Jiuzhaigou Earthquake: Institutional Learning and Coordinated Disaster Response

The 2017 Jiuzhaigou earthquake offered a critical window into the evolving landscape of disaster governance in China, revealing both institutional progress and enduring systemic limits. This chapter explores how the event functioned as a complex governance stress test, exposing vulnerabilities in infrastructure, information systems, and coordination capacity under conditions of high terrain complexity and demographic diversity. It then traces how institutional learning—rooted in post-Wenchuan reforms—shaped legal frameworks, technological integration, and multi-level coordination. Through detailed analysis of intergovernmental collaboration, civil society engagement, and platform-based mechanisms, the chapter highlights a shift from hierarchical command toward polycentric governance. Finally, it evaluates the resilience gains achieved, the structural gaps that remain, and the theoretical implications of an adaptive yet bounded governance model still under construction.