industry partners. Against the national strategy of promoting intelligent upgrades of urban infrastructure and building a new framework of integrated urban governance, he emphasized that standardization will play an increasingly important guiding and supporting role. He encouraged the committee to uphold the principles of overall planning, prioritizing urgent needs, collaborative innovation, and open cooperation, while accelerating the development of key standards, strengthening the integration of standards with emerging technologies, enhancing platform collaboration and talent development, and expanding international exchanges.

Photo: Remarks by Cai Chengjun, Vice President and Executive Deputy Secretary-General of CAECSE

Guo Tong, on behalf of the organizers, welcomed all participants. He highlighted the significant practical value and long-term strategic importance of advancing research, technological innovation, and engineering practice in urban lifeline safety during a critical period of China’s new-type urbanization and modernization. In recent years, Southeast University has promoted interdisciplinary integration among civil engineering, transportation, information technology, and artificial intelligence. Supported by the National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Smart Construction and Operation & Maintenance, the university has initiated multiple professional organizations including the Urban Lifeline Engineering Safety Professional Committee, launched and hosted a series of influential academic conferences both nationally and internationally, and founded the international journalUrban Lifeline, which has been selected for the China Excellent Science and Technology Journals Action Plan (High-Starting-Point New Journal Program). Relevant innovations have been applied in multiple demonstration projects, providing strong support for enhancing urban safety governance capacity. Building on the success of the previous two forums, this year’s event served as a high-level platform to further promote academic exchange and strengthen industry consensus.

Photo: Remarks by Guo Tong, Dean of the School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University

Photo: Professor Wu Jing chairs the opening ceremony

The forum featured 19 invited presentations. Experts focused on the core needs of digital transformation and intelligent upgrading in urban lifeline safety, sharing the latest research findings and practical experience in monitoring and early warning, resilience enhancement, and standards implementation. Discussions also addressed key technical challenges and potential solutions, providing valuable insights for improving the effectiveness and sustainability of urban lifeline safety management in China.

During the event, the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Urban Lifeline Engineering Safety Professional Committee of CAECSE was also held. Attendees included Cai Chengjun; Professor Wu Jing; Wu Dong, General Manager of Jiangsu Dongyin Intelligent Engineering Technology Research Institute; and 13 committee members from across China. The meeting was chaired by Professor Feng Decheng from Southeast University.

Photo: Group Photo—2025 Annual Meeting of the Urban Lifeline Engineering Safety Professional Committee

In his remarks, Cai Chengjun affirmed the committee’s achievements in 2025 and provided guidance in line with CAECSE’s requirements for its branches. He emphasized the need to focus on key fields and directions to promote high-quality standard development, strengthen quality control in project initiation and review, leverage expert resources, ensure standards remain open and practical, solicit broad feedback to facilitate effective implementation, and actively advance the digital transformation of standards to better serve industrial and sectoral development.

Photo: Remarks by Cai Chengjun, Vice President and Executive Deputy Secretary-General of CAECSE

Professor Wu Jing presented the committee’s annual work report. Wu Dong reported on standard-development plans proposed by member organizations. Vice Chairs then shared their views and held in-depth discussions on the committee’s future priorities. In closing, Professor Wu Jing thanked all committee members for their trust and support and outlined the next steps for the committee.